hyped garbage

Best movie of this year hands down!

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Double Team has to be seen to be believed. Hell, even the poster does. It exists in that delirious wasteland of the late 90's action genre, a place where anything can, and does go. As the genre evolved, the scientists deep within Hollywood's labs were trying out endless mind boggling action star team ups, even using a few celebrities that had never had a film to their name. In this particular twilight zone we get Jean Claude Van Damme and Dennis Rodman sharing a spotlight. There's a pairing for ya. Van Damme plays a counter terrorist expert who miserably fails in preventing an attack from dangerous villain Stavros (Mickey Rourke), and is sent to The Colony, where disgraced agents are branded with all the snazzy technology the 90's had to offer, after which being sent back into duty. He needs inside helps to track down Stavros, and finds it in beyond eccentric arms dealer Yaz (Rodman), a whacko who mirrors the man's overblown real life persona. Together they make a run at Rourke, fireworks ensue, blah blah. It's a crappy flick made noticeable by the strange presence of Rodman, and marginally watchable by Rourke, who actually gives Stavros the tiniest glint of surprising gravity, despite how downright silly the whole enterprise is. Loaded with cheese, dated special effects and clichés, it ain't no picnic, but worth a glance during an inebriated late night channel switching blitz.

With most of Van Damme's films, you know what you're going to get. Action, fights, a bare minimum of plot. The same can be said of this film, but it actually rises above being just another Van Damme vehicle and becomes something quite extraordinary, thanks to the work of Hong Kong director Tsui Hark, famed for his stylistic films such as A Chinese GHOST STORY. Hark brings a sense of unreality and circus to the film, as scene after scene is full of people shooting, shouting and punching each other.There's just so much going on all the time, this film leaves you feeling tired, drained, and maybe a little bit confused. The plot twists and turns into new directions every ten minutes; it starts off like FACE/OFF, then it turns into THE PRISONER, then it looks like MAXIMUM RISK, and finally it turns into sheer comedy with the climax taking place at the Colosseum. The film is full of over-emphasis, with small weaponry making machine gun noises, villains flying through the air, and Van Damme doing his usual stunt work. The case with this film is that there are some good scenes linked by much boring, listless exposition. Take, for instance, the hotel room scene where Van Damme is attacked by a ninja warrior who uses a switchblade between his toes. The scene is classic, breathtaking in fact, but as soon as the action dies down we're left in muddled territory, dragged sluggishly down by the bad acting on display here from the three main stars.Van Damme is his usual wooden self, and we don't expect anything else from him by now. Yes, he can fight, but no, he cannot act. Dennis Rodman, a tall basketball star with bright green hair, is good for a laugh, but as soon as the novelty wears off you soon see straight through the image and that he is, in fact, being himself, and not really acting at all. Mickey Rourke is suitably beefed-up in his role as the arch nemesis. He looks the part, and is in fact one of Van Damme's worthier opponents, here's a guy who has a real motive and who looks pretty damn tough as well.Much of the fun comes from watching various villains being kicked, shot and thrown through windows (courtesy of Rodman, who treats his opponents as if they're mere basketballs!). The dynamite level is high for this film, as just about everything explodes, and the whole thing is about sheer spectacle. It's decidedly offbeat too. For instance, where else would you see a colony of cyber monks, surfing the net in their rundown monastery? Or witness a climax where Van Damme kickboxes a tiger, while Rodman drives a moped through a minefield while carrying a baby along in a basket, while Rourke runs around half-naked and watches? It's wacky, certainly, and that's why I enjoyed it. Don't expect anything amazing (let's face it, if you've seen Van Damme's other work, then you'll know what you're getting), but this entry is different enough to work.

