Strong and Moving!

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

More Van Damme escapades, this time with an interesting set-up which is wasted in favour of a twisty-turning tale of deception, lies, deception, cover-up, two-faced allies, baddies, and some martial arts action. Pretty much what you would expect really. Once again, fans and critics alike hated this movie, but I thought it was all right, and nowhere near as bad as people say it is.The main problem for me was the annoying comedy at the beginning of the film (if I wanted a comedy I would rent a comedy). Okay, so it's good to see Van Damme not taking himself too seriously for once, but this comedy is irritating and silly, too. The fault partly lies with Rob Schneider, who goes over the top and just can't be serious, although by the end of the film he calms down a bit and isn't quite so annoying.Another annoying aspect of the film is that director Tsui Hark (who previously worked with Van Damme on DOUBLE TEAM) has to experiment with weird camera angles and slowing the film down in the action scenes, of all places. These shots are just out of place and defuse some of the pace which had been building up, and thankfully they disappear by the film's end. There are other glitches, like explosions being green, but these are minor in comparison to Hark's camera-trickery.Okay, so there isn't much of a plot, and it's basically Van Damme going along and beating up bad guys again. However, there are a few good set pieces, such as Van Damme and Schneider being chased by a mob of weapon-wielding wackos, and Van Damme taking them on one at a time; also, good moments like when a car flies out of a building , tips over a lorry and lands upright, driving off. Paul Sorvino pops up briefly too, and gets his arm eaten away by acid for his troubles.However, it's the ending where things get better, as Van Damme takes on all the baddies on a boat. There's a lot of martial art action here, plenty of violence which all gels together and has a good pace, and more bullets than you can shake a stick at. There are stylised shots of people being blown away and flying against walls, Van Damme sliding down slippery passageways shooting, and even some throat-cutting. KNOCK OFF may not be intelligent entertainment, but Van Damme has done worse.

Hong Kong director Tsui Hark (Once Upon A Time In China 1, II, III and V) first worked with Jean-Claude Van Damme on the incredibly daft Dennis Rodman vehicle Double Team, which was about as insane as action cinema gets. Knock Off sees the director and martial arts star once again teaming up to deliver a movie that simply has to be seen to be believed.Van Damme plays 'King of the Knock Offs' Marcus Ray, a shady businessman based in Hong Kong. When he and his partner Tommy (Rob Schneider) accept an order of counterfeit jeans to be shipped to the U.S., they become unwittingly involved in a plot by evil Russians to hold America to ransom, each pair of trousers containing a tiny micro-bomb that can be detonated by remote control.Knock Off rattles along at breakneck speed, the daft plot becoming more and more ridiculous with each and every scene, and with numerous characters switching sides throughout, the film can be a little hard to follow at times; thankfully, Tsui Hark compensates for his unnecessarily convoluted narrative by ensuring that the action is as exhilarating as possible, with brilliantly choreographed fight scenes and death defying stunts galore, including a wonderful rickshaw race through the streets of Kowloon and a breath-taking battle on board a freight ship where the massive metal containers prove to be just as dangerous as the enemy.Hark enhances his already bonkers action further with highly innovative visuals, the viewer presented with a dizzying array of impressive sweeping camera-work, inventive POV shots and creative camera angles that ensure maximum excitement. As far as the acting goes (as if that really matters), performances range from the good (Lela Rochon as sexy, sassy CIA agent Karen Lee), to the irritating (Rob Schneider doing his obnoxious comedic sidekick schtick), to the forgettable (Paul Sorvino phoning it in as CIA boss Harry Johanson), to the wooden (JCVD displaying his usual limited range).Sadly, Knock Off wasn't too well received at the box office, fans of the Muscles from Brussels obviously struggling with the film's crazy Asian style—a shame, because I would have loved to have seen Hark and Van Damme work together at least one more time.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

