Well it looks like the Van Damme curse is still attached. He's managed to make bad movies with all sorts of top Hong Kong talent as well as some pretty good U.S. directors... and still he keeps on kicking and doing the splits. Van Damme is that mute action guy in an ensemble film not centered around him... and that is how he should probably be used on film. I just don't believe he has the charisma or skill to hold an audience's attention for the length of a feature. Maybe it is just me... but... well, here we have a couple of reviews from the first look at REPLICANT... Van Damme's Ringo Lam flick... now Ringo can kick ass as a director... but there's that Van Damme curse thing... Well, let's hope for the best I suppose...
Oh man, Harry,
Just got back from a screening of Van Damme's upcoming Ringo Lam flick, "Replicant". Jeez, you know, let's be honest. Van Damme is not an actor's actor, but as an action star, he can be damn impressive. He's done some really good moves, and some of us actually still root for him to pull off some bit of coolness in his movies again. If only... if only he had the combination of right director and well-tailored script perfectly suited to his easy charm, maybe... maybe if he dropped some money of his own to hire a really good screenwriter, he might have something. Well I'm sorry to say but this ain't the Van Damme movie we all want to see.
The basic set-up is this (try to put "Blade Runner" out of mind, this one is far from it). Van Damme plays a vicious murderer. In order to track him down (which apparently isn't too hard in this movie, well, his apartment anyway), he is cloned. A cop, played by Michael Rooker is after the killer for the murder of his son. So with no interest in explaining the cloning of humans, Van Damme, aka "Number 1" springs from the DNA in the killer's hair. Rooker immediately gets "custody" of the clone in order to help him find the killer.
This movie has problems right when the clone is introduced to us. The cloning process is never explained as far as what humans are like when they just step off the "assembly line". I guess this gives the filmmakers license to decide that clones are dumb as dirt and act like Milla Jovovich ala "The Fifth Element". Rooker basically has to help this clone act like a normal human being all the while getting him to remember details from his murderous mind. Nothing too spectular or unexpected happens along this journey.
It's clear that Van Damme is trying to stretch some acting muscles, but here he just falls flat. There's a real actor in there somewhere, I'm sure. He's shown some chops in small doses in the past, except here he's just grasping for emotions and body language. It's the wrong role for him. Now just imagine a Van Damme action movie where there's not much action. Or where on top of that, Van Damme hardly talks. While Michael Rooker is really good as always, he shouldn't have to carry the movie but he's put in that spot. Not a bad job at that.
What this flick needs is a few more action scenes or two like we're used to from Van Damme, and perhaps an explanation telling us these human clones are *supposed* to act so bizarre fresh from the womb.
Wicker Man out, burn baby burn...
And here's Capt Orr's look at things....
Dear Harry,
Hello again.
I was standing in line to see Charlie‚s Angels when some guy offered me tickets to go see the New Jean Claude Van Damme film: Replicant. I said sure. It‚s only a night out of my life. Henceforth the Belgian will be called „JCVD‰ because I don‚t want to type his Eurotrash name. Its too long.
The film was screened at the Paramount lot in a fabulous theater. And it was packed. The film stars JC and Michael Rooker (who is he? He is the cop. He always plays a cop. He was in Bone Collector as the red herring) and no one else of note or fame. The plot is that there is a serial killer in Seattle (JCVD) killing women and the tough renegade cop (Rooker) who has been on his tail for the last 10 victims almost catches him, but is forced to retire due to his injuries sustained in the chase (or maybe because he is just such a renegade, it is unclear). But the killer likes to call him and taunt him about the death of his own son some unknown time ago. A mysterious Federal agency offers him the chance to catch the killer with an experiment they have been working on. They clone the killer and grow a copy that will have some of the memories and reactions as the real killer. So, will the clone lead them to the killer, or will the clone have that killer instinct himself?
