Desafío a la muerte

I watched this on DVD today and was stunned to see that it's a nearly scene for scene remake of one of my favorite Hong Kong films, the 1995 crime melodrama Loving You (ok, bad title) directed by Johnny To that starred Lau Ching Wan and Carman Lee. I don't understand why the original Hong Kong flick is mentioned nowhere in the credits but nearly every single scene and plot element and much of the dialog comes directly from the Hong Kong film. Until Death wasn't bad, but the problem is that Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't half the actor that Lau Ching Wan, the star of the original is and director Stephen Fellows is no Johnny To. The love story between the recuperating police officer and his pregnant wife is handled much more effectively in the original. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoyed Until Death (and can tolerate watching movies with English subtitles) seek out the original version, which was released last year on DVD in Hong Kong and can purchased from places like Ebay. It's a much better movie.

To his credit, Van Damme made this film really good! And it wasn't his acrobatically motivated martial arts. There was more drama than action and he was pretty darn decent. I don't like spoilers, so..

The movie starts a little slow but the storyline picks up and the plight of Van Damme's character is apparent. It's him against the world that kicked him to the dirt and people want to step all over him. His character is submissive and weak but yet, still has the inner strength to do the right thing in the end.

Again, I was pleasantly surprised with Van Damme's acting and character in this film, not the typical Van Damme action movie, this one has heart, character and a good story. 7 out of 10 for me.

The picture packs noisy action , shoot-outs , twisted intrigues and characterization enough . It's exciting and tense , at time lackluster action film , but the violent confrontations, struggles , gun-play are well done in this routine actioner , being better than Jean-Claude flicks . The story is plenty of firepower , action packed , fights though is added an interesting suspense with attractive roles . Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a dirty cop, he's separated his pregnant wife Valerie Stowe (Selina Giles) and fighting to capture his ex-partner. His ex-colleague named Gabriel Callaghan (Stephen Rea) is working to become the new leader of the gangsters in local organized crime in Nueva Orleans and he will stop at nothing to get his purports and at whatever cost. Callaghan sends his henchmen after Anthony, who's shot in the head and comes very close to death, falling into a coma. Months later, he wakes up wanting to put things alright and becoming a better person, and better husband , while taking on the nasty goons . It's not the plan, it's the execution !. They put him in a coma, now he's going to put them out of their misery !. Vengeance Is His !.

This movie direct to video packs violent action , suspense , shoot-outs , and struggles , resulting to be quite entertaining. The main issue of the film is Van Damme himself , a very interesting role playing as a dirty cop who is hooked on heroin , and everyone dislikes him; because of a deadly set-up he is put into a coma, and comes out of it a better person , equally he awakens from the coma with the idea of finishing off his former partner . Suffering Van Damme plays finely a sad and affected cop called Anthony Stowe, a narcotics lieutenant addicted to heroin, he has a bad attitude, and everyone hates him, including his soon-to-be-ex wife, but later he changes the mind . Jean Claude Van Damme is stunning as action hero become a good man in this middling budget film . Long time ago he played big budget movies (Time cop, Universal soldier, Double team , Hard target) , he nowadays makes low budget and directly to video (Derailed, Wake of death, In hell) like in his first films (Black eagle, Cyborg , Bloodsport). Being accompanied by a nice cast , such as : Stephen Rea, William Ash , Mark Dymond , Adam Leese ,Stephen Lord ,Wes Robinson, Alana Maria , Fiona O'Shaughnessy, among others.

Financed in medium budget by the prolific producers Avi Lerner , Danny lerner , Boaz Davidson , Illana Diamant , Moshe Diamant, Danny Dimbort , Trevor Short who have produced other vehicles for two-fisted and violent heroes , such as : Steven Seagal , Chuck Norris , Jason Statham and Silvester Stallone himself . The film was well photographed by Douglas Milsone (Dungeons and dragons, Sunchaser, Body of evidence) in natural scenarios of Nueva Orleans , Louisiana, US and Sofia , Bulgaria . The movie is pointlessly energetic , occasionally intense and enjoyable enough and that's why it will appeal to real devotee Van Damme . The motion picture was professionally directed by Simon Fellows who made a Wesley Snipes vehicle (7 seconds) and he recently shot this ¨Until death¨and ¨Second in Command¨ again with Jean Claude Van Damme . The film will appeal to action genre enthusiasts . It is a decent film but only for the true devotee of the main actor . It's a must see for Van Damme fans . Rating : 6/10. Acceptable and passable.

In New Orleans, the abusive narcotic detective Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a dirty cop, addicted in heroin and booze, hated by his colleagues and divorcing from his wife Valerie (Selina Giles). While trying to arrest his former partner and drug lord Gabriel Callaghan (Stephen Rea), the mission fails, two undercover officers are killed and the drug, the money and the monitoring tapes vanish. Later, Tony is shot by a criminal in the head and miraculously does not die. After months in coma, he wakes up trying to fix the errors of his past life.

After many bad movies, Jean Claude Van-Damme finally makes a very good film. His character is very well developed in a story that uses clichés, but is also interesting, full of action and without a final redemption with a happy end. When the viewer sees this movie, wait for the credits because there is an important footage of the missing surveillance tapes, disclosing what happened in the house and how the officers were killed. I hope this movie be a milestone and a second chance in the career of Van Damme, and like his character and Phoenix, he raises from the ashes to please his fans. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Até a Morte" ("Until the Death")

If you rent or buy a Van Damme movie then you want to be entertained, right??? As long as you are entertained then you would be willing to let the quality of the acting or script slide a little, right??? Well, I have to say that this film did indeed entertain me and Mr. Van Damme even surprised me because he was rather good, even with a script that went a little overboard with movie cop-talk. For all of his critics,I say, give the man a break, he is making an effort and trying something different.

As an Irishman I was as surprised as anyone to see Stephen Rea in such a film as I hadn't looked at the full credits before watching it, but he was solid as usual.

I don't want to summarise the film for anyone because I watched the film without knowing anything about the story except that Van Damme played a dirty cop, and I found the story to be very entertaining ,even in spite of the poor dialogue at times. Please, do not go along and watch this film with preconceived notions of negativity towards Mr. Van Damme, just watch it with an open mind, and I think you may find yourself surprised.....