One of the biggest risks Hong Kong film director Ringo Lam took by making "Maximum Risk" with Jean-Claude Van Damme was believing that his hyperkinetic style would translate well into American cinema.
On that scale the film succeeds — "Maximum Risk's" action sequences are as spectacular as any you'll see in an action film this year. But the risk he took by working with screenwriter Larry Ferguson, who co-wrote the scripts for "Highlander" and "Beverly Hills Cop 2," wasn't worth it.
Like the other films Ferguson scripted, "Maximum Risk" is so full of holes that exciting stunts can't cover them all. And in addition to its ludicrous premise, it's so brutally violent that it almost makes Van Damme's "Hard Target" — a film he made with director John Woo, also from Hong Kong — seem like a Warner Brothers "Roadrunner" cartoon.
The film opens with a mystery. A stranger (Van Damme) who turns up dead in southern France looks a lot like retired French soldier Alain Moreau (Van Damme, in a dual role). It turns out the man was actually Moreau's long-lost twin brother, Mikhail Suverov, who was killed after he embezzled funds from Russian mobsters in America.
Flying to the States to find out more about the brother he never met, Moreau finds friends — Davis Hartley (Frank Van Keeken), a taxi driver who's also an aspiring novelist, and Alex Minetti (Natasha Henstridge, from "Species"), Mikhail's lover. He also finds plenty of enemies, including Russian hit men and some corrupt FBI agents.
As Moreau uncovers more of Mikhail's sordid past, he becomes caught up in a race to find the money Mikhail stole, as well as a list of Russian mobsters located throughout the world.
Lam, who directed the acclaimed "On Fire" series of films with Hong Kong star Chow Yun Fat, sure has a great eye for action. His cameras fluidly follow some eye-popping scenes, especially a stunning, fiery car chase on the streets and sidewalks of Nice, France.
Unfortunately, he brings with him the same overindulgence that marred some of his Hong Kong films. In addition to the over-the-top violence, he bludgeons us with an obligatory sex scene, strip-club sequence and sauna fight (the first presumably to show Henstridge nude, and the last presumably to show off "The Muscles From Brussels").
As mentioned before, Ferguson's script is standard, no-brainer action fare, filled with cliched dialogue. He did make one wise move, though, in killing off Mikhail before we have to hear Van Damme botch a Russian accent.
Speaking of Van Damme, he's adequate here, as is Jean-Hugues Anglade ("La Femme Nikita,") who's largely wasted in a minor role as Moreau's police inspector pal.
Henstridge, though, doesn't display much besides a vacant-eyed stare, a wooden delivery and her body. Much better is Van Keeken, whose jittery character is easily the most interesting one in the film (can you say dead meat?).
"Maximum Risk" more than earns its R rating with the savagely bloody violence and gore, as well as nudity, sex and a few scattered profanities.