You can hear the announcer say „Starring Jean Claude Van Damme That‚s the premise. And I was ready to buy into this, even though I could
only think about the last time JCVD played the twins role in Double Impact
(message to all actors, don‚t ever do this unless your name is Haley and you
work for Disney ˆ playing your own identical twin is suicide, it‚s been done
to death ˆ stop for the love of Christ! It really won‚t work). Jackie Chan
did it, too. All second string action guys seem to want to do this. I go
in wanting this to be good, and it almost is. It is trying so hard to be a
good film, and I think it could be saved if the studio listens. This was a
working cut, the music temporary, and some was snatched from Gladiator, but
it worked. There were some obvious rough cuts and I am sure there will be
some added effects. I know all this and it doesn‚t bother me, so here is
the summary review:
The film fails as a typical JCVD film because there are only two real fights
in the film and they don‚t last long and they aren‚t big and splashy (in
splashy I mean like the end of Universal Soldier with JCVD and Dolph
Lundgren, slo-mo, thunder and lightning, etc.) There are two car chase ˆ
like things where stuff gets wrecked to great effect ( an ambulance runs
over a guy in a wheelchair), but most of the film is paced like a cop after
a killer kind of a film. This isn‚t bad, except that they don‚t give you a
very compelling story. There is no victim they are fighting to save (like
in the Cell), they are just after him. It‚s hard to cross genres like this,
(is it a fight movie or a thriller?) and there is a reason most people stick
to a genre and don‚t stray. You know what to do and what they expect. But
I am sad to say that this film fails because Jean Claude acts his little heart out to be two different people. The
killer is bad. He kills young mothers and sets their bodies on fire while
the babies watch. He is evil and brutal. And he looks bent and scary and a
little like Glen Danzig. The Replicant is basically a baby himself, a
newborn with confusing memories of death and mayhem haunting his sleep. The
replicant is drawn to the mean and abusive Cop, maybe because he was his
first human contact, I don‚t know (this was an iffy part of the story). JCVD
plays the replicant as childish and innocent; afraid of the world but
curious about it. He has a great scene with a hooker where he has a loss of
control while rubbing against her, then tries to figure out what happened in
his pants. He also tries to avoid fights, and generally tries to run away
from trouble. He doesn‚t like pain or fighting, and I really liked that
about the character. He only really fights when he must face the killer.
Unfortunately there is no question about whether this clone will end up a
killer as well. Of course he won‚t. He is too cute. It‚s the Frankenstein
thing all over: he was created by mad scientists, so he must be evil, but
of course, he isn‚t.
So you have the replicant who doesn‚t want to fight, and when he does it is
more kicking and shoving and hitting in the traditional sense. The killer
side doesn‚t get too fancy with the karate either, mostly because he attacks
people much weaker and smaller than he. So you see how this doesn‚t work as
a big time karate movie?
There isn‚t much to spoil: the cop grows attached to the innocence of the
replicant, the replicant doesn‚t want to kill anyone, not even the killer,
who he recognizes as something like family, but replicant fights killer to
rescue the cop who stops hating him and cop has to be the one to pull the
trigger so that replicant never kills (maintain the innocence thing). The
plot points around the genetic memory and telepathy are convoluted at best.
There is no attempt at explaining this, or anything else. They are clearly
uncomfortable with the subject matter, even though you could explain it in a
minute or two. There really are theories about genetic memory.
So I know that JCVD films are for you to turn off your brain. I did that
for Charlie‚s Angels. In this case, it wasn‚t splashy enough to occupy the
eyes alone. In a thriller, the brain is an active participant. That‚s how
it works, we are supposed to guess where the killer is, or be afraid for the
victims. In a Karate movie, we watch a guy do the splits and that spinny
jump kick thing he does so well.
There wasn‚t enough kick for the eyes, not enough thought or threat for the
brain. But Kudos to JCVD for trying to branch out. He is putting some
effort in here, and he isn‚t too bad. He needs a better story, and try it
with just one character and not two. Be a bad guy for a change, or play
someone who couldn‚t fight to save his life. I know you want to, I can see
it in your big blue Eurotrash eyes.
See ya'
Capt. Orr
US Army Air Corps
