Until Death - Fino alla morte

The picture packs noisy action , shoot-outs , twisted intrigues and characterization enough . It's exciting and tense , at time lackluster action film , but the violent confrontations, struggles , gun-play are well done in this routine actioner , being better than Jean-Claude flicks . The story is plenty of firepower , action packed , fights though is added an interesting suspense with attractive roles . Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a dirty cop, he's separated his pregnant wife Valerie Stowe (Selina Giles) and fighting to capture his ex-partner. His ex-colleague named Gabriel Callaghan (Stephen Rea) is working to become the new leader of the gangsters in local organized crime in Nueva Orleans and he will stop at nothing to get his purports and at whatever cost. Callaghan sends his henchmen after Anthony, who's shot in the head and comes very close to death, falling into a coma. Months later, he wakes up wanting to put things alright and becoming a better person, and better husband , while taking on the nasty goons . It's not the plan, it's the execution !. They put him in a coma, now he's going to put them out of their misery !. Vengeance Is His !.

This movie direct to video packs violent action , suspense , shoot-outs , and struggles , resulting to be quite entertaining. The main issue of the film is Van Damme himself , a very interesting role playing as a dirty cop who is hooked on heroin , and everyone dislikes him; because of a deadly set-up he is put into a coma, and comes out of it a better person , equally he awakens from the coma with the idea of finishing off his former partner . Suffering Van Damme plays finely a sad and affected cop called Anthony Stowe, a narcotics lieutenant addicted to heroin, he has a bad attitude, and everyone hates him, including his soon-to-be-ex wife, but later he changes the mind . Jean Claude Van Damme is stunning as action hero become a good man in this middling budget film . Long time ago he played big budget movies (Time cop, Universal soldier, Double team , Hard target) , he nowadays makes low budget and directly to video (Derailed, Wake of death, In hell) like in his first films (Black eagle, Cyborg , Bloodsport). Being accompanied by a nice cast , such as : Stephen Rea, William Ash , Mark Dymond , Adam Leese ,Stephen Lord ,Wes Robinson, Alana Maria , Fiona O'Shaughnessy, among others.

Financed in medium budget by the prolific producers Avi Lerner , Danny lerner , Boaz Davidson , Illana Diamant , Moshe Diamant, Danny Dimbort , Trevor Short who have produced other vehicles for two-fisted and violent heroes , such as : Steven Seagal , Chuck Norris , Jason Statham and Silvester Stallone himself . The film was well photographed by Douglas Milsone (Dungeons and dragons, Sunchaser, Body of evidence) in natural scenarios of Nueva Orleans , Louisiana, US and Sofia , Bulgaria . The movie is pointlessly energetic , occasionally intense and enjoyable enough and that's why it will appeal to real devotee Van Damme . The motion picture was professionally directed by Simon Fellows who made a Wesley Snipes vehicle (7 seconds) and he recently shot this ¨Until death¨and ¨Second in Command¨ again with Jean Claude Van Damme . The film will appeal to action genre enthusiasts . It is a decent film but only for the true devotee of the main actor . It's a must see for Van Damme fans . Rating : 6/10. Acceptable and passable.

OK, before I saw the movie I had no idea it would be so different from what Van Damme has done in the past. Guys, this movie is completely different from anything he has ever done. The movie is 90 – 95% drama and 5-10% action, yup, it's more of a drama than an action movie and it has a great story.

The movie's main character is Anthony Stowe, a Narcotics cop who was once partnered with Callahan, a man who has since become one of the most important drug dealers in New Orleans and who began his involvement in the drug business during his time as a cop. Stowe, still a cop is now after Callahan, his former partner. The great thing about this story that is similar to others that we've seen in the past is the fact that we don't get the whole story, only parts and pieces of it while the main story of the movie deals with the final part of the cat and mouse game between Stowe and Callahan. The movie looks great, in fact with just 3 exceptions, BUT, these 3 scenes amount to only 15 seconds, or around that, so they can be easily overlooked.

Simon Fellows is clearly a beginner at directing. In Second in Command he tried to create a feeling of revolution/war/chaos through the camera movement, but he failed because he overdid it, he tried too hard and in the end he made some viewers hate the camera movement and the overall style. Rest assured that he has improved tremendously with Until Death. He does some interesting camera moves that actually improve scenes and which ARE METAPHORS FOR THE STORY. YES people, FELLOWS IMPROVES some scenes WITH THE WAY HE DIRECTS. The way the camera is placed or the way the camera moves makes some scenes feel more important, bigger and BETTER than they are and enhances their emotional impact. If only Fellows would learn how to do the same for action, he would then be a much better director.

