In recent interviews, Jean-Claude Van Damme has been saying his latest kick-'em-up epic, "Double Impact," has a love scene so the film will appeal to a wider audience, one that includes women.
That may be a nice sentiment - or it may simply be a mercenary sentiment - but Van Damme's idea of a love scene is a soft-lens, soft-core moment as he and newcomer Alonna Shaw roll around nude in a paranoid fantasy sequence.So much for romance.
But Van Damme fans probably won't care, since this film provides them with twice as much of their hero. That's right. Van Damme apparently saw Jeremy Irons as twin brothers in "Dead Ringers" and decided to play two roles in his latest movie. Let's hope he never sees "Kind Hearts and Coronets," in which Alec Guinness played eight roles.
Anyway, like "The Corsican Brothers," Van Damme's twins are separated at birth. Only in this case, one is raised in a Hong Kong orphanage and finds himself on the streets at a young age, while the other is brought up in Los Angeles by an adopted uncle (Geoffrey Lewis).
It takes 25 years, but Lewis eventually locates the missing brother in Hong Kong, now a tough, cigar-chomping smuggler.The L.A. brother, meanwhile, is a karate instructor who wears expensive clothes.
What minimal plot there is has them reluctantly joining forces to get some belated revenge on the man who had their parents killed. It shouldn't be too hard, since the Hong Kong brother's girlfriend (Shaw) just happens to work for him.
Along the way they encounter a number of rough-and-tumble bad guys, the most formidable being championship bodybuilder and sports announcer Cory Everson, as the female bodyguard given to leather hot pants and lesbian innuendo, and Bolo Yeung, the hulking martial arts bodybuilder who gave Van Damme trouble in "Bloodsport."
There is also a lot more gunplay here than in most Van Damme efforts, which may or may not be an improvement.
That the story makes no sense and is often more laughable than exciting probably won't deter fans, but it's also very unlikely to add any converts. Especially women.
"Double Impact" is rated R for considerable violence and profanity, along with sex, nudity and vulgarity.