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Starring
:
Jean
Claude Van Damme
Michael
Rooker
Catherine
Dent
Brandon
James Olson
Pam
Hyatt
Ian
Robison
Allan
Gray
Producer
:
John
Thompson
David
Dado
Danny
Lerner
Director
:
Ringo
Lam
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REPLICANT
(2001)
Reviewed
by Phil Mills
Officer
Jake Riley (Rooker) has been on the trail of a sadistic serial
killer (Van Damme), who prays on the mothers of young
children, for three years without making any progress.
On the day of his retirement he is no closer to cracking the
case so decides to bow out with grace, leaving this madman on
the streets. However, he is suddenly offered a chance to
enter a secret government project which has created a clone of
the serial killer using some DNA left near one of the victims.
Working with the replicant, Riley must try to get inside the
head of the cold blooded murderer, hoping that his new assistant
can put together some of the pieces that surround each of the
crime scenes and lead him to his one true nemesis.
Jean
Claude Van Damme seems to be under the impression that it will
take two things to rejuvenate his cult action status; the
first is that he must play two roles in the film and the
second is that it should be helmed by a Hong Kong director.
After just missing the boat with John Woo's growing
international success (with the underrated 'Hard
Target'), Van Damme has shifted throughout the other major
Jade Screen maestros to try to create a masterpiece that will
boost the careers of all involved but, to be brutally honest,
he hasn't really done a film worth watching since his
collaboration with Woo. Let's face it, he will never be the
next Jackie Chan but Van Damme has qualities of his own and
excelled in the action era where the bigger the star's
muscles, the better. However, in this time of the
thinking man's hero, Van Damme has been left on the
sidelines, showing that even if the director can make him look
good then dire scripting or poor casting (did anyone say
Dennis Rodman?) can let the overall production down.
Having
said all this, in 'Replicant' he seems to have found a mix
that is more appealing than anything he has done for quite
some time. It's not action based and moves away from the
formulaic scripting that plagued his previous flops (i.e. -
"must contain jumping spin kick, the splits and Mr. Van
Damme's ass") and moves into thriller territory where Van
Damme has little dialogue but gets to toy with dual roles that
are complete opposites. Maybe it's an ego thing or
perhaps it's because 'Double Impact' (where he played twins)
was such a success that he enjoys playing two roles but he
pulls it off fairly well here because both personalities
aren't meant to be completely different so the similarities in
his acting are excusable. Michael Rooker, whose Hong
Kong connection boils down to an appearance alongside Chow Yun
Fat, also gets a big slice of the script and is convincing as
the stereotypical, criminally obsessed police officer even if
he doesn't appear to alter his acting in any conceivable way.
Surprisingly,
considering it was the star's real claim to fame, there is
very little toe-to-toe action involved in this film as the
main leaning is towards the suspense elements of the story.
The martial artistry that does appear is still quite nice to
look at and it isn't meant to be flashy or intricately
choreographed but it does the job satisfactorily. Van
Damme also rarely attempts to move away from his traditional
repertoire of kicks, giving the director the task of making
the face-offs more exciting than they actually are and you can
always rely on Ringo Lam to achieve this. In actual
fact, the real action award goes to Lam's usual high standard
of car stunts; in particular, the impressive ambulance chase
sequence that engulfs the finale of the film.
This
is a fun and occasionally original film that certainly does
nothing to damage Van Damme's image. Real kung fu fight
fans will be disappointed by the lack of punch ups but there
is enough to please the casual viewer and Lam's stylish
directing really enhances the dark and brooding atmosphere.
Love him or hate him, it appears the "muscles from
Brussels" can still churn out an entertaining movie.
Rating:
  
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