There was a glimmer of hope right off the bat. Tom Everett Scott appears well before JCVD, and I remembered him from That Thing You Do, where he was wonderful. The fact that I can't remember him in anything since then should have given me pause. It turns out, I HAD seen him in a few TV shows, but either his character was inconsequential or he just kind of blended in with all of the other supporting actors enough that I didn't notice him. In this movie, he does a very good job, I have to say. If the movie had not been saddled with some other issues here, he might have been proud of this work.
I had no idea Orlando Jones was going to be in this movie. Once I saw him, it was clear that his character was going to have a dark past and be hell-bent on hurting someone for what he thought was a perfectly good reason. I really, really hoped he would be bringing some comic relief to the movie, but they went ahead and relied on JCVD for that. And I'm not joking. Jean-Claude tried to be funny at times.
Tossed into the mix was new found girlfriend for the reclusive Tom, played by Linzey Cocker. She's cute enough for one of these films, but her character leads to some serious questions. Tom meets her before JCVD and his evil buddies even know where their lost shipment of drugs has gone. When we first see her, it is the obvious question to ask if she is a plant, but that is dismissed as no human could have gotten there that quickly. However, much like the plot list in the movie War, they set up an impossibility so they can hit you with it later and claim that YOU were the stupid one.
And here we come to the cover boy himself, Jean-Claude Van Damme. I wish I could tell you he did a good job. I wish I could tell you that his masterful job of being a bad guy will be remembered in the annals of history. I wish I could tell you that his hair did not frighten me. I even wish I could tell you that his fighting is somewhere near what it was in any of his early movies. Instead, he just walks around snapping necks and threatening people.
Direction was not the worst I've ever seen
Acting was good for some, and not good for others
Story was laughable
Action was strangely unsatisfying
Dialog was a joke
0.75/5