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Review: Double Impact (1991)
The fast-footed and flexible Jean Claude Van Damme portrays a pair of separated twins seeking revenge in Double Impact. The initial thought to some, this writer included, is twice the boredom. Not that this piece of chop socky cinema is a great film or even worth the price of admission but Sheldon Letitch (director of Lionheart, Van Damme’s last action opus) keeps the pace somewhat alive and getting to see Hong Kong without a passport or jet lag is a plus.
Chad (Van Damme) works as an instructor at a rather tony health club in Los Angeles with Frank (Geoffrey Lewis). One day they are off to Hong Kong where Chad reunites with his long-lost identical twin sibling Alex (also Van Damme) and seek to reclaim a legacy left to them by their slain parents. In doing so, they wind up battling a bargain-basement James Bond adversary named Griffith (Alan Scarfe) and his Asian gangster associates. It just so happens that Griffith and his criminal cohorts who were responsible for making Chad and Alex orphans.
Chad has spent life being cared for and privileged; Alex has had to get by with his cunning, guile and fighting savvy (of course). He has gotten by as a black market profiteer; quite a world away from brother Chad. Alex reluctantly joins up with Chad and Frank to put the kibosh on Griffith and his cronies..
One has no need to give undivided attention to this typically tepid sort of tripe. Van Damme not only stars as the two brothrs but he is credited as fight choreographer, one of the film’s producers and writers. As a co-writer (wth Letich and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home co-scribes Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes), Van Damme is not impressive; and as an actor, he does not make a great impact. Pardon the pun.
Yet the guy doe have his fans who have flocked enthusiastically to see him in action, particularly in the overseas cinematic markets and the video/ cable arenas. No doubt the reason for the decently-shot Hong Kong scenery though we don’t get to see all that many locales which, along with a few of the fight sequences make Double Impact not exactly flop suey but it’s close.
Robert Baum is Currently a Bryn Mawr, PA-based film afficanado and pop culture junkie.
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