Review of Enemies Closer (2013) by Allan C — 26 Oct 2015

JCVD did not get the opportunity to do the splits between two widely separated objects, but this was still a better than average Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle. The odd thing about this movie is that JCVD plays the villain.

I'd also kind of written this film off as another low quality direct-to-video action flick, but was surprised when I saw Peter Hyams attached as director. Hayams has done some pretty cool movies before, like "Outland" and "The Musketeer" though his list of hit films is kind of thin.

Hayams does have the distinction of having directed what is objectively JCVD's most commercial film, "Timecop," though I'm personally partial to "Maximum Risk" and the ridiculously over-the-top "Double Team.

" To this movie in particular, it's kind of a mix of "The Defiant Ones" crossed with some backwoods chase film. One cop and a one criminal are forced to work together in order to survive attacks from the villainous JCVD and his drug cartel goons trying to get the two in order to recover a lost drug shipment.

The action is decent, but nothing special. The only real reason to watch this film is to see JCVD in an uncharacteristically goofy role as a crazy villain, which actually does go a long ways for holding audience interest if you're a Jean-Claude fan.