Though the jokey lines seem out of place, the somber tone of this 1998 action movie makes the political subtext more sincere and less grandiose than usual , One of Van Damme's best movies ever..Action-packed , cheesy , Whatever you think of Jean-Claude Van Damme's acting skills, there is no denying his acumen when it comes to career-development choices. Graduating swiftly from his early, funnier films (Black Eagle) to martial-arts contest movies (Kickboxer), there was even a brief moment following Universal Soldier when stardom beckoned. But then he chose to anchor his place in the mainstream by turning to Hong Kong action flicks, a sub-genre which largely supplanted the Schwarzenegger-Stallone heroics of the 80s. Knock Off is the fourth movie in six years in which Van Damme has teamed up with cult eastern directors, and his second outing for Tsui Hark after Double Team. It is of interest only in that this is far more the director's picture than his own.Tsui's imprimatur is apparent in both the convoluted plot (involving nano bombs and Russian gangsters) and the staging of the fight sequences. It has long been accepted that Van Damme's fans don't come to his films wanting the labyrinthine complexities of The Big Sleep, but they do expect plenty of roundhouse kicks, splits and at least one 'butt shot'. Knock Off has none of these, Tsui seemingly preferring to show off his own techniques rather than his star's. The fight sequences are often filmed in disorienting close-ups, while slow and fast motion, freeze frames and Evil Dead-style crash zooms whip up plenty of sound and fury to camouflage the central emptiness.

Knock Off is set in Hong Kong during June 1997 as it is returned to Chinese rule after over a century of British rule, as the festivities are about to start V-Six Jeans executives Marcus Ray (Jean-Claude Van Damme) & Tommy Hendricks (Rob Schneider) are paid a visit by V-Six Jeans American corporate executive Karen Lee (Lela Rochon) who says that half of their last shipment they sent to the States were knock off's. They get the local police involved & decide to raid a factory belonging to Eddie Wang (Wyman Wong) who was storing the consignment before shipment, it turns out that the Russian mafia have counterfeited V-Six Jeans with small bomb devices in the buttons which can be detonated at any time by remote control & intend to black mail the Government with the threat of blowing millions of innocent jean wearing Americans up after flooding the States with the knock off's...This Aruban, Hong Kong & American co-production was directed by Hark Tsui who had made the awful Double Team (1997) with JCVD but one year earlier & I have to say that I quite liked Knock Off, it's no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it's fun if nothing else & much, much better than the aforementioned Double Team. The script by Steven E. de Souza definitely doesn't take itself too seriously with many comical & light hearted moments, both during the action scenes & the dialogue. There are some neat one-liners as various character's trade insults, argue with each other & try to be sarcastic, Knock Off might make you smile on a few occasions which is probably a good thing since you can't take it seriously at all. There's plenty of action although it's rather silly at times but one could say that's more down to director Tsui than Souza's script, it moves along at a nice enough pace but it can also be a frustrating film. The storyline is weak & the disjointed plot is a pretty poorly strung together excuse for various oddball action set-pieces. Most of the character's are very underdeveloped, the Russian mafia angle in particular seems almost like an afterthought, the various twists are a bit underwhelming too & the main bad guy at the end just comes from nowhere & has little or no motivation. Having said that JCVD & Schneider's character's are likable & Rochon's feisty CIA agent with attitude is memorable.Director Tsui does a decent job here, he certainly injects the films action scenes with a degree of energy & visual flair. From high camera angles he has the camera spiral towards the ground to focus on JCVD, from placing a camera actually inside knock off trainers to see the glue & steams tear apart to various other cool little tricks & camera positions Knock Off looks pretty good & has had a fair amount of imagination put into it's visuals. The action scenes are undoubtedly silly, from JCVD holding off an entire mob of machete wielding thugs to a scene when he drives a car out of a second storey car park window which then hits a metal container, flips over & JCVD them drives off! The fights are OK but maybe not violent or bloody enough, all this comedy stuff is fine but when it comes down to it I'd have liked to have seen some proper action violence. There are many scenes which don't really work, many scenes which look silly, in reality wouldn't be possible & really do stretch the films already very thin credibility.With a supposed budget of about $35,000,000 Knock Off is well made & has good production values & stunts although the green CGI computer explosions look awful. Mostly shot on location in Hong Kong while the 2nd unit stuff was shot in the Philippines. The acting is alright, JCVD is up to his usual standards, Schneider is OK as the comic relief while Lela Rochon steals every scene she's in.Knock Off is a decent & fun action flick from JCVD, it's better than a lot of his recent output & much better than Double Team but it's maybe a bit too silly & the story is rather weak for it to become any sort of classic. Good harmless if forgettable & very far fetched fun.