Enemies Closer - Nemici giurati

Finally watched this. I enjoyed it. The highlight is easily JC's performance, which is one of his best in my opinion. His villain is so wacky and over the top...almost like he was channeling Klaus Kinski or something. Another plus the movie had going for it was the pacing. Once it gets going, it doesn't slow down at all. It almost goes by too fast since it's only 85 minutes. Something I was kind of surprised with was how much JC was actually in it. I mean, this felt like a Van Damme movie! Not just a minute of screen time here and there. He 100% felt like the lead to me. I didn't mind Tom Everett Scott at all. Yeah, his character was a bit of a pussy and he isn't the first actor you would think of for an action role but it was just nice seeing a familiar Hollywood face...and acting wise, I thought he was fine. I would take him as a co star any day of the week over a Randy Couture type. Same goes for Orlando Jones. Everyone else, with the exception of the old guy that lived in the cabin, is a typical generic JCVD direct-to-video co star.

Production wise, I really liked the night time shooting. It hid the tiny budget pretty damn well and it just looked cool in general, I thought. The movie did have a few flaws that were annoying. For starters, Kris Van Varenberg was completely miscast and unconvincing as usual and every time that Linzey Cocker opened her mouth I wanted to hang myself! Also, some of the doubling was overly visible in some shots which is always irritating.

Overall, it may have been a bit of a let down considering that Peter Hyams gave us two of JC's best, but Enemies Closer is still WORLDS better than most other recent JCVD movies. It's a fun little action flick and I could easily re-watch it. 3.25/5

'ENEMIES CLOSER': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Jean-Claude Van Damme and director Peter Hyams team up for the third time (after 1994's 'TIMECOP' and 1995's 'SUDDEN DEATH') to make this 'buddy action movie', with Van Damme once again playing the bad guy. It also stars Tom Everett Scott and Orlando Jones as it's action hero leads and co-stars Linzey Cocker and Van Damme's son Kristopher Van Varenberg (who appears in all of his father's films as of late). The script was written by first time film writers Eric and James Bromberg and their inexperience shows. The most clever thing the filmmakers came up with (for this movie) is it's title; which is about the two main characters being enemies at first and having to team up to fight a more dangerous foe (referring to the popular phrase 'keep your friends close and your enemies closer'). People don't watch a Van Damme movie for the writing usually though, if you're a fan of his performances you won't be disappointed here (it's one of his better ones).

The story is set on the US-Canadian border where (as the film opens) a plane goes down containing a large shipment of drugs. Van Damme plays Xander, a crazy drug dealer who leads his ruthless cartel into the forest, near by the crash, to retrieve the missing drugs. Everett Scott plays an Ex-Navy SEAL turned forest ranger named Henry who becomes Xander's biggest obstacle. Henry's biggest obstacle (at first) is surviving the attempts on his life by a man named Clay (Jones), who blames Henry for the death of his brother (during combat). Henry and Clay must of course put their differences aside in order to outwit Xander, and his men, and save a young woman (Cocker) who recently took a liking to the ranger.

It's interesting how Van Damme went from always playing the good guy hero in B action flicks to always playing the villain (in B action flicks). He started out his acting career playing the main bad guy in the 1986 karate film 'NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER' and the 1988 martial arts action movie 'BLACK EAGLE' but after he hit it big as the hero of 'BLOOD SPORT' (also in 1988) he became known as a likable good guy. Ever since then he's kept that image in movies, until his turn in 2012's 'THE EXPENDABLES 2'. He followed that up (the same year) by turning his good guy role (Luc Deveraux) in the 'UNIVERSAL SOLDIER' franchise into the bad guy in the fourth film 'UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING'. Now, with his performance in this movie, it seems like he loves playing the villain; he's so over the top and darkly comedic that he steals every scene he's in. He's the only real reason to see this movie (that and Hyams direction; he used to be a really good director). Everett Scott is horrible as the action hero lead (in this) and Jones is wasted. The young Van Damme and Cocker are all right but their parts are too small. The movie is worth seeing for Van Damme though; you'll love it if you're a fan!

