Double Team starts as counter terrorist agent Jack Quinn (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is assigned one last job, to catch international terrorist Stavros (Mickey Rourke) at a funfair in Antwerp. Sounds simple, eh? Well Jack hadn't counted on his girl (Joelle Devaux-Vullion) & his 6 year old son Brandon (Jay Benedict) being there, all hell breaks loose & Brandon is shot dead by Jack's agents & to make matters worse Stavros gets away. Now it's personal for Stavros who wants revenge, he kidnaps Jack's pregnant wife Kathryn (Natacha Lindinger) to lure Jack out into the open after the Government stick him on an island for failing his mission. Jack teams up with arms dealer Yaz (Dennis Rodman) to get his wife & child back & settle some unfinished business with Stavros himself...
Three of Hong Kong's most well known action film makers have all made their American action film debuts directing a Jean-Claude Van Damme flick, John Woo made the excellent Hard Target (1993), Ringo Lam made the average Maximum Risk (1996) & now Hark Tsui follows his compatriots lead with the quite frankly awful Double Team. The script by Don Jakoby & Paul Mones is absolutely terrible, to be blunt it's totally embarrassing. Double Team is one of the most stupid & lamest big budget action flicks I've ever seen. It's meant to be some sort of action comedy that just fails on every level, technically & conceptually. Where do I start? Well the character's are awful, Van Damme's CIA agent is terrible & the scene where he dresses up as punk to avoid detection is hilarious, then there's NBA player Dennis Rodman as the arms dealer with a heart of gold who helps Van Damme out for no reason whatsoever & I particularly liked his none to subtle basket ball references, terminology & one liners which have absolutely nothing to do with his character at all! Even the title Double Team is basketball term & don't get me started on that basketball shaped parachute which is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in a film. Then there's the action scenes which are just as dumb, I mean Van Damme physically holding onto a net which is being towed behind a plane while it is flying? What about the hilarious climax at the Colosseum? Van Damme has to fight a tiger in a mine infested area, OK so Van Damme won't trigger the mines but what about the the tiger? Has that been trained not to set them off also? Then there's the fact that when the mines do explode it destroys the ENTIRE building yet Van Damme, Rodman, Paul Freeman & Van Damme's son can stand behind an ordinary Coca Cola vending machine which shield's them from the intense flames to an extent where they aren't even singed & the vending machine isn't destroyed? What about the scene in which Stavros warns Van Damme about the car he has wired & not to drive it? Eh? If he wanted Van Damme dead why warn him not to drive the car? The best, most discreet way to find your kidnapped wife while everyone is looking for you is to take along a 7 foot tall black guy with green hair & nose, ear & tongue piercing, isn't it? European monks are computer literate & accept gifts from arms dealers, aren't they? What about the opening sequence which is never mentioned again & seems only half complete? Damned I could go on all day about how stupid & moronic this film is, I really could. The only positive is that it's not dull & there's plenty of things going on.
Director Tsui does a terrible job, there's so much slow motion & the action scenes are just stupid. Like the guy who fights with a knife between his toes, I mean why didn't he just hold the knife in his hands? The work out scenes with Van Damme as he bench presses a bath of water, these montage scenes would look embarrassing in a Rocky flick! There's a bit when Van Damme trips on some coke cans (lots of product placement in this) & as he flies through the air does some kicks & knocks a couple of bad guys out before he hits the floor! Van Damme also gets to kick a tiger in the head during a so bad it's funny climax! Damned there's just so much wrong with Double Team it's amazing, virtually every scene has something wrong with it. The special effects are crap too, the scenes with Van Damme jumping from explosions contain some really poor blue screen work that Doctor Who would be embarrassed about. Because it's so dumb the action is never convincing & it doesn't excite or draw you in. The violence is mainly just martial arts fighting & people getting shot, it's all rather comical & there's nothing new here.
With a supposed budget of $30,000,000 this is the film which basically ended Van Damme's career & sent his subsequent efforts straight-to-video/DVD. Both Van Damme & especially Rodman are pretty awful in this, the basketball jokes & one liners are literally painful to listen too.
