Hong Kong colpo su colpo

How can anyone hate such a beautiful film? The combination of poor dubbing, Van Damme's "acting" and "grasp of English", Schneider's queer-ass jokes, and Lela Rochon's breasts, I thought, would make Knock Off an Oscar contender for sure. In addition, it is a valuable tool for young amateur cameramen. They clearly just bought a new camera before they started filming, and were trying out all the new gadgets (when Van Damme reaches into the box of watches, or when they go into the barrel of the gun, or when they pan up from everyone's feet, or use multiple exposures to create the illusion of a quality film).

As for the soundtrack, Ron and Russell Mael deserve a Grammy, or, at eh very least, a Source Award. I mean, "It's a Knock Off" emerges as the single that will truly be the soundtrack for the lives of teens in the new milennium. All-Star Sam Hui also contributes to the album. His ground-breaking "Ten Girls" ,which goes a little sumthin' like this:

"Sal pon ass hi cow go yang si ming ming hi lo how wow bom hi sam chung gay yeah chop hay bing si ching chun may li chow mo so pli" ...is sung by Van Damme. It speaks to you. It tells you to leave the theater.

Another interesting aspect of this film is that it was the only Western film allowed to be in production in Hong Kong during the handover to China. They try to work this into the first action sequence (which is 90 minutes long and followed by the credits)by making sporadic, frenzied, obscure references to the ceremony that don't make sense or have any effect on the outcome of Van Damme's struggle against the Russian mafia.

Ultimately, if you want to see green explosions, Paul Sorvino returning from the dead, Rob Schneider and Van Damme engage in S&M during a rickshaw race, Lela Rochon's breasts, and a Russian with bronchitis chop people up with his eyeglasses, Knock Off is the movie for you.

So it's not the best movie ever made. Knock Off at least accomplishes what too many movies these days fail to do--entertain. It made us laugh. The filming was unusual.

And Jean-Claude's departure from the usual character portrayal was refreshing. He should try losing the ego and do comedy more often.

Most importantly, Knock Off is unlike any other Van Damme movie. It is much more like your Hong Kong action movie, and is actually quite better in the action respect than any of his other movies. Rob Schneider is really funny, and the acting (even from Van Damme) is pretty good. Probably the best thing about this movie is it's cinematography, which has such great shots as the foot-cam, the shoe-cam, and the box-cam, in which a little window opens up so you can see Jean-Claude's hand as it's reaches into a box! This movie is great for one goofy laugh after another, while not beeing too bad to watch. If you see it, rent it! If you like it, buy it!

A jeans manufacturer finds a conspiracy among triads that places micro-bombs in the jeans he sells. Of course the first shipment were slipped with knock offs but now they must make sure that the new shipment of clothes isn't shipped with the micro-bombs. Knock Off is the type of movie that would be right at home in a James Bond thriller. The movie is utterly ridiculous however this makes it strangely watchable and the whole confusing camera angles to which we see the inside of a phone, the inside of the bomb and even Van Damme's foot going into a sock all make this a very strange movie indeed. The action sequences are filmed with such crazy angles once can't tell what the hell is going on and it's not until the movie is over, where you realize what the hell you had just saw. Knock Off is one of the most surreal movies you could ever see, seriously. It's one of those movies that years from now may be looked at as a camp classic due to it's stylish excess. I for one, still can't tell you what the movie was about.

* * out of 4(Fair)

Excellent movie. The plot is great. The bringing of Rob Schneider and JCVD to one movie might have seemed like a bad idea at first, but they really pulled i off. THis movie is one of the funniest I've seen with JCVD, but it also retains the classic gold material of JCVD's films, the asskicking, and the "you so crazy" plot twists which make this movie worth watching. It'S GREAT!!!