Review of Double Impact (1991) by Harry W — 07 Sep 2015

Boasting double the Jean-Claude Van Damme and the presence of Bolo Yeung, Double Impact sounded like sure-fire entertainment for a die hard fan like me.

Though I loved Double Impact the first time around, I must admit that my optimism has since changed path. This suggests that the less demanding fans of Jean-Claude Van Damme are likely to find amusement in the film's action, but those expecting more will find the title to be misleading.

To get straight to it, Double Impact is a film which featured Jean-Claude Van Damme in two roles. But even then, it does not have enough action to justify the novelty. It's truly a shame because the film is directly marketed towards the action junkie audience and not much else which is clear based on the overly generic nature of the premise.

Double Team has nothing to boast about in terms of story. Delivering promises of a generic action vehicle, Double Team is packed with all kinds of cliche plot dynamics and subject matter with little innovation. The central different between this story and all others is the use of two Jean-Claude Van Dammes, and yet it is so lost in pretending that it has a story that it forgets to do much with this. Double Team spends more time talking than it does punching, and this doesn't make sense as there is half the necessary action in a film with double the Jean-Claude Van Damme. Instead, the film puts them into weird situations scattered across a senseless narrative. For one thing, the way the story makes use of all kinds of ridiculous explosions make the film feel derivative of the Sylvester Stallone film The Specialist. And when the film is not causing explosions, it spends most of hte time forcing its characters to talk to each other as if the dialogue really matters. The narrative makes lame attempts to put character into the film by adding Alex Wagner's insecurities about his brother and girlfriend as a subplot, but it just ends up being a tedious distraction from a film which should be delivering more violence. Still, is the one plot device which is at least consistent with the dialogue because the rest of the script is built on plot dynamics that just come and go from the script, and the lack of consistent exhileration ends up leaving the experience as a very slow one. Frankly, there is no sensible story in Double Impact and nobody to care about it because the fans of the film don't expect any more from it than the writers do. But since that is obvious, there should be a lot more action than there is.

Unfortunately, the quantity ends up coming up short of me calling Double Impact a sufficient. It is all the more a shame because the action scenes are genuinely solid. Using both martial arts choreography and gun violence, Double Impact moderates a use of talented fighters and slick production values to create some powerful action scenes. And the credibility of them is boosted heavily by the fact that it is not afraid to show blood and gore. Frankly, everything in Double Impact is well choreographed and captured with strong cinematography as well as timeley editing. It's just a shame that there is not nearly enough of them to elevate the feature out of its thoroughly generic roots, or to capitalize on its misleading titular novelty.

But of course, much of the importance in Double Team is focused around the fact that Jean-Claude Van Damme is on board as two characters this time. But clearly, Jean-Claude Van Damme's leading efforts are not exactly remarkable. Even Jean-Claude Van Damme fans have to admit that when it comes to acting, the man has a habit of coming up short. Considering that Double Impact has him in dual roles, this fact is twice as obvious as he portrays Chad and Alex Wagner with two slightly different accents which both remain unconvincing in their own ways. Seeing the man try to play two different melodramatic plotlines and have chemistry with himself doesn't prove to be his best talents. But of course, the man knows how to fight extremely well. Even though Jean-Claude Van Damme doesn't fight enough in the film, whenever he is called upon to get up in the face of an enemy he does it with ease. Whether he's pulling the trigger on a gun or getting into a fight where he can emphasize the full extent of his techniques, Jean-Claude Van Damme's physical capabilities prove him easily able to deliver when he needs to. Jean-Claude Van Damme does his part in Double Team, even if his acting and screen time both come up short.

And like I said, the presence of Bolo Yeung is also a gimmick. The fact that Bolo Yeung essentially never says anything ends up giving him an ape-like characterisation in his movements, and it is an odd thing to watch. The man puts up an awesome fight with Jean-Claude Van Damme which should please fans of Bloodsport, and his intense facial expreswsions combined with his brooding muscular physique once again renders him an easy villain. Bolo Yeung does his part for Double Impact and proves his worth as an action movie antagonist once again.

Geoffrey Lewis doesn't bring much to his role as he plays an archetype so heavily with little to offer the character, as does Alonna Shaw. The difference is that Alonna Shaw at least brings sex appeal along which is clearly the sole justification for her casting.

So Double Impact boasts some impressive action scenes, but the quantity of them ultimately ends up coming up too short in a narrative which spends too much time talking and trying to build genuine drama even though it cannot escape its own generic roots, weak dialogue or inability to put Jean-Claude Van Damme's dual roles to use.