Enemies Closer - Gefährlich nah

Van Damme is one of the few big action stars today whose acting actually improves over time. Back in his Kickboxer days, he had some unintentionally hilarious line-readings, but he always had a boyish charm that helped keep his movies afloat even when there wasn't any action happening on the screen. Now, he's a perfectly capable, legitimate actor. His English has improved immensely which has a lot to do with it, but you can tell that he still has a genuine passion for acting (unlike guys like Bruce Willis who look bored whenever they're on camera). Enemies Closer sees Van Damme as a villain once again playing Xander, who looks like a French-Canadian Joker esque madman, and he milks the role for all it's worth. He's a joy to watch. Whether he's barking orders to his henchmen or whimsically taunting the protagonist, Van Damme is eccentric and arresting for every moment that he's on screen. When he's not on screen, the life is sucked right out of the movie.

Everything else about this movie is bad. The protagonist is terrible, the dialogue is cringeworthy, every plot development feels forced and fabricated, even the lighting stood out to me as being exceptionally awful. You can barely see what the hell's going on half the time. The fight scenes, when they do happen, are entertaining enough. They're haphazardly edited though, which makes it hard to focus on anything for longer than half a second. And again, whenever Van Damme isn't on screen, the movie's momentum grinds to a dead stop. It's like watching a stage play and Van Damme is the hammy over-the-top lead gleefully dancing around the stage while everyone else is standing still in the background drearily reading off of cue cards.

If you're a die-hard Van Damme fan, go ahead and fast-forward through every scene he's not in. You won't miss anything important and you'll save yourself a lot of cringing and facepalming. His entrance and exit scenes in the film are particularly memorable and he's given a couple of fun villainous monologues. It's hard to fully enjoy Enemies Closer as a B-movie because it's so sloppy and gloomy; it never knows what tone to go for. And it doesn't help that none of the actors share the same conviction as Van Damme. The movie is mercifully short though, so if you are in the mood to watch Van Damme play the Joker and don't mind sitting through some atrocious dialogue-driven scenes, Enemies Closer isn't the worst way to spend 85 minutes.

This straight-to-DVD Jean-Claude Van Damme action flick is distinguished by a "name" director (Peter Hyams; '2010', and JCVD flicks 'Timecop' and 'Sudden Death') and somewhat recognizable B-list faces in Tom Everett Scott and Orlando Jones. I don't know that they make the film any better, but they certainly give it a sheen of credibility so often lacking in these affairs.

But the real star here is Van Damme. Years of hard living has left the once matinée idol looking like a hobo with a gym membership, but he brings a quirky energy to his rare villain role.

'Enemies Closer' is an efficient, moderately entertaining little action movie, and a good step or two above the usual straight to video trash flooding the bargain bin at your local Wal-Mart.

'ENEMIES CLOSER': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Jean-Claude Van Damme and director Peter Hyams team up for the third time (after 1994's 'TIMECOP' and 1995's 'SUDDEN DEATH') to make this 'buddy action movie', with Van Damme once again playing the bad guy. It also stars Tom Everett Scott and Orlando Jones as it's action hero leads and co-stars Linzey Cocker and Van Damme's son Kristopher Van Varenberg (who appears in all of his father's films as of late). The script was written by first time film writers Eric and James Bromberg and their inexperience shows. The most clever thing the filmmakers came up with (for this movie) is it's title; which is about the two main characters being enemies at first and having to team up to fight a more dangerous foe (referring to the popular phrase 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'). People don't watch a Van Damme movie for the writing usually though, if you're a fan of his performances you won't be disappointed here (it's one of his better ones).

The story is set on the US-Canadian border where (as the film opens) a plane goes down containing a large shipment of drugs. Van Damme plays Xander, a crazy drug dealer who leads his ruthless cartel into the forest, near by the crash, to retrieve the missing drugs. Everett Scott plays an Ex-Navy SEAL turned forest ranger named Henry who becomes Xander's biggest obstacle. Henry's biggest obstacle (at first) is surviving the attempts on his life by a man named Clay (Jones), who blames Henry for the death of his brother (during combat). Henry and Clay must of course put their differences aside in order to outwit Xander, and his men, and save a young woman (Cocker) who recently took a liking to the ranger.