Double Team is a crap action film that could have been great, it had the budget, it had a decent cast on paper & a good director but it turned out to be a disaster. Very disappointing, the only entertainment value it has is on a so-bad-it's-good level. Tsui made the much better action comedy Knock Off (1998) again with Van Damme before returning to Hong Kong & he's been there ever since.
Three of Hong Kong's most well known action film makers have all made their American action film debuts directing a Jean-Claude Van Damme flick, John Woo made the excellent Hard Target (1993), Ringo Lam made the average Maximum Risk (1996) & now Hark Tsui follows his compatriots lead with the quite frankly awful Double Team. The script by Don Jakoby & Paul Mones is absolutely terrible, to be blunt it's totally embarrassing. Double Team is one of the most stupid & lamest big budget action flicks I've ever seen. It's meant to be some sort of action comedy that just fails on every level, technically & conceptually. Where do I start? Well the character's are awful, Van Damme's CIA agent is terrible & the scene where he dresses up as punk to avoid detection is hilarious, then there's NBA player Dennis Rodman as the arms dealer with a heart of gold who helps Van Damme out for no reason whatsoever & I particularly liked his none to subtle basket ball references, terminology & one liners which have absolutely nothing to do with his character at all! Even the title Double Team is basketball term & don't get me started on that basketball shaped parachute which is one of the stupidest things I've ever seen in a film. Then there's the action scenes which are just as dumb, I mean Van Damme physically holding onto a net which is being towed behind a plane while it is flying? What about the hilarious climax at the Colosseum? Van Damme has to fight a tiger in a mine infested area, OK so Van Damme won't trigger the mines but what about the the tiger? Has that been trained not to set them off also? Then there's the fact that when the mines do explode it destroys the ENTIRE building yet Van Damme, Rodman, Paul Freeman & Van Damme's son can stand behind an ordinary Coca Cola vending machine which shield's them from the intense flames to an extent where they aren't even singed & the vending machine isn't destroyed? What about the scene in which Stavros warns Van Damme about the car he has wired & not to drive it? Eh? If he wanted Van Damme dead why warn him not to drive the car? The best, most discreet way to find your kidnapped wife while everyone is looking for you is to take along a 7 foot tall black guy with green hair & nose, ear & tongue piercing, isn't it? European monks are computer literate & accept gifts from arms dealers, aren't they? What about the opening sequence which is never mentioned again & seems only half complete? Damned I could go on all day about how stupid & moronic this film is, I really could. The only positive is that it's not dull & there's plenty of things going on.
Director Tsui does a terrible job, there's so much slow motion & the action scenes are just stupid. Like the guy who fights with a knife between his toes, I mean why didn't he just hold the knife in his hands? The work out scenes with Van Damme as he bench presses a bath of water, these montage scenes would look embarrassing in a Rocky flick! There's a bit when Van Damme trips on some coke cans (lots of product placement in this) & as he flies through the air does some kicks & knocks a couple of bad guys out before he hits the floor! Van Damme also gets to kick a tiger in the head during a so bad it's funny climax! Damned there's just so much wrong with Double Team it's amazing, virtually every scene has something wrong with it. The special effects are crap too, the scenes with Van Damme jumping from explosions contain some really poor blue screen work that Doctor Who would be embarrassed about. Because it's so dumb the action is never convincing & it doesn't excite or draw you in. The violence is mainly just martial arts fighting & people getting shot, it's all rather comical & there's nothing new here.
With a supposed budget of $30,000,000 this is the film which basically ended Van Damme's career & sent his subsequent efforts straight-to-video/DVD. Both Van Damme & especially Rodman are pretty awful in this, the basketball jokes & one liners are literally painful to listen too.
Double Team is a crap action film that could have been great, it had the budget, it had a decent cast on paper & a good director but it turned out to be a disaster. Very disappointing, the only entertainment value it has is on a so-bad-it's-good level. Tsui made the much better action comedy Knock Off (1998) again with Van Damme before returning to Hong Kong & he's been there ever since.