Risque maximum

If you see only one Van Damme film...see Maximum Risk. It is a decent thriller, not just a martial arts flick. Unfortunately, after seeing how good Van Damme can be (yes, he can act - something we've yet to see from Stephen Seagal who he's usually compared to) it makes you sad to see how many bad films he's really made.

Maximum Risk is the first US feature film from acclaimed Hong Kong director Ringo Lam with Van Damme as star. He previously brought in John Woo to direct action classic Hard Target, but JCVD and John Woo didn't exactly hit it off creatively. Ringo Lam and JCVD worked well together and would continue to work together on two more films(Replicant and In Hell). Maximum Risk is much different than the movies JCVD normally works on, it is pretty dark, gritty and has less stylish action that he is known for. The film is mostly devoid of humor and is presented in a serious and more realistic manner. Ringo Lam gets Van Damme to focus more on his acting and by the time he works with JCVD next, his acting improves significantly. While the whole twin brother plot has been done to death at this point, JCVD is a cop and must investigate the circumstances of his estranged twin brother's death. Natasha Henstridge is good in this as JCVD's love interest and damsel in distress. I would regard this as more of a thriller than straight up action movie, but as a mash up of genres it does it fairly well. This is also the 1st action movie I seen that involves the Russian mob, which nowadays is common with movies like John Wick, The Equalizer, etc. As a whole this was done well and JCVD would work next with legendary Hong Kong director/producer Tsui Hark on Knock Off which is unfortunate because that movie is a giant turkey of a movie, completely terrible. But that is another story...

While not necessarily one of my favorites from his more "classic" collection (Bloodsport, Kickboxer, etc.), I give this one a lot of credit for creating an overall highly suspenseful experience, full of intense action/chase sequences, and with more of a story than many other action-oriented efforts in its class. The script by Larry Ferguson (writer of The Hunt for Red October and definitely one of the more respected people to pen a Van Damme movie) places storytelling over action setups and, in general, feels a bit smarter than the average Van Damme vehicle. There isn't any real mystery to the story, though: the revelation of Alain's brother and his affiliation with the Russian mafia is dealt with without too much buildup, and the story begins to revolve around Alain retreading his brother's unsuccessful steps to distance himself from the mob and escape from corrupt FBI agents. His relationship with his brother's old flame (Natasha Henstridge, Species) is interesting at first but is then more or less dropped into your lap. Nevertheless, the movie never loses a sense of suspense: Alain doesn't seem quite as empowered as other characters Van Damme was playing at the time, so it rarely seems impossible that he could be killed. Soundly-weighed production values by director Lam help set a good mood and the art direction is, at times, inspired.

The film features a pretty good cast, including Jean-Hugues Anglade (Betty Blue) as Alain's partner and David Hemblen (Exotica) in a limited role as the leader of the Russian mafia, but the unexpected dramatic moment of the picture belongs to Van Damme for a surprisingly adept instance of silent acting near the end of the movie wherein Alain listens to a recorded message by his late brother. Ringo Lam would continue to bring a little something extra out of Jean-Claude in the future, even directing him to his first-ever dramatic award nomination five years later, but "Maximum Risk" is probably the most palatable of all their collaborations for its all-around strengths and mainstream appeal.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

This Movie is surely Van Damme's MAXIMUM best besides Double Team. It has a good story, cool music, and some pretty interesting and exciting action sequences. I am a fan of Van Damme's acting and martial arts skills but I haven't liked many of his movies. Not because of Van Damme himself, but because of cheap plots and bad action sequences. But this Van Damme movie hits the bullseye and it's worth watching.

Van Damme stars as a policeman in France who finds out that he had a twin brother that he never knew who had been murdered. Wanting to dive more into the mystery of his brother's death he travels to New York and takes his brothers place in hope of some answers. But he gets a lot more than he hoped for because thugs are trying to kill him left and right, so he delivers extreme action, and gives them something to think about(that is if there not all dead yet!). So see this movie if you haven't yet or see it again if you have. If you like Van Damme I'd also recommend Double Team.

I guess 'Maximum Risk' kind of marks Van Damme's 'turning point' from 'A-list action star' to 'straight-to-video' action star. Prior to 'Maximum Risk,' most of his films were primarily released theatrically, however, due to lackluster Box Office returns in the U.S. this one quickly went to the small screen... and so did many of his subsequent ones.

Jean Claude Van Damme plays a cop in France who finds out he had an identical twin brother who he had been separated at birth ('Double Team' anyone?), but now died during an attempt to reunite the family. Now, he must travel to America to track down what happened to his long lost bro.

Yeah, it's an 'action' film, but there's probably not enough action to really stick in your mind. Sure, there are all the usual car chases and fights, but the decision to make Van Damme an ex army sniper means he's primarily skilled with guns rather than his trademark fists. Not only does this mean that he doesn't do as much martial arts as you might expect, but also he tends to use a pistol (and, unless it's just me, but don't army snipers use high-powered rifles?).

Natasha Henstridge plays the 'love interest' and she's in it basically to fall in love with JCVD. Her character gets about as much development as the bad guys, who are pretty much totally forgettable. Some of them are Russians and, just to add extra clichés, they contain a 'Yuri' (are there any Russian men who aren't called 'Yuri' or 'Dimitri?').

I know Van Damme's character hasn't had his mind wiped, but the script plays out like a modern day version of 'Total Recall' (or is it just me?). Either way, it's not half as much fun as Arnie's sci-fi epic. It's a kind of 'filler' film in Van Damme's catalogue. There's actually nothing I can say that's really bad about it, it's just not that memorable and certainly not half as much of a guilty pleasure as many of his earlier outings.