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I don't usually write reviews for bad films. But being a huge Van Damme fan and loving his older movies, i thought that this would be a good film as Van Damme really hyped it up. Unfortunately the film falls apart very quickly. The most funny and annoying part of the story and most ironic i guess, is that they still use the Kick boxer line "Our parents got divorced i stayed with dad and my brother went with mom" to establish his thick french accent compared to the American accent that his brother has. The Acting was cheesy, mediocre at best. Van Damme probably was the best actor in the film. The story was a Van Damme story with a stupid twist, which would not have swayed the character in the end, but its the story tellers felt that Van Damme's character needed more drama and so we have the ending we get. The CGI was extremely bad. I couldn't understand why they had to use Green screen for the night club when in the next scene they are clearly standing in a similar if not the same actual night club that they just CGIéd before. Anyways, i hope that Van Damme fans can enjoy the film solely based on being JCVD fans

Let me start by saying that this was a fun action movie, Van Damme is, I felt really cool in this film.

He plays Deacon Lyle, a sort of french special forces contractor, who is on vacation in (I think it was the Philippines), I've seen it a few times but forget where it's set. While there he wakes the next morning to find that his kidney is missing and preparing to get it back.

I have to admit that the story to this film is very simple but I still found it enjoyable.

Jean Claude Van Damme is very good in this as Deacon, but I always enjoy watching his films.

Charlotte Peters is pretty good in her role I think this is her first film role but I found her performance exceptional. And she is very sexy too, she is a gorgeous Irish woman very attractive.

As for the rest of the cast they were good too. The action scenes are pretty good as well, all of the fighting was done in a way I feel was fresh and inventive, I realize that some of you complain about noticing Van Damme's double in the fights, well to be clear, couple years ago he suffered a mild heart attack on the set of "Assassination Games", so that's self explanatory, I am in no way shape or form bothered by this, besides he is getting older.

Anyway overall I liked this film, it's one of those sit back, relax and enjoy the body count type of films.

I give it a 6/10. A fun little action film and if your a Van Damme fan I recommend this to you.

'POUND OF FLESH': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in this martial arts action flick; about a man trying to get back his stolen kidney, in order to save his dying niece. It was directed by Ernie Barbarash (who also directed Van Damme in the B-action films '6 BULLETS' and 'ASSASSINATION GAMES') and it was written by Joshua James. The movie costars Darren Shahlavi (another martial arts B-action film star), John Ralston, Charlotte Peters and Akie Aleong. It does have some decent fight scenes but it tries to be a little too emotional, and overly dramatic, as well (which it doesn't quite have the resources for).

Van Damme plays Deacon; a man who just arrived in China, in order to donate a kidney to his deathly ill niece (Adele Baughan). He rescues a woman (Peters) from her attacker (Shahlavi), nearby the hotel he's staying at. She asks to buy him a drink, as thanks, and he wakes up the next morning with a kidney missing. With the help of his extremely religious brother (Ralston), the father of the dying little girl, Deacon decides to track down the criminals that robbed him, and get his kidney back. It helps that Deacon is an expert martial artist and former black-ops agent, of course.

I used to be a huge Van Damme fan (he was my favorite actor, briefly, as a kid) and I still enjoy watching his movies. He doesn't deliver a very good performance here though, because it seems like he really didn't want to be there (he can be a pretty good actor, when he's passionate about a role). Shahlavi, Ralston, Aleong, and a few others, do give decent performances though (on the other hand). The fight scenes are entertaining as well; and there's a decent story hidden in there too. The melodrama, and cheesy production values, do make the film a little hard to bear though, at times. It's not one of the best Van Damme films, but it's not one of his worst either.

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PLOT: 5/10 - The movie plot was fine. Nothing special at all. It's pretty straight forward, though that's not a bad thing at all if done right. And this movie doesn't do it that wrong.

SOUNDTRACK 5/10 - To be honest, nothing to see here, folks.

SPECIAL EFFECTS 4/10 - I debated with myself if I should give it a 5, but the green screen effects in this movie is used way too often on scenes that didn't need it. I know, it's a B movie, but there're plenty of them who does it right.

ACTING 5/10 Though some acting can seem shallow, most of it is fine and, sometimes, believable. Nothing new on Van Damme's acting (comparing it to most recent movies he's made); John Ralston does a nice job on acting here too. Some fight scenes aren't that good, as the moves are really badly done.

OVERALL 4/10 - Though the movie may look kinda cliché, it's a nice action flick, that's pretty straight forward in general. Some scenes might have some bad visual effect but, overall, it's a movie that's OK to watch, considering you know you're in for a B-action movie.

Jean Claude has been doing very well in recent times. It is great to see him making a decent comeback. My wife and I took the pleasure of watching Pound Of flesh tonight. I'm enthusiastic about it giving a rating of 8-10 - The movie provides plenty of action which is what I'm mainly in it for.

My wife is a Filipina and we were happy to recognize areas of Manila in the movie. I have this feeling that I may have been around the area during the time Van Damme was visiting the Philippines. The beginning starts of a little rough, but when the action begins and the twists start to roll in...This gem starts coming together better. My wife cried at the end. The story was well set up and unpredictable. I hope these guys get back together again for some more kick ass movies in the near future.