Van Damme has drastically improved as an actor in a very short time. And with Until Death he hits another one right out of the park, he gives a great performance, at a level at which others have won Oscars at and I am not joking. Unfortunately this is both good and bad. It's good because he can impress the audience and easily carry the movie and it's bad because EVERYONE else looks like an amateur when compared to him. Stephen Rea is GOOD, but he clearly did this movie for the money so does not try very hard. The actress portraying the wife is awful; she couldn't deliver any EMOTION, any impact along with her lines. Her role was VERY IMPORTANT in the movie and her acting was terrible, you can tell she either is an amateur (which is not the case) or not at all interested in the movie, which is what really happened since actress Selina Giles has a long list of acting jobs on her resume. Unfortunately her performance is the weakest of them all and she brings the movie down by quite a lot. It is interesting to see the best actor in the movie (Van Damme) and the worst actor (Selina Giles) at the same time on screen.

Had UNTIL DEATH had a better actress in the role of THE WIFE, a good soundtrack and a more emotional style of direction it could have been a 10/10 movie, as it is at the moment it's at 8.5/10.

It is a completely new and different role for Van Damme, it has small amounts of action compared to his older movies and it is a DRAMA, a type of movie that people might not want to see Van Damme in Until Death told me a great story, a great dramatic story, it showed to me that Van Damme can carry this type of movie and it also gave me a lot of hope for THE SHEPERD (provisional title), Van Damme's next movie which will be filled with action and which is directed by Isaac Florentine (Undisputed 2) and produced by the same people with most of the same important crew behind it.

This is why I respect Van Damme, he has grown as an actor and has created and put in place all the necessary elements to make quality movies. He has improved himself even if he is a DTV star, he keeps in great shape, has become a great actor and can still do some cool action, although he has evolved away from the action filled extravaganzas of the past (which is a good thing). Any new Van Damme movie is guaranteed to be good and interesting and the very nice fact is that his fans are disappointed when his movies fail to be GREAT and are JUST GOOD (as was the case with Second In Command).

Also keep in mind that I saw an edited version so the DVD might have more scenes, more action (a tiny little bit more), a better soundtrack and an even better visual quality as I saw the movie on TV in a TV format and aspect ratio. The DVD version could be drastically better, but even if it isn't this is still a movie I would recommend to anyone who loves a great drama, a great COP drama and some cool action from a classic star of the genre who has reinvented himself and who gave his best acting performance, a performance that I dare say is great by ANY standards.

8.5/10 on any scale

I watched this on DVD today and was stunned to see that it's a nearly scene for scene remake of one of my favorite Hong Kong films, the 1995 crime melodrama Loving You (ok, bad title) directed by Johnny To that starred Lau Ching Wan and Carman Lee. I don't understand why the original Hong Kong flick is mentioned nowhere in the credits but nearly every single scene and plot element and much of the dialog comes directly from the Hong Kong film. Until Death wasn't bad, but the problem is that Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't half the actor that Lau Ching Wan, the star of the original is and director Stephen Fellows is no Johnny To. The love story between the recuperating police officer and his pregnant wife is handled much more effectively in the original. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoyed Until Death (and can tolerate watching movies with English subtitles) seek out the original version, which was released last year on DVD in Hong Kong and can purchased from places like Ebay. It's a much better movie.

This was a dramatic and interesting film. It has its usual Jean Claude standards though such as Graphic Violence, Language, Sex, and Drugs. But hey, that's why I and a lot of other fans watch these movies. I thought Van Damme was a vigilante on the loose in this, especially when he came out of that coma. Stephen Rea is also playing his usual confusing and mean character who likes to screw up people's lives just like in Fear Dot Com, which was a stupid movie unlike this one. I had hight hopes for this movie and it came through well. Since I was little I have always loved watching Van Damme and Steven Seagal movies, I just hope that they keep up the good work! 8 out of 10

If you rent or buy a Van Damme movie then you want to be entertained, right??? As long as you are entertained then you would be willing to let the quality of the acting or script slide a little, right??? Well, I have to say that this film did indeed entertain me and Mr. Van Damme even surprised me because he was rather good, even with a script that went a little overboard with movie cop-talk. For all of his critics,I say, give the man a break, he is making an effort and trying something different.

As an Irishman I was as surprised as anyone to see Stephen Rea in such a film as I hadn't looked at the full credits before watching it, but he was solid as usual.

I don't want to summarise the film for anyone because I watched the film without knowing anything about the story except that Van Damme played a dirty cop, and I found the story to be very entertaining ,even in spite of the poor dialogue at times. Please, do not go along and watch this film with preconceived notions of negativity towards Mr. Van Damme, just watch it with an open mind, and I think you may find yourself surprised.....