Jack Quinn (Van Damme) is a retired CIA operative who wants to do nothing more than lounge by the pool with his wife Katherine (Lindinger), who happens to be pregnant, after a long career of CIA operations. However, trouble rears its head in the form of super-evil baddie Stavros (Rourke), a longtime enemy of Quinn's. Stavros is so dangerous, Quinn must travel to Antwerp to meet Yaz (Rodman), a colorful, flamboyant arms dealer, to sell him the latest in hi-tech weaponry. After a shootout and one-on-one battle with Stavros, he ends up escaping once again, and Quinn is sent to a mysterious place called "The Colony" which is not at all based on The Prisoner TV show. Quinn spends most of his time at The Colony training and working on his escape plan. Once firmly out of the grasp of The Colony, he and Yaz team up to take one last shot at Stavros - who has kidnapped Katherine, and now his newborn son. Will Quinn and Yaz make the ultimate DOUBLE TEAM? Double Team is classic 90's Van Damme. The presence of Dennis Rodman cements the fact that it's classic 90's, period. This was not only an era in time when JCVD movies came to the theater, but when DENNIS RODMAN movies came to the theater. It truly was a more innocent time for us all. The fact is, Rodman's outlandish female outfits, wacky hair, silly one-liners and, let's face it, infectious charisma enliven the movie immeasurably. Director Tsui Hark brings that kinetic HK style and crazy camera angles he and his brethren are known for. Throw in some Mickey Rourke as the baddie and a tiger (during the climactic battle) and you have the enjoyable and entertaining movie we know and love today.During a big chunk of the movie, namely the "Prisoner" sequence, you might find yourself asking "where's Yaz?" or "this movie could really use more Yaz". The fact is, Rodman and Van Damme do have very good chemistry together, and there's certainly no shortage of basketball jokes and references in the movie. During the heyday of Rodman, he only appeared in two movies. This one and Simon Sez (1999). Fascinatingly, and inexplicably, both films feature "Cyber-Monks". That is, underground monks using modern technology. A quick look on Urban Dictionary for Cyber Monk includes this excerpt: "They have a strange tendency to show up in high-tech espionage movies starring Dennis Rodman. Some are known to dance." Whether they are in Rodman's contract as a prerequisite to him being involved, we don't know, but Cyber Monks are definitely a thing. And we don't know why. Martial Artist and stuntman Xin Xin Xiong is also involved with both Rodman vehicles.Double Team definitely delivers what fans want: wild stunts, a classic training sequence (but with a twist: Van Damme's time-honored split is done vertically this time, not simply horizontally as usual), at least one character walking away from an explosion in slow motion, and many characters who scream while shooting their machine guns. Because Hark is the director, there are certainly some odd close-ups and such, and there are many moments that are weirdly nonsensical, but it's all part of the fun. Plus the movie mentions North Korea as a threat, which was pretty ahead of its time in 1997.Rodman knows you can never get enough Rodman, which is why he also appears on the closing credits song, "Just a Freak" by Crystal Waters featuring Dennis Rodman. Maybe that's why his star burned brightly but quickly back in the 90's. But at least we have Double Team as proof that he teamed up with Van Damme back in that heady time. And the results are everything you could ask for.

Jack Quinn(Jean Claude Van Damme, who gets to do plenty of the high kicks that he's famous for) retires from being a counter-terrorist, is brought back(yup, the clichés, formulaic nature and stereotypes that drown every line of dialog and every other aspect of the writing in this come in right at the beginning) to take out Stavros(Rourke, who makes for a cool villain and comes off as a genuine match to him, in the realms of fighting and tactics), who used to... uh... well, now he's going to... hm... you know, I have no clue. Anyway, it goes wrong, his son dies in the chaos(this time, it's personal?), and JCVD is sent to The Colony, a secret(somehow...) think-tank comprised of former agents and enemies, leading us to wonder why they don't kill each other(and there literally appears to be no guards there... heck, even if it meant their death, they might be fanatic enough), they can move about though they have to check in at specific times. Along the way he also meets Yaz(...I know all three of those letters, but they don't go together like that), a world-class arms dealer(Rodman, who also gets to take part in the decently choreographed and covered martial arts of which there is a pretty good amount) in a… let's call it a bi-curious nightclub, and they throw in some basketball references(because, and this may surprise you, apparently Dennis dabbled in that field, briefly). He's only in half of it, but he can't act and at times he doesn't seem capable of shutting up(man, does he get to be obnoxious). This is full of over the top action where physics take a back seat, there is excessive use of Dutch angles, and, like Speed, exhausting if you're not in the mood for it. Is it fun? Well, if you leave your brain at the door, and you aren't distracted by really goofy, out of place stuff... like this weird "focus" or sixth sense kind of thing to both the hero and bad guy. And the tigers. This is actually downright hard to follow at points, because of how... dumb it is. There is brief moderate to strong language in this. The DVD comes with a trailer. I recommend this to adrenaline junkies. 5/10