Wonderful Movie

the audience applauded

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I go into Van Damme and Seagal films for the martial arts mayhem and there didn't seem to be much of that in this picture. Plenty of everything else though - car chases, a shootout at a Turkish bath, and Natasha Henstridge looking as fine as she did in the prior year's "Species" movie. The big bruiser Russian (Stefanos Miltsakakis) was a formidable foe for Alain Moreau (Van Damme) and didn't look like he could have ever been beaten in close-in fighting; he had to outweigh Alain by at least fifty pounds, probably more. Filled with nasty bad guys on both sides of the pond, it makes you wonder if our own FBI agents would ever get involved with the Russian mob. At one time I would have said no way, but after recent escapades within the agency I wouldn't doubt it could happen. Besides all the incredible and mind boggling punishment Alain goes through, I just had to shake my head at how easily he zipped through the French bank's set of protocol questions to get to his brother's safe deposit box. I guess Mikhail wasn't very creative. Too bad about the New York City cab driver, I got used to him doing his run at the mouth gimmick. I would have read his book too.

A surprisingly complex thriller from Ringo Lam, a noted director in the action genre, making his first western film. The amount of sub plots help to make this one more interesting than most, as throughout the film Van Damme is being chased around by four or five different groups of people, this makes for entertaining viewing. Loyalties change, baddies come and go, and the film flies by with many varied and exciting action sequences filling out the time. I liked it a lot.Thankfully, the film is not solely full of martial arts or just plain shooting. It's a mixture of both. The various shoot-outs are well staged and choreographed, while Van Damme gets to deliver some really hefty kicks to his enemies. And it's a memorable group of baddies this time around, including corrupt FBI agents, Russian assassins and the Russian Mob. One blond-haired hulk is virtually indestructible, and the three or four fight scenes between him and Van Damme are probably some of the slickest, neatest fights that Van Damme has ever put on film. The final battle in the lift is great.The characters in this film are slightly more fleshed out than usual, and the baddies at least have a reason to want Van Damme dead. There are also plot threads, including a romantic one between Van Damme and Henstridge, although thankfully this is kept to a minimum. Also, we get to see some surprisingly poignant moments, which are not necessarily laughable (although you may scoff). Jean-Claude Van Damme looks pretty old and tired in this film, but I guess that's because he was suffering from the cocaine addiction thing at the time. Still, he's as powerful and agile as ever (or is that the stuntman?), jumping through windows, falling from heights and generally being an all-round action man (but more believable than most, thanks to his everyday hairstyle and clothes, this Van Damme is closer to reality than in his other films). Natasha Henstridge is adequate as the love interest, but quite shallow really. The rest of the villains are all memorable and eminently hissable.However, the acting is not really the main priority with Van Damme's films. It's the action people watch for, and this film does not disappoint. So many different things happen in so many places (the film keeps shifting location), and there are some inspired set pieces (the entire bank thing is memorable), and even a fight between Van Damme and a chainsaw-wielding villain at the end. What more could you possibly want? I know Van Damme is not one of the most popular stars, far from it, and the general consensus is that his films are cheesy, but I'm just finding these early ones to be better and better as time goes on. MAXIMUM RISK is criminally overlooked and deserves far more respect than it currently has.

While not necessarily one of my favorites from his more "classic" collection (Bloodsport, Kickboxer, etc.), I give this one a lot of credit for creating an overall highly suspenseful experience, full of intense action/chase sequences, and with more of a story than many other action-oriented efforts in its class. The script by Larry Ferguson (writer of The Hunt for Red October and definitely one of the more respected people to pen a Van Damme movie) places storytelling over action setups and, in general, feels a bit smarter than the average Van Damme vehicle. There isn't any real mystery to the story, though: the revelation of Alain's brother and his affiliation with the Russian mafia is dealt with without too much buildup, and the story begins to revolve around Alain retreading his brother's unsuccessful steps to distance himself from the mob and escape from corrupt FBI agents. His relationship with his brother's old flame (Natasha Henstridge, Species) is interesting at first but is then more or less dropped into your lap. Nevertheless, the movie never loses a sense of suspense: Alain doesn't seem quite as empowered as other characters Van Damme was playing at the time, so it rarely seems impossible that he could be killed. Soundly-weighed production values by director Lam help set a good mood and the art direction is, at times, inspired.The film features a pretty good cast, including Jean-Hugues Anglade (Betty Blue) as Alain's partner and David Hemblen (Exotica) in a limited role as the leader of the Russian mafia, but the unexpected dramatic moment of the picture belongs to Van Damme for a surprisingly adept instance of silent acting near the end of the movie wherein Alain listens to a recorded message by his late brother. Ringo Lam would continue to bring a little something extra out of Jean-Claude in the future, even directing him to his first-ever dramatic award nomination five years later, but "Maximum Risk" is probably the most palatable of all their collaborations for its all-around strengths and mainstream appeal.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

It was once said, every single person has a twin living on the planet at the same time. In this movie our hero, Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Alain Moreau a police officer who learns he bears a striking resemblance to a gangster who has just been killed. A french officer called Sebastien, (Jean-Hugues Anglade) informs him of the dead man, whom Alain discovers is Mikhail, his actual brother. Deciding he want to learn more, he pretends to take his place. What he doesn't know is that his brother was a notorious, hunted gangster, with a girlfriend and is being chased by the Russian mafia, rouge F.B.I. agents and a whole slue of vicious men who want him dead. One of the worse is a man called 'Red Face' (Stefanos Miltsakakis) who has been contracted to kill him and will not stop until he does. The movie is jam-pack with dramatic, exciting physical action, car chases and harrowing bullet ripping confrontations. This film is perhaps the best of the Jean Claude series and will stand on its own against others in the genre. Easilly recommended. ****