Conference bookie::movies

1235.0. "Double Team" by EVMS::MDNITE::RIVERS (No comment) Thu Apr 10 1997 11:52

    "Double Team" is the newest Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.  It also stars
    Dennis Rodman (he of the technicolor hair) and Mickey Rourke (he of,
    oh, the craggy face).
    
    This is the third JCVD vehicle to be directed by a fairly prominent
    Hong Kong director, Tsui Hark.  Hard Target (John Woo) and Maximum Risk
    (Ringo Lam) were the others.  I suspect the movie was peppered with
    stylistic trademarks that people more familiar with Mr. Hark's work
    would have recognized, but I'm not one of them.  
    
    The general plot is this:  Van Damme is Jack, a top-notch
    counter-terrorist agent who fails in his attempt to dispatch a nasty
    terrorist sort, Stavros (Mickey Rourke).  While the world, including
    Jack's pregnant wife, thinks Jack is dead, he has been in fact shipped
    off to the "Colony", a sort of permanent retirement home for secret
    agents too valuable to be killed, but too dangerous to be let loose.
    
    All these top agents in one place need to do something to keep them
    busy, so they spent a great deal of their time functioning as a giant
    think tank, analyzing terrorist activities to figure out what's really
    going on.  Who benefits from this service wasn't made clear, at least
    to me, nor did I figure out who had outlayed the umpteen billions it
    must have cost to set up a place like this, but there you are.  
    
    The downside to all this is, of course, once you are in the Colony, you
    don't get out, kinda like a Roach Motel for agents who've made somebody
    unhappy.  Needless to say, our Jack wants to escape from this
    escape-proof place.  Meanwhile, outside in the world, Stavros is
    orchestrating some payback for the man (Jack) he blames for the death
    of his wife and young son.  Da-dumm.   On the periphery of all this,
    Dennis Rodman plays, well, Dennis Rodman as Yaz, the wildly outfitted
    arms dealer who pals up with Jack when things get really tough.
    
    While not as lifeless as "Maximum Risk", "Double Team" isn't exactly
    a prime candidate for B-action-movie of the year.   For one thing, the
    script is hardly inspired, and much of the dialog, especially that of
    Dennis Rodman's, is pretty wincable.  Much of the movie is just plain
    old hokey.Even taking into account that "Double Team" wasn't meant to
    be, oh, "The English Patient", there just wasn't a lot of *there*
    there.  Can't really recommend it, even for a bargain matinee.
    
    Some of the brighter points: JCVD doing some exercises in a doorframe. 
    Mickey Rourke having obviously spent some time in the gym.  A tiger.
    Weird but neat fight between JCVD and man weilding knife with his toes. 
    Dennis Rodman (while he can't act, his, uh, "style" does make for
    interesting visual effects.)
    
    ** out of ****
    
    
    kim