Pound of Flesh

'POUND OF FLESH': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in this martial arts action flick; about a man trying to get back his stolen kidney, in order to save his dying niece. It was directed by Ernie Barbarash (who also directed Van Damme in the B-action films '6 BULLETS' and 'ASSASSINATION GAMES') and it was written by Joshua James. The movie costars Darren Shahlavi (another martial arts B-action film star), John Ralston, Charlotte Peters and Akie Aleong. It does have some decent fight scenes but it tries to be a little too emotional, and overly dramatic, as well (which it doesn't quite have the resources for).

Van Damme plays Deacon; a man who just arrived in China, in order to donate a kidney to his deathly ill niece (Adele Baughan). He rescues a woman (Peters) from her attacker (Shahlavi), nearby the hotel he's staying at. She asks to buy him a drink, as thanks, and he wakes up the next morning with a kidney missing. With the help of his extremely religious brother (Ralston), the father of the dying little girl, Deacon decides to track down the criminals that robbed him, and get his kidney back. It helps that Deacon is an expert martial artist and former black-ops agent, of course.

I used to be a huge Van Damme fan (he was my favorite actor, briefly, as a kid) and I still enjoy watching his movies. He doesn't deliver a very good performance here though, because it seems like he really didn't want to be there (he can be a pretty good actor, when he's passionate about a role). Shahlavi, Ralston, Aleong, and a few others, do give decent performances though (on the other hand). The fight scenes are entertaining as well; and there's a decent story hidden in there too. The melodrama, and cheesy production values, do make the film a little hard to bear though, at times. It's not one of the best Van Damme films, but it's not one of his worst either.

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this is one of hell good comeback Van Damme witch is great before last terrible release of movies with van Damme like Alien Uprising, Swelter pointless movies ever made with Van Damme i Mean Enemies closer was good Pound of Flesh is mix Crank and John Wick because like Crank (2006)Jason Statham been poisoned buy gangs he has to run to keep blood pumping, find guys who did it and like John Wick (2014)Keanu Reeves when John Wick dog is been killed then he goes out there killing these bad guys who killed his dog.

Plot: Pound of Flesh (2015) Jean Claude van Damme (Deacon) come to Manila, Philippines to donate his kidney to his dying niece he was black ops agent he was spending his vacation and have found mystery woman getting attacked from and find Goran (Darren Shahlavi) was bushing Ana (Charlotte Peters)you have great fight with Jean Claude and Shahlavi fight each another didn't went for long but with strange picture to movie Deacon went to club with Ana had spending each in bed that night Deacon wakes up at bathtub frozen he kidney is gone big cut on his back someone toke his kidney he needs it back. his brother George(john Ralston)witch is annoying character an annoying Religious/Brother why is he part of movie ? he is just guy i wanna say leave movie your fired. that's good point of saying it to actor. Deacon is looking for his brother George who has daughter with Kidney Problem he needs his brother for what ? i thought Deacon was a Black ops special agent i thought he deal everything on he's own Deacon has person he knows and working with him long time Kung (aki Aleong) Deacon remembers he went to nightclub went back wants answers from Asian Girl saying threat saying i am going to hit you with bible i laughed

Deacon was at club start bushing and kick people in club getting bible start hitting the guys not of them the fights were good one shot single camera no cut to cut scene really reminds me of John Wick but it didn't do the best scene like that movie low budget very low budget.plenty doubles of Jean Claude like i mean like you see him fighting but in background you can't see his face just back of him fighting like double stunt i think lame idea still sucked idea i mean Claude is still fit he doesn't need stunt double why ? i had problems with movie when movie is not even Finished like poor green screen while driving in cars, gunshots were very fake specially background when you see Jean Claude that fake staff on his hair like white staff i can't even explain it well but it's like background of movie while they were in club and driving cars and gun shooting is not even completed. that happens sometimes still good movie but still worth of fun ride very easy story line still not bad as Swelter this is not best Jean Claude movie but i have seen better this. there's not much to say about this movie one of stunts when Deacon does the splits in Timecop, Blood sport, Cyborg this is one of amazing Splits does it while car is moving one of action scenes were low budget very low $7,500,000 but the fights were not too bad one of action scenes were very good but ending was just eh eh i don't want to spoil it i don't think this is one of best Jean Claude movies i have ever seen. but i thought it was better movie then Swelter (2014) trash movie, this is a lot better but with some problems with movie Darren Shahlavi sadly past away 5 August 1972 – 14 January 2015 i like him as great villain sadly past away so soon, he did great job in this movie as villain fighting with van Damme in 3 scenes in movie a lot of gore and pound i have enjoyed it 6.10 expect it's van Damme movie not like Swelter or Alien Uprising trash this is one of main role of Van Damme movie and you see him a lot more kicking ass all the way to end of movie that's it.

