Hell - Esplode la furia

I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this film, as it was a very hard hitting and brutal drama, which I didn't expect from a Van Damme film. Certain scenes I found profoundly disturbing, but also very gripping and compelling. I think this film deserved more praise than it recieved on it's release, but fans of Van Damme will like it anyway!!! It may also come as a surprise to a more varied movie goer, like it did to me.

This movie struck me as strange. I am used to a Van Damme as in Kickboxer, Bloodsport and Universal Soldier. And now this. One hardly recognises Van Damme. Seems like he actually is becoming an actor. Though the story is anything but original, it is quite well executed. The acting is above average for a direct-to-video-production. Action scenes are good, quite brutal and graphic - but that's about what I expected - why else would one want to watch a Van Damme movie? Certainly not because of the story. In Van Damme movies the "storyline" so far always was a lame excuse for one good old fashioned action scene after the other.

And that is the strange thing: With this expectation you wont exactly be disappointed, but strangely surprised. This movie has more to offer, especially Van Damme. I'm going as far as to claim that this movie would get better critics and a better reception if it wasn't Van Damme playing the lead. You just aren't used to see Van Damme this way.

That isn't a bad thing, it's just so unfamiliar, unusual. But - Let's get used to it. If this is the direction van Damme is taking, I'm happy with it.

Finally Van Damme has done it! After the (train)Disaster movie derailed. he has something he can be proud of. This is one very underrated prison movie,with some nice special FX and a very decent story! the acting is also solid(Van Damme is pretty convincing)and even one of the best performances i've seen in years(in an Action movie)By Mister Lawrence Taylor(one of the greatest Football players ever!!) Who did a great job with the voice over,his voice is very gritty and full of life!!The direction is also very solid(as expected) Ringo Lam is a very good action director, Who always comes up with very clever camera work and usual very innovative fight scenes!!! This is Must See material(once again) for all the Van Damme\prison movie Fans

Van Damme's latest effort on paper reads much like many other films he has done, in which he finds himself in a situation when he must participate in illegally set up fights. This film being set in prison is also particularly similar to Death Warrant. These are really where the similarities end because this is more dramatic and less flashy than those. There are no sweeping Van Damme kicks played in glorious slow motion, he doesn't seem invincible and is not able to summon great amounts of strength to down 7ft behemoths in one punch, in this film he is an ordinary guy. If he fights someone who looks like they could take him, then he will have a tough time, and get beat up.

This film allows JC to play a character with some depth and some emotion, a character who we sympathise with in the way his wife's death effects him. He kills his wife's murderer when he is let free and so goes to jail and we see the way in which his character goes on a downward spiral without his wife. While this film attempts to have a sympathetic character it has such a hackneyed script, full of clichés that it ends having ultimately wasted one of Van Damme's best performances and some classy direction from Ringo Lam. He is a grade above other b-movie directors and this film looks great, he worked with a good cinematographer and editor to make this look well beyond its 15 million or so budget.

There isn't a single surprise in the film and many of the supporting cast are bad but the better actors all produce some good moments. You feel for certain characters, it is a shame that the majority of the crew and cast aren't matches for the more talented members, however it does allow JC to stand out.

The fights are not about being flash they are rough and ready and pack a punch, and are superbly edited. It makes a change for Van Damme but far more watchable than other films like Nowhere to Run which showed no flashy martial arts. The fighting in this is more like proper wrestling.

As with many low budget movies there are problems with the special effects, such as dodgy CGI airplanes and a poor synth score. In the end though the film was an enjoyable watch while not great it featured quality in the direction and with a decent performance by Van Dammes standards, were not talking Academy awards by any means but possibly a Video Premiere award nomination. ***

In Hell, you will find a different Jean-Claude Van Damme. Absent are the overused splits, jump kicks off walls, flips, and his infamous, head-snapping, ballet-like 360* degree jumping spin kicks (I still like them). Instead you find him just using ordinary street fighting techniques, wrestling and getting slammed around half the time. Everyone knows the old saying that a person is the sum of his or her experiences. Well, Van Damme proves it. Kyle LeBlanc (Van Damme)is an American resident alien worker at a Russian engineering plant who plans a vacation with his wife. Tragically, things come crashing down that same evening when his wife is brutally murdered. After the trial results in the killer's acquittal, Kyle, in a fit of rage, guns him down and the guard (by accident). The Russian court unjustly finds him guilty and sentences him to life imprisonment. This is one example of how often too many times politics is thrown into the legal system, American or Russian. Once Kyle sets foot in Kravai (the most notoriously brutal and corrupt prison in Russia), he instantly bears witness to man's inhumanity toward's his fellow man. After being accosted by both violent inmates and sadistic guards, Van Damme slowly turns into a savage monster. The evil warden and his cohorts notices that and forces him to participate in an illegal fighting program. Van Damme not only has to fight for his life, but to also retain his humanity and sanity. I think for a DTV movie Van Damme proved he could be a great actor. He did not play the one-dimensional shallow superhero. In Hell shows us how cruelty can build and at the same time undo a man physically, mentally and spiritually. Here is man who just about reaches the end of his rope, yet he has something to fight for: the memory of his wife still shines on him, in the form of a moth. NFL great Lawrence Taylor does a great job as 451, giving the film the philosophical context. Taylor's 451 reminds me of an ancient proverb: those that harm can teach. While 451 was outwardly a remorseless psychopath, he had in fact held on to what humanity he had left (you will find out how 451 ended in Kravai later). While In Hell is not a silver screen film, it still a great film.