Directed by Tsui Hark. Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Mickey Rourke, Paul Freeman, Natacha Lindinger, Jay Benedict, Valéria Cavalli. (R)
Incoherent action junk from Hong Kong director Hark, who brought little of his ballyhooed filmmaking prowess to his American debut, matching up Van Damme with NBA superstar Rodman and sending them off to take down pumped-up terrorist Rourke. Van Damme flexes, stretches and jump kicks; Rodman makes a lot of basketball-related puns and sticks out like a sore thumb while trying to sneak around to get the drop on the baddies. It's dumb (real dumb, in fact), but isn't without some preposterous entertainment value; a live grenade placed in a hospital cart with a baby, a fake baby that's actually a bomb, a baby surrounded by landmines--what other movie has not just one but all three of these things? A legitimately cool (but too brief) fight with a henchman wielding a knife between his toes, a tiger chasing people inside a coliseum, an explosion as big and phony as ones that destroyed entire cities in "Independence Day"...too bad it's so shoddily assembled that most of the plot, motivation and movement is entirely senseless. Unintentional howlers and novelty value keep it above the level of dreck--just barely.
32/100
Incoherent action junk from Hong Kong director Hark, who brought little of his ballyhooed filmmaking prowess to his American debut, matching up Van Damme with NBA superstar Rodman and sending them off to take down pumped-up terrorist Rourke. Van Damme flexes, stretches and jump kicks; Rodman makes a lot of basketball-related puns and sticks out like a sore thumb while trying to sneak around to get the drop on the baddies. It's dumb (real dumb, in fact), but isn't without some preposterous entertainment value; a live grenade placed in a hospital cart with a baby, a fake baby that's actually a bomb, a baby surrounded by landmines--what other movie has not just one but all three of these things? A legitimately cool (but too brief) fight with a henchman wielding a knife between his toes, a tiger chasing people inside a coliseum, an explosion as big and phony as ones that destroyed entire cities in "Independence Day"...too bad it's so shoddily assembled that most of the plot, motivation and movement is entirely senseless. Unintentional howlers and novelty value keep it above the level of dreck--just barely.
32/100