Year: 1991
Runtime: 110min
Director: Sheldon Lettich
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Geoffrey Lewis, Alan Scarfe, Corinna Everson, Alonna Shaw, Phillip Chan, Bolo Yeung
Sometimes a movie can surprise you, upending all your self-sure expectations, delivering a shock to the system like a bucket of ice water to the face. And other times you get exactly what it says on the tin, no more, no less. With Jean-Claude Van Damme, it’s usually the latter. I am happy to report that Double Impact delightfully lives up to every single one of my expectations, offering no surprises but plenty of fun.
It’s a loud, bombastically silly movie that caps off a decade of ludicrous action films as the ultimate bookend to the excesses of the 1980s. It does not strive to reinvent the wheel and plots its course ahead calmly, a steady hand at the rudder in that of veteran Van Damme collaborator Sheldon Lettich. And frankly, this is quite possibly the finest hour for both Van Damme and Lettich, because this movie frigging rocks.
Let’s get the most awesome part out of the way first: JCVD plays twins in this movie. Yup, this is the movie that started his unusual trend of playing his own brother. We get DOUBLE THE VAN DAMMEAGE!
Okay, let me calm down.
I think I’m good now.
The basic plot is just that—basic. Van Damme’s (what’s the plural for Van Damme?) parents are murdered by a ruthless businessman played by British baddie Alan Scarfe, and both babies are raised in separate parts of the world (though each have convoluted explanations for their identical Belgian accents). Chad, the cheerful yoga instructor, lives in sunny California with his surrogate father, Frank, his family’s old bodyguard and the Alfred to his pink-shorted Batman. Frank is well played by veteran character actor Geoffrey Lewis, who imbues the role with parental fondness and rugged toughness. Meanwhile, Alex, the “other” brother, lives in Hong Kong, smuggling cigarettes and cars while blowing most of his money on hair gel and cigars.
Both are thrown together when Frank decides its time for the boys to meet, bond, and get revenge on the man who ruined their lives. See, Frank’s still smarting over the pretty crappy job he did protecting their parents, leaving him guilt-ridden and eager to make amends. Fortunately, nothing assuages guilt like roundhouse kicks and machine gun fire.
It’s a really simple setup, heavily inspired by the various film versions of The Corsican Brothers, especially the Fairbanks swashbuckler from 1941. I think every good Van Damme movie was based on a classic work of French literature, I mean isn’t Timecop based on a Victor Hugo novel?
But you know what? Why complicate things? You don’t need a thousand page script for a martial arts movie. What we have is tight and directed at a relentless pace. Not one single scene is wasted. Unless you count dudes getting kicked in the face or blown up as a waste, at which point you might want to tune into Masterpiece Theater instead.
Actually, there’s surprisingly little martial arts for a movie starring a, you know, martial artist. Even the big showdown between the iconic mountain of sentient muscle that is Bolo Yeung and Van Damme is curt and to-the-point. The movie seems to want to ape the stylistic manners of John Woo, focusing heavily on gory, tautly choreographed shootouts. Unlike Woo and his balletic gunplay, Lettich delivers a more watered down approach, with nothing coming close to the giddy heights reserved for Woo’s The Killer.
But the action is good, even if it lacks a certain punch to make it world class.
We get several standout scenes, including a groovy duel in the underbelly of a tanker ship filmed in shades of blue and black, a frantic shootout in the middle of a drug warehouse that has flying bodies galore, and even a cleverly edited fight scene between lead actors Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
Holding the action together is a surprisingly adept cast. We have no duds in this picture, not when it comes to hamming it up for our entertainment.
Firstly, a tip of the hat is necessary to Geoffrey Lewis, who plays the gruff father figure with care and affection. And also lugs around an M16, as most good father figures will.
Our villains are handled ably by the previously mentioned Alan Scarfe and his slimy business/murder partner Philip Chan. Both are good, if a little underused. To me, a good villain should have almost as much screentime as our hero, otherwise we can’t cheer when the scoundrel is finally defeated. But even with limited minutes in the movie, both Chan and Scarfe do just fine in their assigned roles.
A little more problematic is six-time Ms. Olympia champion Corinna Everson as the lethal right-hand lady of the picture. She is scarcely used, which is a pity, but when they do give her screentime it’s largely there to sexually harass Alonna Shaw, the blonde girlfriend of JCVD’s Alex. The predatory lesbian is a trope that earns an unfortunate sigh and eye roll.
Same goes for the all-too-frequent comments regarding Chad, the Californian brother, and his lack of traditional masculinity. Yeah, gay jokes have not aged well…
On the plus side, JCVD’s acting has fared the test of time much better than expected. He plays both brothers as uniquely as he is able, imbuing Alex with a gruff, awkward machismo that seems more front than reality, and putting all his charm into the grinning, ‘aw shucks’ persona of Chad. It’s actually a little weird to watch Van Damme deliver two different performances, sometimes in the same scene. He even manages to change his body language as he goes from one brother to the other, giving Alex a constant cloud of brooding anger and Chad a more upbeat, sunny posture.
I mean, this isn’t Doctor Zhivago. It’s still a damn Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. With twice as much Van Damme. And if, like me, you are a fan of the Muscles from Brussels, than double the Van Damme makes for double the fun.
