Enemies Closer

"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+

A low budget B-movie action film with lots of fighting to recommend it, ENEMIES CLOSER is a film by former big bucks director Peter Hyams. It stars Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of his bad guy roles, playing a crazed drug smuggler who sets his sights on tracking down a couple of fugitives in the woods.

The plot is a load of old nonsense of course, designed solely to pack as much action as is possible into the running time. Given the low budget nature of the production, there are few car chases and shoot-outs here, just a couple of guys battling it out in a darkened wood. It's one of those films where seemingly every character knows martial arts of some kind and the choreography is decent to boot: I was certainly satisfying by the plentiful and hard-hitting combat scenes.

Van Damme plays his villain as a comedian, delivering his lines with energy and wit. He's by far the best actor in the production. Elsewhere, Orlando Jones is a deadly serious man out for revenge, while Tom Everett Scott (AN American WEREWOLF IN Paris) a park ranger who finds himself out of his depth. Both are adequate and acquit themselves well in the action stakes. ENEMIES CLOSER is a silly but violent production that's enough fun for you not to care about its various shortcomings.

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.

This straight-to-DVD Jean-Claude Van Damme action flick is distinguished by a "name" director (Peter Hyams; '2010', and JCVD flicks 'Timecop' and 'Sudden Death') and somewhat recognizable B-list faces in Tom Everett Scott and Orlando Jones. I don't know that they make the film any better, but they certainly give it a sheen of credibility so often lacking in these affairs.

But the real star here is Van Damme. Years of hard living has left the once matinée idol looking like a hobo with a gym membership, but he brings a quirky energy to his rare villain role.

'Enemies Closer' is an efficient, moderately entertaining little action movie, and a good step or two above the usual straight to video trash flooding the bargain bin at your local Wal-Mart.

When I first sat down to watch this movie; I was certain Jean-Claude was going to disappoint me in his old age. Boy, was I wrong. While certainly not a blockbuster, This film is sure to entertain. At first Glance, Some of the acting seemed a bit cheesy, and poorly done; take for Instance when One of our female characters meet with the protagonist, I knew something was being foreshadowed by the way they had this particular eye contact; and of course was later revealed. Not many movies nowadays I can honestly say I would enjoy viewing again, this is one of those. And Jean-Claude's ending line was hilarious; most definitely setting the movies ending.