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Van Damme is one of the few big action stars today whose acting actually improves over time. Back in his Kickboxer days, he had some unintentionally hilarious line-readings, but he always had a boyish charm that helped keep his movies afloat even when there wasn't any action happening on the screen. Now, he's a perfectly capable, legitimate actor. His English has improved immensely which has a lot to do with it, but you can tell that he still has a genuine passion for acting (unlike guys like Bruce Willis who look bored whenever they're on camera). Enemies Closer sees Van Damme as a villain once again playing Xander, who looks like a French-Canadian Joker esque madman, and he milks the role for all it's worth. He's a joy to watch. Whether he's barking orders to his henchmen or whimsically taunting the protagonist, Van Damme is eccentric and arresting for every moment that he's on screen. When he's not on screen, the life is sucked right out of the movie.

Everything else about this movie is bad. The protagonist is terrible, the dialogue is cringeworthy, every plot development feels forced and fabricated, even the lighting stood out to me as being exceptionally awful. You can barely see what the hell's going on half the time. The fight scenes, when they do happen, are entertaining enough. They're haphazardly edited though, which makes it hard to focus on anything for longer than half a second. And again, whenever Van Damme isn't on screen, the movie's momentum grinds to a dead stop. It's like watching a stage play and Van Damme is the hammy over-the-top lead gleefully dancing around the stage while everyone else is standing still in the background drearily reading off of cue cards.

If you're a die-hard Van Damme fan, go ahead and fast-forward through every scene he's not in. You won't miss anything important and you'll save yourself a lot of cringing and facepalming. His entrance and exit scenes in the film are particularly memorable and he's given a couple of fun villainous monologues. It's hard to fully enjoy Enemies Closer as a B-movie because it's so sloppy and gloomy; it never knows what tone to go for. And it doesn't help that none of the actors share the same conviction as Van Damme. The movie is mercifully short though, so if you are in the mood to watch Van Damme play the Joker and don't mind sitting through some atrocious dialogue-driven scenes, Enemies Closer isn't the worst way to spend 85 minutes.

Just watched this and was not expecting much as JCVD's movies seem to be cheap these days and shot somewhere depressing in eastern Europe and badly cast with the exception of 6 bullets witch was halfway decent at a push. well enemies closer is by far the best JCVD movie excluding his role in Sly's Expendables sequel which was also cool. the cast in this movie is a lot better i really enjoyed Orlando Jones in this iv never seen him in anything before tom Everett scott was probably the weakest character not that he's a bad actor he just seemed the least likeliest guy to play the part he did. However Mr Van Damme was awesome i really enjoyed his character he was a nut bag he seemed really into it there was plenty of action good fight scenes and a decent plot to follow with a little twist JCVD seems to have a new handle at acting without having to Kick his way around a movie it was good to see him in a decent flick. its not the 80's van damme but the guys nearly a senior citizen. there's a sub plot also with JCVD's passion for our planet and nature he makes a really good effort and why not good for him. i applaud this movie and would recommend it. a good 7/10

"Nothings gonna stop this thing, you hear me." Henry (Scott) is a former Navy Seal who is working as a forest ranger on the US/Canadian border. When a drug cartel led by Xander (Van Damme) shows up they want help finding their drug shipment that has gone missing. At the same time someone connected to Henry's past shows up with a grudge against him looking for revenge. This is a hard movie to review. It is a Van Damme movie so you know what to expect even though this is a little different then most of his recent films. The big difference in this is that he is a bad guy. I think its because of his age but the action sequences in his new movies aren't nearly as cool as they used to be. The movie itself though isn't that terrible and in terms of B movies its OK. The most interesting aspect is between Henry and the man who threatens him. Its pretty predictable but in a Van Damme movie that is expected. Overall, Van Damme fans will like this, everyone else may enjoy it. I expected worse. I give this a C+