Double Team

Plot synopsis:
Having successfully completed his final mission three years prior, which was to retrieve a truck load of plutonium stolen from a US military base in Croatia by freelance international terrorist Stavros, government anti-terrorist agent Jack Paul Quinn is relaxing by his pool in Southern France with Kathryn, his pregnant wife. Quinn is approached by a government representative who tells him that Stavros, Quinn's nemesis, has become active again and tries to convince Quinn to come out of retirement telling Quinn that he ‘can’t retire until he [Stavros] does’. Quinn is reluctant to return to duty but agrees after the same representative is killed by Stavros shortly after the meeting with Quinn.
Acting on intelligence received, Quinn travels to Antwerp, Belgium where he meets up with quirky arms dealer Yaz, who equips Quinn with weaponry and then proceeds to meet the Delta team put together to capture Stavros. Stavros has been tracked to an amusement park but Quinn hesitates to give the order to shoot Stavros when it becomes apparent that Stavros is meeting with his six-year-old son.
Stavros exploits Quinn's hesitation and a shootout ensues in which Stavros’ son is killed and Stavros is able to escape into a hospital, pursued by Quinn. Stavros and Quinn fight in the hospital’s maternity ward with Stavros getting away after knocking Quinn unconscious in an explosion. Quinn wakes up on 'The Colony', an inescapable, invisible penal institution island for secret agents.
Quinn learns that he has been sent to the Colony due to his failure to capture Stavros, that his family has been told he was killed and that only agents considered "too valuable to kill but too dangerous to set free" are committed to the institution. The occupants of the Colony are expected to help analyse terrorist threats and have to register themselves present every day using a fingerprint scanner. Meanwhile, Kathryn receives a call from an art gallery in Rome telling her that they would like to display her sculptures and that they will fly her out immediately. When she arrives, Stavros kidnaps her.
Whilst analysing information received from a terrorist bombing, Quinn picks up a message from Stavros telling him that Stavros has captured Kathryn and so Quinn realises he must escape the Colony if he is to save her. Quinn devises a system to fool the fingerprint scanner and is able to leave the island by attaching himself to cargo due to be extracted from the island from the air.
Quinn goes to Yaz, the only man who can help him, pleading for assistance in return for access to CIA bank accounts. Yaz agrees to help and the two go to Quinn’s house where they are ambushed by Stavros’ men. After fighting the men off, Quinn receives a message from Stavros telling him that he must go to Rome for his baby’s sake. When they arrive in Rome, Yaz learns that Quinn's wife is pregnant after Stavros delivers a sonogram of the baby to the given rendezvous. Quinn emails Stavros encouraging him to meet in a town square, knowing that Stavros will have to take the bait.
At the meeting point, Quinn catches sight of Kathryn in a car but is intercepted by Stavros before he can reach her and a shootout occurs as Kathryn is driven away. Quinn tracks Stavros’ henchmen down to the hotel suite where Kathryn was being held and finds a clue to her whereabouts — a prescription bottle label. Meanwhile, Kathryn is transported to hospital where she gives birth.
Using the prescription bottle and with Yaz's help, Quinn is able to track down the hospital where he finds Kathryn but discovers that Stavros has taken his son. Thanks to assistance from a nurse, Quinn locates Stavros and the baby in an explosives-rigged Roman amphitheater. Stavros leaves Quinn in the middle of a minefield with his son and then unleashes a tiger.
Yaz arrives on a motorbike and is able to snatch the baby, leaving Quinn to escape from the tiger and go after Stavros. Quinn and Stavros fight in the minefield until Stavros steps on a mine (after Yaz moved the markers) and is left stranded. Quinn, his son and Yaz run as Stavros is charged by the tiger and takes his foot off the mine, a chain reaction rips the amphitheater apart and Yaz is able to shield his friends from the ensuing blast by sheltering under a vending machine. Stavros and the tiger are killed in the blast.