I don't usually write reviews for bad films. But being a huge Van Damme fan and loving his older movies, i thought that this would be a good film as Van Damme really hyped it up. Unfortunately the film falls apart very quickly. The most funny and annoying part of the story and most ironic i guess, is that they still use the Kick boxer line "Our parents got divorced i stayed with dad and my brother went with mom" to establish his thick french accent compared to the American accent that his brother has. The Acting was cheesy, mediocre at best. Van Damme probably was the best actor in the film. The story was a Van Damme story with a stupid twist, which would not have swayed the character in the end, but its the story tellers felt that Van Damme's character needed more drama and so we have the ending we get. The CGI was extremely bad. I couldn't understand why they had to use Green screen for the night club when in the next scene they are clearly standing in a similar if not the same actual night club that they just CGIéd before. Anyways, i hope that Van Damme fans can enjoy the film solely based on being JCVD fans

This Van Damme action picture displays lots of violence , action filled , thrills and fierce combats . It is entertaining , well paced and including interesting characters . It's thrilling and tense , at time suspenseful movie and the firepower , explosion , struggles , shootouts are pretty well done , including an exciting finale . It deals with a man's (Jean Claude Van Damme) heroic attempt to help a gorgeous woman (Charlotte Peters) in distress ends up with him waking up the next day without a kidney and plotting his vengeance . As Van Damme and his brother (John Ralston) attempt to retrieve his kidney and exacts a revenge , but the events go wrong .

This is one of Van Damme's better films . It packs violent action , suspense , shoot-outs, and martial arts fighting and results to be quite entertaining . Agreeable movie , thanks to tight pace , skillful edition and well mounted combats . It's tense and exciting , at time lackluster action movie , but the struggles and fighting are well done . Suffering Van Damme plays finely an expert fighter and ex-special forces contractor who undertakes a race against time to recover his missing kidney , acting similarly to 'Hard cops' or ''Assessination Games' . Enjoyable relationship among two separated brothers , finely played by Van Damme and John Ralston ; both of whom form an uneasy alliance to take down a deadly target . Van Damme is good as action hero in this middling budget filmed on various locations in Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada, Nanhai and Guangdong , Guangzhou, China . Here Jean Claude plays an ex- special forces operative , confronting nasties and using his martial-arts skills . Long time ago he played big budget movies (¨Time cop¨, ¨Universal soldier¨ ,¨Double team¨, ¨Hard target¨) , nowadays he makes low-medium budget and directly to video (¨Derailed¨ , ¨Wake of death¨ , ¨In hell¨) like in his first films (¨Black eagle¨, ¨Cyborg¨, ¨Bloodsport¨). Remaining cast give nice acting as veteran Aki Aleong , John Ralston, the early deceased Darren Shahlavi , whom is dedicated the movie and special mention for the unknown newcomer Charlotte Peters as a beautiful prostitute mistreated by her pimp . This film results to be a standard actioner , but packs interesting main roles , atmospheric action set pieces and fast movement . It's produced with middling budget by Van Damme , Aki Aleong , John Ralston and Michael Lurie ; being professionally directed by Ernie Barbarash (¨Ticking clock¨ , ¨Hardwired¨ and ¨Six bullets¨ , again with Van Damme) . Barnabash has made other Van Damme's notorious vehicles as ¨Assassination games¨and ¨6 bullets¨ . The picture is extremely energetic and to be liked for real devotees of main actor . It's a must see for Van Damme fans.

PLOT: 5/10 - The movie plot was fine. Nothing special at all. It's pretty straight forward, though that's not a bad thing at all if done right. And this movie doesn't do it that wrong.

SOUNDTRACK 5/10 - To be honest, nothing to see here, folks.

SPECIAL EFFECTS 4/10 - I debated with myself if I should give it a 5, but the green screen effects in this movie is used way too often on scenes that didn't need it. I know, it's a B movie, but there're plenty of them who does it right.

ACTING 5/10 Though some acting can seem shallow, most of it is fine and, sometimes, believable. Nothing new on Van Damme's acting (comparing it to most recent movies he's made); John Ralston does a nice job on acting here too. Some fight scenes aren't that good, as the moves are really badly done.

OVERALL 4/10 - Though the movie may look kinda cliché, it's a nice action flick, that's pretty straight forward in general. Some scenes might have some bad visual effect but, overall, it's a movie that's OK to watch, considering you know you're in for a B-action movie.