Overrated

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

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

I had fun spotting actors who have appeared in Eastenders, the Casualty franchise or the Doctor Who franchise. Which means that although this film is set in New Orleans, it was filmed somewhere in central or eastern Europe.Jean Claude Van Damme is a rogue cop Anthony Stowe, a heroin addict, his personal life in the sewer, his wife is pregnant by another man and other cops do not like him.Stowe is hung up in nailing a villain called Callaghan (Stephen Rea) but Callaghan was his former partner who went dirty. When one of his goons shoots Stowe in the face, he miraculously survives but goes in a coma.When Stowe emerges from his coma, he decides to become a better person, he rights some wrongs such as when he betrayed another officer and rekindles his relationship with his wife.Until Death is a serviceable film, it never amounts to be more than a time filler. You have fun seeing Brit actors attempting to do hard boiled American accents. It lacks a lot of action because it wants to focus on the story. This is a shorthand way of saying that the action star is too old for for doing the fight scenes. Stephen Rea turns up for a glorified cameo for the pay cheque.

I was really impressed with how this movie was done considering the budget for it. Van Damme's lines are short and sweet as usual but his overall acting in this film is not typical of his earlier works in the early nineties. The fact that the film was done on a low budget is very obvious (most of Van Damme's work these days is straight to video) but for what the director had to work with, I really feel that he did a great job. There is so much more drama in this film compared to other Van Damme films that I was really surprised, sometimes an actors departure from their usual works isn't such a bad thing and I feel this film is proof of that. I would recommend Until Death to anyone who can tolerate low budget films, as well as anyone who appreciates Van Damage in all his greatness, and a little bit of a genre twist added in. Good stuff in my opinion.

I must admit, I only saw the last 30-45 minutes on Dubai TV or some other movie channel you can receive in the GULF. But I was taken a back on how good it was- For a Van Damme straight to video.I liked the story line, the atmosphere - and hey - Van Damme seems to have picked up a few acting lessons along the way. All the other actors do their best (or at least: not their worst!) I could not stay myself from watching the through!!! Maybe it's not a McTiernan film, and maybe not original, but somehow it seems to work! And we don't see van damme as a martial arts fighting machine, but as a normal cop with a (bad) history, walking around with melancholic guilt-ridden face. Hey - what a welcome change !! Honestly: definitely worth watching!!!

Growing up in the 90's it was almost routine to watch a Van Damme movie where he jump kicks everyone into oblivion and does a split in the process. This movie is quite different for he plays the vigilante crooked cop for once, maybe its either his age or the role but it was far from what I've gotten used to....and may I say this is for the better.In this caper, Van Damme plays a down on his luck crooked cop who is gunned down by his former partner and put into a coma. When he comes out of it he realizes the error of his ways and vows to take out the man who put him in this position.As the film progresses its unnerving to see Van Damme in a role that hit so close to home with his real life drug addiction, but still its quite a difference from his pretty boy savate kick days of the 90's.Stephen Rea rocks the role he plays, but the real star was Van Damme for once. As he gets older his days of diving through windows and taking on Bolo Yeung are over, so roles like this should become more common.The movie itself is a decent flick if you're into the darker cop genre so its worth a look 6 out of 10