Knock Off Review
by Craig Roush (kinnopio AT execpc DOT com)September 13th, 1998
KNOCK OFF
Release Date: September 4, 1998
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rob Schneider, Lela Rochon, Michael Wong, Paul Sorvino, Glen Chin
Directed by: Hark Tsui
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Entertainment / TriStar Pictures MPAA Rating: R (continuous violence, brief language)
URL: http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio/reviews/1998/knockoff.htm
If you were to watch all of Jean-Claude Van Damme's movies and assign a value to each of them based on campiness, plotting those points on a graph would reveal a decidedly downward trend. One might think, though, that Van Damme would eventually sign on a good movie, and that the graph would finally bottom out before heading upward again. But, if one thought that, one would be wrong. KNOCK OFF, the latest feature from the infamous martial arts expert, is so void of any redeeming qualities that it becomes questionable as to why it was even made. Even long-time fans of Van Damme's work will be disappointed by this one.
As always, with this sort of feature, the writer/director team attempts to cover up for the lack of substance by creating a plot that's overly complicated and rarely to the point. In KNOCK OFF, Van Damme plays Marcus Ray, a fashion designer working for V-Six Jeans Company in Hong Kong. He, along with his business partner Tommy Hendricks (Rob Schneider), happen upon some local mafioso who are in the business of making knock-off jeans and slipping them into the shipping manifest. There's one catch, though: the knock-off jeans are loaded with the ultra-high-tech nanobombs - tiny devices which contain the explosive power of a half-stick of dynamite but look like buttons. Bring in the Russians (apparently they developed the bombs) and the CIA (they're out to stop the Russians) and you've got a full-scale action movie on your hands.
That's about the one thing that works for KNOCK OFF: the action. Unfortunately, it's so overdone and trite by now - Van Damme is only following in a trend that was initiated and mastered by Jackie Chan - that it's not even worth it. This is a far cry from the explosive mixture of martial arts and guns that was so popular in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER. Van Damme never was very good on-screen, and now his longevity is beginning to show it. Unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's managed to turn out an enjoyable feature once in a while, Van Damme has not matured to any level of watchability in recent years.
Rob Schneider is thrown in for comedy, but his ability to deliver the sidelong, snappy one-liners is hampered by the poorly written script. It's hard to believe that this piece of writing comes from the same man (Steven De Souza) who wrote DIE HARD. De Souza makes unnecessary melodrama out of Hong Kong's change from a British colony to a Chinese protectorate, and this only emphasizes the lack of substance. Unlike another recent failure, THE AVENGERS, excuses cannot be made for the cast and crew involved here; Director Hark Tsui has not made an American film prior to this and Van Damme's movies have never received critical praise in this decade. Hopefully Hollywood dollars will now be spent on making more realistic and enjoyable movies after the sure box office failings of this picture, for word of mouth will spread fast and it will not be good.
FINAL AWARD FOR "KNOCK OFF": 1.0 star - a poor movie.
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Craig Roush
[email protected]
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Kinnopio's Movie Reviews
http://www.execpc.com/~kinnopio
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