It's interesting how Van Damme went from always playing the good guy hero in B action flicks to always playing the villain (in B action flicks). He started out his acting career playing the main bad guy in the 1986 karate film 'NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER' and the 1988 martial arts action movie 'BLACK EAGLE' but after he hit it big as the hero of 'BLOOD SPORT' (also in 1988) he became known as a likable good guy. Ever since then he's kept that image in movies, until his turn in 2012's 'THE EXPENDABLES 2'. He followed that up (the same year) by turning his good guy role (Luc Deveraux) in the 'UNIVERSAL SOLDIER' franchise into the bad guy in the fourth film 'UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING'. Now, with his performance in this movie, it seems like he loves playing the villain; he's so over the top and darkly comedic that he steals every scene he's in. He's the only real reason to see this movie (that and Hyams direction; he used to be a really good director). Everett Scott is horrible as the action hero lead (in this) and Jones is wasted. The young Van Damme and Cocker are all right but their parts are too small. The movie is worth seeing for Van Damme though; you'll love it if you're a fan!

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Right, well having grown up watching all the action movies on the late 1980's and the 1990's, then the name Van Damme is not a stranger to me. Indeed his prime was back then, but he is still going strong and making enjoyable movies.

"Enemies Closer" is not your typical Van Damme movie. Whereas previous it was him alone taking on countless numbers of bad guys and their goons, but "Enemies Closer" differs from that. Especially given the fact that he is actually playing the bad guy here, a ruthless killer who deals in drugs.

The story in the movie is straight forward and requires absolutely nothing from the audience. No need to participate or emerge yourself in anything; just sit back, disconnect your brain and watch the action on the screen. Much like most other Van Damme movies. So is that a bad thing? Not in my opinion, so I will say hardly so. I enjoyed the movie for what it was, an action movie that was predictable but still fun enough to watch.

You know what you get when you sit down to watch this particular movie, so don't get your hopes up too high. The action scenes were nice enough, though hardly amongst the best of any Van Damme movies prior to this one. And of course, you know the outcome of the movie right from the very beginning.

As for the story and dialogue, well, let's just say it was there. It will not impress or make your jaws drop down in awe. It is there in all its simplicity.

"Enemies Closer" is definitely worth a watch if you grew up watching Van Damme's movies, and it is nice to see him in a non-heroic role again (as in "Expendables 2").

However, there is nothing innovating or inspiring to be seen here, and if you have seen a handful of action movies, then it is very likely you will not be amazed here. I am rating "Enemie Closer" a definite 5 out of 10 stars given its predictability, generic and stereotypical definition of this particular genre and because it is, all in all, mindless entertainment.

Finally watched this. I enjoyed it. The highlight is easily JC's performance, which is one of his best in my opinion. His villain is so wacky and over the top...almost like he was channeling Klaus Kinski or something. Another plus the movie had going for it was the pacing. Once it gets going, it doesn't slow down at all. It almost goes by too fast since it's only 85 minutes. Something I was kind of surprised with was how much JC was actually in it. I mean, this felt like a Van Damme movie! Not just a minute of screen time here and there. He 100% felt like the lead to me. I didn't mind Tom Everett Scott at all. Yeah, his character was a bit of a pussy and he isn't the first actor you would think of for an action role but it was just nice seeing a familiar Hollywood face...and acting wise, I thought he was fine. I would take him as a co star any day of the week over a Randy Couture type. Same goes for Orlando Jones. Everyone else, with the exception of the old guy that lived in the cabin, is a typical generic JCVD direct-to-video co star.

Production wise, I really liked the night time shooting. It hid the tiny budget pretty damn well and it just looked cool in general, I thought. The movie did have a few flaws that were annoying. For starters, Kris Van Varenberg was completely miscast and unconvincing as usual and every time that Linzey Cocker opened her mouth I wanted to hang myself! Also, some of the doubling was overly visible in some shots which is always irritating.

Overall, it may have been a bit of a let down considering that Peter Hyams gave us two of JC's best, but Enemies Closer is still WORLDS better than most other recent JCVD movies. It's a fun little action flick and I could easily re-watch it. 3.25/5