Prisão Infernal

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.

Post the release of Timecop in 1994, or arguably Sudden Death the year after, Jean Claude Van Damme has churned out sub-standard actioners that even his undemanding fans have struggled to praise. His career reaching a nadir with the quite dreadful Derailed in 2002. He was literally stuck in the kind of straight to DVD hell that Steven Seagal has been in for the last 15 years. So it was something of a surprise to find that this 2003 film bucked the trend considerably. Now this is no rocket science head scratcher for the action genre fan, it's riddled with prison movie clichés and is as unoriginal as it gets. But it finds Van Damme filling out a role with more depth than the standard beefcake hero roles he was doing in his sleep. If this was a shift that he personally chose to do after having enough of the "for the money only films?" I'm not quite sure, but the result is a brutalistic action piece that contains possibly his second best performance after the critically praised JCVD in 2008.

The plot is simplicity extreme, Van Damme stars as Kyle LeBlanc, who along with his wife is residing in Russia due to work commitments. His wife is raped and murdered and Kyle is aghast as the Russian courts free the culprit on technicalities and bribery sweeteners. He's not having that so promptly guns down the man and gets sent to a hell hole prison for life. Here violence and sexual assault are the order of the day, with the governor happy to put on brutal fights to the death purely for his, and his friends, entertainment. Kyle is not a violent man but he's forced to become violent just to survive.

Yes it's a pretty formulaic as it sounds, you could run thru about ten prison based movies and find the best bits of them used in here. But it does work because of Van Damme's character. He's a good man thrust into a violent world, he gets bullied, he gets desperate, he is out of his depth. It's here that the film differs in the Belgian's career, for he doesn't flex his martial arts muscles, there's no high kick, slow-mo set pieces here. This sees him fighting normal man style, and this only after going thru a Rocky Balboa type training regime. As expected, the fight scenes are violent and Van Damme is immensely competent executing them. Hell! There's even religious and spiritual metaphors in here! I kid you not. In Hell is a must for action film fans, and certainly a must for Van Damme fans who gave up on him by the late 1990s. You will not be surprised by how the plot unfolds, and a couple of corny scenes drop in to say hello (ghost visitations, dear me), but you hopefully will be surprised at Van Damme's performance. And of course there's always some serious buttock kicking action to chew on as well. 7/10

In Hell isn't quite the Oscar winner, but compared to Van Damme's last couple movies (who are we kidding, almost all of his movies), it is a pot of gold.

Sent to life imprisionment for the murder of his wife's killer, he is thrown into the violent world of prision fighting run by the guards. What happens? Watch the movie.

In Hell is shockingly well made due to it not being the typical Van Damme-fare. He shows a wide range of emotion while holding back his martial arts and instead getting beat up in over half the movie. The main reason to see In Hell is to see a damn good Jean Claude Van Damme movie.

8 out of 10

Firstly, can I just say that this has to be one of the most unoriginal movies I have ever seen. It steals from just about every prison movie ever made, especially "Midnight Express", "Lock Up", "The Green Mile" etc, and with a bit of "Shawshank Redemption" thrown in for good measure. So, if this is the case then why have I given the movie 8 out of 10? Because it's the best Van Damme movie I've ever seen.

Jean-Claude's films are made to appeal to fans of the kind of action film that disappeared from cinemas about 10 years ago: the unthinking, violent, easy-on-the-brain popcorn fodder that he, Arnie and Sly used to churn out by the bucket load. These days, Van Dame is much like Seagal in that all their films go direct-to-video (or DVD, as it now is). However, where as Seagal's post-fame efforts are united by their awfulness, Van Damme has, with "In Hell", made a real effort to do something a bit different.

So, he has no real martial arts skills, and no cheesy one-liners. Instead, he actually acts, and it's quite something to behold. Okay, he's never going to win any awards, but it's nice to see he's making the effort. Director Ringo Lam shoots the movie brilliantly, making it look a trillion pounds when in fact it probably cost about 50p to make. The supporting cast are quite good as well, with no terrible performances rearing up to ruin the film. I must admit, too, that I was quite moved by certain sections, and you could really feel for the prisoners trapped 'in hell' (what a title!).

So, in conclusion, give this movie a watch, and enjoy it- just ignore that you probably know where the plot is going long before it's even got there.

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.