STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning
SEASON ONE
In his heyday, Jean Claude Van Damme was one of the most renowned action stars, a cultural icon nearly on a par with Schwarzenegger or Stallone. But these days, his passion has gone as his star has waned, appearing in straight to DVD non-entities, helmed by directors with delusions of grandeur. However, unbeknownst (to us all!), he's also a real life undercover agent (well, Steven Seagal was a cop!) operating under the codename Jean Claude Van Johnson. His old employer calls him in to thwart a massive heroin dealing operation, all to be controlled by a giant weather controlling device (don't ask!) Along the way, he must reconnect with himself, and come to terms with unresolved issues from his past.
Self referentially sending himself and his true to life current career predicament up, Jean Claude Van Damme has taken a subversive step with this surrealist, post-modern series, in the vein of work such as Being John Malkovich and Pauly Shore is Dead. It's great that he's in on the joke and willingly takes pot shots at himself, in something that will surely generate more interest than another one of his generic, straight to DVD non-entities. And while it fires a few too many blanks to be considered great, it's generally on the ball and successful.
At times, it's quite funny, but it's never really as hilarious or impressive as it wants to be. It suffers as well from a slightly wobbly, inconsistent story that doesn't always flow as smoothly from one episode to the next. It's an ambitious project from VD, the sort of premise he first capitalized on with his regular appearances in those Cors Light adverts, but which, like this, were, pretty much hit and miss. The absurdity and outlandishness of the whole thing keeps it ticking along, though, more than enough to hold you for just about all six episodes.
While there's scope for improvement in the next series, this first one has been surprising and funny enough. And, yeah, I agree, Timecop is way better than Looper. ***
SEASON ONE
In his heyday, Jean Claude Van Damme was one of the most renowned action stars, a cultural icon nearly on a par with Schwarzenegger or Stallone. But these days, his passion has gone as his star has waned, appearing in straight to DVD non-entities, helmed by directors with delusions of grandeur. However, unbeknownst (to us all!), he's also a real life undercover agent (well, Steven Seagal was a cop!) operating under the codename Jean Claude Van Johnson. His old employer calls him in to thwart a massive heroin dealing operation, all to be controlled by a giant weather controlling device (don't ask!) Along the way, he must reconnect with himself, and come to terms with unresolved issues from his past.
Self referentially sending himself and his true to life current career predicament up, Jean Claude Van Damme has taken a subversive step with this surrealist, post-modern series, in the vein of work such as Being John Malkovich and Pauly Shore is Dead. It's great that he's in on the joke and willingly takes pot shots at himself, in something that will surely generate more interest than another one of his generic, straight to DVD non-entities. And while it fires a few too many blanks to be considered great, it's generally on the ball and successful.
At times, it's quite funny, but it's never really as hilarious or impressive as it wants to be. It suffers as well from a slightly wobbly, inconsistent story that doesn't always flow as smoothly from one episode to the next. It's an ambitious project from VD, the sort of premise he first capitalized on with his regular appearances in those Cors Light adverts, but which, like this, were, pretty much hit and miss. The absurdity and outlandishness of the whole thing keeps it ticking along, though, more than enough to hold you for just about all six episodes.
While there's scope for improvement in the next series, this first one has been surprising and funny enough. And, yeah, I agree, Timecop is way better than Looper. ***