Darkness of Man

Omg... it's bad... it's not just bad... it's... uh.. Nicholas Cage bad, if you get my drift. I mean, I have no idea what I just watched and the story that just went nowhere with jittery action scenes that were boring and predictable.

Calling this low budget would be an understatement, and the monologue? Wow... puts me to sleep. Just skip this one and put JCVD on the list of washed out actors looking to pay their rent.

I was watching this while on the computer doing my work and it still irritated me like no tomorrow. Dark, hard to see, and just boring... save yourself the time.

I think 2 out of 10 is generous.

After an informant by the name of "Esther" (Chika Kanamoto) dies while in protective custody, the Interpol agent responsible for her safety named "Russell Hatch" (Jean-Claude Van Damme) takes it upon himself to fulfil a promise he made to her to protect her son "Jayden" (Emerson Min) from the bad elements that surround him. The problem, however, is that Jayden lives with his Korean relatives who are involved in the illegal drug trade and the Russian mob is doing everything it can to muscle in on their territory. To that effect, Russell has to try to calmly navigate between these two groups in order to keep things peaceful, while at the same time, Jayden's uncle "Dae Hun" (Peter Jae) is doing his best to stir things up. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that, although the plot had definite possibilities, the overall direction left much to be desired. For starters, I didn't especially care for the narration provided by Jean-Claude Van Damme as it detracted from the movie rather than actually enhancing the overall effect. Likewise, having the main character sustain so many serious injuries within a limited span of time, only to engage in repeated fights to the death not long afterward, really strained all sense of reality. Only in Hollywood. Be that as it may, while I don't consider this to be a terribly bad film necessarily, it didn't quite realize its true potential, and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

I know JCVD isn't exactly young anymore and i am not expecting a full blown action movie, but somehow he manage to often book himself in roles where he is meant to appear discouraged with life, depressed and bored. His best roles in his second half of his career in my opinion are the likes of Welcome to the Jungle and Enemies Closer. Movies where he plays a full of energy over the top excentric character. The depress schtick has really gotten old for me.

Now if this was the movie only low point, but its actually one of the lesser problem. This script is dull... and barely has any action. A few sluggish boring hand to hand fights, altough one ill admit use an original perspective but it looks like its made to cover up for Van Damme lack of mobibility. Then a few very uninspired and boring gun fights.

Most of the movie's tough is Van Damme monologing, drinking, and i was just so bored. I litterally watched the movie in 3 shots. I watched 40 minutes and took a break to play some online games as i was too bored, then i came back and watched another 30-40 minutes, and when i realize it would basically be more of the same til the end i just turn it off and watch the remaining part a day later.

This movie looks basically like one of those scripts in the 2010s that Nicolas Cage would say yes just because he needed the money. The kind of script that was stockpile in the "bottom DTV" pile and that just needed a recognized lead to somehow draw a few fans to it. But no... JCVD actually co-wrote it, so he really wanted to make it.

In term of esthetic the movie does not look bad or "fake" but for the minimal action there is in, i think most of the budget got into the actors and cameos.

For some reasons you have Shannen Doherty and Cynthia Rothrock showing up in some of the most pointless cameos ever, and apparently Eric Roberts was in it, but i didn't even noticed him. Kristanna Loken wich still look fantastic plays his love interest and she's actually in the movie for a decent lengh, but the character's highlight remain an underwear scene...

Its true that we will always associate Van Damme with action and spinkicks, but there is ways to make movies in an older age and remain interesting without a need for big crazy action scenes. Sylvester Stallone did it brilliantly in Tulsa King and to an extent Arnold also made something fun and with decent action in Fubar. They are older than Van Damme as well.

Honestly for me this movie was like some of the last Steven Seagal movies he made before retiring (or being forced to maybe). A recycled predictable script, rather boring, and not even really entertaining as a disposable movie.

I will be generous and give it a 4 out of 10 because the movie was "competent" in some aspects, but its definately below average. Even for 1$ i wouldn't buy it on DVD to put it beside my other Van Damme movies. Its in the same category as other slugfests he did (We Die Young, Lukas and a few more...) that i would never watch again.

The film noir poster on the wall is significant, Van Damme plays the washed-up agent with alcohol problems. The focus is on that mime, JCVD focuses on acting aspects in the autumn of acting, certainly also because physical action is only possible to a limited extent. His ambitions in all honour, but let's be honest, what is it that we want to see from him? The budget was there, that's obvious, Darkness Of Man looks good and has some nice cameos. In terms of staging, however, it overreaches itself, wanting to be more audience-orientated than it should be. Above all else, the voiceover constantly echoes with the audience, no doubt intended as a Hemingway-esque pretension screw.

Once again, the cultural enrichment through immigrants is thematised. The living conditions of the original citizens are improved by robbery, murder, receiving stolen goods, drugs, prostitution, blackmail and so on. Funnily enough, we find these officially pure fantasy products in every second action film. Just misplaced stereotypes, I'm sure.

Speaking of action, there's a little brawl every 25 minutes. But Van Damme is just a boxer, with no kick. In the last half hour, there is a categorical final revenge campaign according to the standard formula, at least the level is ok. This release will not end up in any top rating.

International police Russell Hatch (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is almost killed during a raid. Masked gunmen attack his confidential informant and faked her suicide. He promised to care for her son Jayden. It's two years later in L. A. Jayden is caught up in a Korean gang and Russell intervenes.

This is a crime drama B-movie trying to inject some neo-noir style. JCVD has been around for forty years and his acting has barely improved. This has a lot of narration from him and his accent is still the same. The filmmaking is mostly uninspired and the story is blandly derivative. There is one action scene where they try to make it interesting. The camera is stationed inside a van as the fight goes around the van outside. It would have been nice to have it a long uncut scene. JCVD is an older gentleman now and that may be asking too much from him.