La Vengeance sous la peau

Jean Claude has been doing very well in recent times. It is great to see him making a decent comeback. My wife and I took the pleasure of watching Pound Of flesh tonight. I'm enthusiastic about it giving a rating of 8-10 - The movie provides plenty of action which is what I'm mainly in it for.

My wife is a Filipina and we were happy to recognize areas of Manila in the movie. I have this feeling that I may have been around the area during the time Van Damme was visiting the Philippines. The beginning starts of a little rough, but when the action begins and the twists start to roll in...This gem starts coming together better. My wife cried at the end. The story was well set up and unpredictable. I hope these guys get back together again for some more kick ass movies in the near future.

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.

Let me start by saying that this was a fun action movie, Van Damme is, I felt really cool in this film.

He plays Deacon Lyle, a sort of french special forces contractor, who is on vacation in (I think it was the Philippines), I've seen it a few times but forget where it's set. While there he wakes the next morning to find that his kidney is missing and preparing to get it back.

I have to admit that the story to this film is very simple but I still found it enjoyable.

Jean Claude Van Damme is very good in this as Deacon, but I always enjoy watching his films.

Charlotte Peters is pretty good in her role I think this is her first film role but I found her performance exceptional. And she is very sexy too, she is a gorgeous Irish woman very attractive.

As for the rest of the cast they were good too. The action scenes are pretty good as well, all of the fighting was done in a way I feel was fresh and inventive, I realize that some of you complain about noticing Van Damme's double in the fights, well to be clear, couple years ago he suffered a mild heart attack on the set of "Assassination Games", so that's self explanatory, I am in no way shape or form bothered by this, besides he is getting older.

Anyway overall I liked this film, it's one of those sit back, relax and enjoy the body count type of films.

I give it a 6/10. A fun little action film and if your a Van Damme fan I recommend this to you.

The premise of "Pound of Flesh" is interesting to say the least. It's difficult to describe the plot without any spoilers. It unfolds in every scene. It's not a "mystery" per se, but if you think you have the usual revenge type b-seagal-movie you are mistaken.

Overall it is good for what it is. I liked the pace (not too hasty or abrupt), I liked the direction and editing, and the plot/script is good enough.

Van Damme got old, as it was expected. We see his trademark feet open 180 degrees as in many of his movies, but the stuntman was obvious in a few scenes. The green screen used in many scenes, including many scenes inside a van are distracting but I wouldn't insist on that as a serious flaw.

The newcomer (her 1st movie) Charlotte Peters has an interesting look that maybe give her some good roles in the near future but she need lots of training in her acting (despite the fact that she went to Drama Studio London, a prestigious drama school based in England).

The conclusion, that I won't spoil you, is satisfying, something that lack many movies nowadays.

My recommendation: Check it out. Is better than the 5 average you see here. I gave it a 8 to boost it a little. Might not worth such a high score but I think is better than other recent movies of Jean-Claude.

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