Asesino Perfecto

26 January 2003. This is one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's most sensitive and exciting movies and ranks among his best along with Time Cop if not better. There is a sharp, serious, deadly edge to this cop thriller with a sci fi twist. There is compassion, tenderness, and an icy, cold-blooded, frozen hard serial killer - no holds barred action thriller here. Surprisingly complex, full of non-stop action, as well as relationship, character-driven backdrop to this movie. Worthy of a rental for sure. 7 out of 10 stars.

I have always been a fan of Van Damme. I was one of the few who enjoyed his theatrical movies, and one of the few who like or have seen his DTV movies. In the past few years I was getting nervous. Sure I liked Van Damme, but some of the recent movies were getting kinda bad. Now I have only seen 1 or 2 truly bad movies, I usually like all movies that I see, because most of them have a great scene here or there. Lately some of the VD flicks were even getting kinda bad to me. I liked Universal Solder 2 but it was pretty bad when compared to his other flicks. I was a little leary about Replicant, but after the first few minuted I knew that everything would be OK.

I really enjoyed this movie! The plot was very cool and it kept you thinking and wondering what would happen next. Also Van Damme really acts in this movie!!! Unlike his other movies where he just kicks and punches to the plot he actually does some good acting. I really felt for the "Replicant." Unlike some movies that I have watched recently, this movie really held my attention. Uusually I am checking my watch but not this time.

To sum it up, I reallly think that you should see this movie. If you are a Van Damme fanatic you MUST see this. And if you are a Van Damme hater you Must see this. It is just that good. 10/10 best Van Damme movie ever!

I think there is a Zen of encountering movies, not unlike encountering people. You need to get beyond the fact that they are incompetent at carrying who they are and dig into the essence of the person.

Art is all in the carrying, I think so you might find yourself admiring something that is incompetent, unartful, even repellently stupid if it has an engaging heart.

This disaster of a movie has an interesting kernel I think. It is only a disaster because the director and support crew thought that its center was in the thud of flesh between two brutes, a simple serial killer and a simpler cop. But you the viewer have the power to relocate that center to the encounter with self.

(For those who don't know the story, evil killer exists. Shadowy federal agency makes a clone and lends it to the discalced cop who is on the case. The cone has "memories" that are used to track the killer. The clone "grows")

Set aside the bizarre notion of the US government fighting terrorists by making more of them from scratch. (Insert your own political commentary here.) And set aside the notion that memories convey by genetics. The cool idea here, something like in "Faceoff" or "Purple Rose" or "Last Action Hero," or even "Thirteenth Floor." is that a personal stumbling through life has his stumbles fabricated from blows from the world, but has the ability to see them from the outside.

Encountering self is an old idea... in film and literature, and much deeper and more clever notions have been spun than this. But this ain't bad, at least in theory. And for my taste Van Damme is no worse than Li or Arnie and unless you get a real actor everyone else is roughly as good.

If they could just have more Schrader and less Harlin.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

I used to be Jean-Claude Van Damme's biggest fan back when I was 13 or so, having seen HARD TARGET on video and then watching every subsequent Van Damme movie up to MAXIMUM RISK (which for some reason I just didn't feel like watching). As it would turn out, I didn't end up seeing any more of his work for the next five years or so, half because it just sounded awful (UNIVERSAL SOLDIER 2) and half because it didn't make it to the theater. Now I'm in video stores all the time seeing flicks like LEGIONNAIRE, DERAILED, and DESERT HEAT, wondering "when did that come out?". They just seem to spring up without warning. REPLICANT was one of those, and I laughed when I first saw the poster in a video store, immediately assuming it was just some awful BLADE RUNNER rip-off.

That said, I finally broke down after two years and rented it based on all the positive stuff I've heard, and I'll say I'll have to go with the flow on this one - it's surprisingly good! Van Damme looks a bit older but he's still in great shape and has more energy than your typical 14-year-old. The problem was that his acting has usually been so stiff that it's hard to root for him as the good guy (watching SUDDEN DEATH I actually was hoping the bad guys would win) - not the case with this movie.

No, believe it or not, Van Damme actually displays an amazing, intriguing, and very believable performance (or is it one?) playing the moronic and childish clone. Michael Rooker, the other reason I broke down and rented this movie, has some really great scenes like when he gets so angered by a call from the psycho-killer that he throws the phone on the ground and smashes it into a million pieces. Rooker also looks a great deal younger and in better shape than in THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS or THE BONE COLLECTOR, playing a more youthfully-minded loner as opposed to a tired old sheriff or something. While this film has a really familiar concept, a lot of those "oh god that's dumb!" moments, and some pretty unmotivated fight scenes (why have the scene where he beats up all the government types in the abandoned building - why were they even there in the first place?), it's really good considering they had a great deal less than $10 million to make this movie, about half of what it would cost to even hire Schwarzenegger to do a film. Take this movie and the extremely similar THE 6TH DAY and run them side by side, and it's almost sad how much better Van Damme's acting is, how much better the cloning concept is handled, and how surprisingly "fresh" everything seems.

Van Damme really does a good job and actually made me care about his character (the clone one, anyway). The best scenes in the movie though have to be Van Damme as the evil twin cutting a swarth of destruction around the city - like kicking old ladies, shooting corpses, or (my favorite) when he shoots the driver of a stopped car he's running past in an intersection FOR NO REASON! If actions spoke louder than words, Jean-Claude would have at least one Academy Award.

Well worth a rental for anyone actually interested in this movie enough to find themselves reading this.

This was very different for a Van Damme movie. Even though this is like the 100th time Van Damme has done the double role thing, this is the best out of them. Van Damme really plays his roles well in this one. I don't really like Michael Rooker as an actor, but he does well with what he is given. Some of the characters are underdeveloped, but the movie still is decent.