Double Team

If you're into your eighties/nineties action movies, you should probably appreciate muscle-bound heroes thumping hordes of bad-guys into submission. Yes, the films are hardly 'high brow,' but enjoyable if you're in the right mood. Jean Claude Van Damme has starred in plenty of cheesy 'so-bad-they're-good' films such as 'Kickboxer, Bloodsport' and 'Universal Solider.' However, despite 'Double Team' - sort of - fitting into that genre, it's one you could probably pass on, unless you really need your fix of the 'Muscles From Brussels.'

JCVD plays, er, some sort of special ops soldier who, er, ends up fighting bad guys. Do you really need a plot synopsis? He kicks, he punches and he shoots his way through the usual faceless henchmen, but - and here is about the film's only real stand-out selling point - he does it alongside NBA megastar Dennis Rodman.

By all accounts Rodman hasn't starred in too many films and, based on what I saw here, that's quite a shame. I know he's allegedly a bit of a diva in real life and nowadays has 'questionable' friendships, but (in 'Double Team' at least) he really is quite a larger-than-life character and steals every scene from the more 'straight-laced' Van Damme. They play off each other really well and Rodman comes across as a taller, even more flamboyant Wesley Snipes from 'Demolition Man.'

'Double Team' is an okay film in terms of action and plot - there's nothing you haven't seen much before. If you're a Van Damme mega-fan then you could probably do worse than sitting through this - it's only an hour and a half and it's hardly 'hard going.' Plus if you're at all curious as to see how Rodman fairs on screen then this will answer all your questions - it's just a shame he doesn't really - properly - come into it until the final third. The bad guy is Mickey Rourke, but don't expect too much from him as he's barely on screen and I didn't even know it was him until I saw his name in the end credits!

If you like action B-movies like 'Under Siege' then 'Double Team' does fall short of that, which is a shame, as with a bit better writing and polish overall then it could have been a hidden gem rather than a background noise.

Double Team has to be seen to be believed. Hell, even the poster does. It exists in that delirious wasteland of the late 90's action genre, a place where anything can, and does go. As the genre evolved, the scientists deep within Hollywood's labs were trying out endless mind boggling action star team ups, even using a few celebrities that had never had a film to their name. In this particular twilight zone we get Jean Claude Van Damme and Dennis Rodman sharing a spotlight. There's a pairing for ya. Van Damme plays a counter terrorist expert who miserably fails in preventing an attack from dangerous villain Stavros (Mickey Rourke), and is sent to The Colony, where disgraced agents are branded with all the snazzy technology the 90's had to offer, after which being sent back into duty. He needs inside helps to track down Stavros, and finds it in beyond eccentric arms dealer Yaz (Rodman), a whacko who mirrors the man's overblown real life persona. Together they make a run at Rourke, fireworks ensue, blah blah. It's a crappy flick made noticeable by the strange presence of Rodman, and marginally watchable by Rourke, who actually gives Stavros the tiniest glint of surprising gravity, despite how downright silly the whole enterprise is. Loaded with cheese, dated special effects and clichés, it ain't no picnic, but worth a glance during an inebriated late night channel switching blitz.

A logic-free action flick that stretches plausibility way beyond breaking point, Double Team stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as counter-terrorist expert Jack Quinn who, after a botched mission to kill international terrorist Stavros (Mickey Rourke), becomes an unwilling participant in a top secret think-tank on a remote island colony for agents that are considered 'too valuable to kill, but too dangerous to set free'.

When Stavros (Mickey Rourke) abducts Jack's pregnant wife, having vowed revenge for the accidental death of his son during the earlier shootout, Jack escapes the colony, seeks help from an S&M freak gun dealer named Yaz (played by eccentric basketball bad-boy Dennis Rodman), and embarks on a dangerous rescue mission that culminates in an explosive showdown inside a coliseum.

Opening with Quinn escaping from some bad guys by jumping a heavily armoured stolen vehicle through a speeding train (without the aid of a ramp), this film is completely crazy from the get go, and Hong Kong director Tsui Hark doesn't let the insanity subside until the very end, chucking in such spectacular nonsense as Van Damme kicking the crap out of bad guys while hanging from an air-plane cargo net, a Chinese killer who uses his knife with his foot, a top secret society of cyber-monks, and a finale that sees the good guys fight a tiger in the middle of a mine field before escaping certain death from fireball through the use of a Coke vending machine.

Special mention must also be made of the incredible amount of glass that gets smashed during the film (usually because someone has been thrown through it).

Although I'll never quite understand how this film got green-lit, I'm sure glad it did: a more enjoyably insane piece of 90s nonsense you'll be hard pushed to find.

Call me crazy, but I rate Double Team 8 out of 10 simply for being so bloody silly.

I just love bad movies. Now many don't make the cut because they simply don't suck to the magnitude needed to make them a "bad classic". This film, however, rockets past others and makes no attempt to disguise its crap-value by including a good actor, plot twist, or a clever bit of dialogue. No, this movie fails (succeeds?) in all categories. I went to the premiere a couple of years back, and still regret that fateful day. Only one other film has traumatized me to that extent (I payed full admission for Congo on the premiere...). Sometimes, no amount of comments will prepare you for a true impact of a film. Schindler's List, Kids, Saving Private Ryan, and... Double Team. See this movie, you will never be the same again.

A lot of people seem to forget that Van Damme isn't trying to make a really great movie. He doesn't usually care about the plot or the acting. He wants to make an action movie. That is the only reason I ever watch his movies and he never fails to deliver, including in this movie. Sure you cringe at the corny acting and dialogue when it happens, but the action sequences totally make up for it. I also enjoy when a movie doesn't take place in the US or Canada. I'm just bored with that. In this movie they go to Antwerp and Rome. Very cool settings for the movie. Over all I was quite pleased. The director, Tsui Hark (I have NO idea how you pronounce that), is always quite reliable in making a good action movie. It was just a good action movie, people. Don't look at it for more than what it was.