Tags: revenge, cult, violence

Review:
Continuing the tradition of successful Hong Kong directors going to Hollywood only to end up directing Jean-Claude Van Damme movies comes Tsui Hark with 'Double Team'.
I have nothing against Van Damme, but he seems to be some sort of trial-by-fire for any Hong Kong director with ambitions of making action films in Hollywood: If a director succeeds, he go on to Dolph Lundgren and then mainstream Hollywood action (John Woo), otherwise the director is faced with sticking with Van Damme movies or going back to Hong Kong.Counter-terrorist Jack Quinn (Van Damme) is planning to retire after one final mission to nail the villainous Stavros (Mickey Rourke).
Out for revenge, Stavros kidnaps the pregnant Kathryn Quinn (Natacha Lindinger), and the only way Jack can save is wife is team up with Yaz (Dennis Rodman) and kick-box his way to a happy ending.Watching 'Double Team', I thought it was pretty clear than even Van Damme realizes that his movies are a joke to all but the most hardcore of action fans.
All it really amounts to be is 90 minutes of action fun.While fans of director Tsui Hark would be disappointed with this effort, something good came of Hark's short-lived collaborations with Van Damme: He went back to Hong Kong and directed the incredibly awesome 'Time and Tide' (which did not feature Jean-Claude Van Damme at all).'Double Team' doesn't come to close to being one of Van Damme's best, and it might not even please hard-core Van Damme fans, but its all in good fun - 5/10.
A brilliant story line and Damme good action are what really bring this movie together, the action scenes are like watching Michelangelo's David take shape and all you can do is stand in awe at it's beauty.
Double Team is the third movie that Van Damme has done for a former HONG-KONG action-movie director.
Double Team is the third movie that Van Damme has done for a former HONG-KONG action-movie director.
I actually really enjoyed this JCVD effort, it a had a fair but of money thrown at it in this case $30m plus, it's stylishly filmed, JCVD is as wooden as ever, but there's plenty of action which is what you want in a JCVD flick, and I even don't mind Rodman's performance, he's far from being the worst actor I've ever seen, but the worst part of this movie is that it becomes needlessly complicated especially on the 'Island' which is a reference surely to the 1960's cult TV show with the now late Patrick Mcgoohan.
After he gets off the Island he has to track down the awesomely evil villain Stavros(Mickey Rourke) with the help of wacky sidekick Yaz(Dennis Rodman).I wont give too much away because you have to see this film for yourself, really.
Wise choice from Dennis Rodman; if you don't want to look bad as an actor, star opposite Jean Claude Van Damme.
And the misplaced attempts at humor didn't really work in favor of the movie.Jean Claude Van Damme delivers his usual action and martial arts, but the script didn't give him much to Work with.
i can see why people hate this movie so bad i know it's a bit silly and i am Big Fan Of Jean Claude Van Damme and Mickey Rourke and Dennis Rodman was Awesome and Funny but not much as Action Star didn't do much of Movies and in this movie was pretty awesome seeing Van Damme fighting with Rourke and movie wasn't that bad come on if your fan van Damme fan you should enjoy this movie it's fun Movie i don't care what people say and the opening scene when van damme driving the big truck in opening scene was cool and part in of Dennis was funny but they could of got Wesley Snipes rather then Dennis Rodman but it doesn't matter it's still good idea for me and Quinn escapes from the colony and goes after Stavroes for revenge.
Quinn is helped by Yaz Dennis Rodman Double Team they helping each another in mission to get his wife and baby and fight scenes with Van and Mickey was Awesome but i know Mickey Rourke doesn't like van Damme with some reason i don't know about but the fight scenes was fun didn't go for that long but you don't need to see long as showdown when van Damme fights were amazing like in Bloodsport if you enjoy Hard Target and Double Impact and Knock off and Kickboxer and Bloodsport this is fun movie that you will Enjoy for Van Damme Fans like this only 4.4 i will give this 10.10.
And now i come to the great director Tsui Hark ( i know if you just seen this film and his other movie starting Van Damme Knock Off you could be asking yourself "great director my ---") the director who gave us Once upon a time in china 1,2,3,4,5 and Pecking Opera Blues and other great hong kong movies.
But after a number if re-writes, the script had changed from a dark action flick into a more cartoon like action flick and this is clearly seen in the movie.Mickey Rourke and Van Damme set the pace for a very thrilling film in the first 30 minutes until Dennis Rodman rears his ugly head and destroys the movie.
But Double Team is completely different on all levels.Forget the fact that like any Van Damme movie, all character and plot development are non-existent, this movie still finds a way to suck to a new level.
I realize that a lot of people actually enjoyed "Double Team", that its director Tsui Hark is a talented and hard working fellow responsible for some outstanding Hong Kong cinema in years past, and that Jean Claude Van Damme has at least managed to stay pretty buff even as his career declined (unlike his contemporary Steven "Make Mine KFC" Seagal).
But "Double Team" sounded the Death Knell for Van Damme's movie career, which was finished off and consigned to direct-to-video Hell by Hark's follow up "Knock Off" in 1998.
It's cool, that with Van Damme's martial arts background - a black belt in Shotokan Karate, several middleweight full-contact Karate titles, and training in ballet (yes, ballet), which makes his kicks and flexibility defy normal-person standards (not to mention the fact that's he's just one of the most impressively-built men in the world) - his film career would pan out better."Double Team," directed by the Hong Kong veteran Tsui Hark, is Van Damme's first foray into the world of Asian/American cinema.
The plot is incoherent and insensible, with even worse script-writing and acting (the last is a moot point, but you understand).Van Damme is Jack Quinn, one of the world's leading counter-terrorist experts, who is leading an operation to nab master terrorist Stavros (a plastic-looking Mickey Rourke).
Of course, no prison can hold Quinn, who meticulously engineers his escape in one brilliant sequence (the best one in the entire film, in fact), teams up with flamboyant arms-dealer Yaz (Color-me-bad former San Antonio Spurs basketball sensation Dennis Rodman) and together the two go after Stavros, who has kidnapped Quinn's pregnant wife and is threatening to kill her once the baby is born and then raise it has his own."Double Team" is a ridiculous action-fest the likes of which have yet to successfully transition into mainstream American films.
If you're looking for a good action film, go watch Face/Off or Ronin, don't waste your time with Double Team..
As it turns out i was more entertained by the low-budget Hasselhoff flick i rented as well.This movie had all the elements i look for in a BIG, DUMB action film (i.e government agents who play by there own rules, sociopathic madmen, sports figures masquerading as actors) but i was completely let down.
Jean-Claude is "double-teamed" with basketball star (does that qualify you to be a movie star?) Dennis Rodman in this exciting flick from action maestro Tsui Hark.
If you like this movie try watching Van Damme in the 1995 action/thriller Sudden Death which is equally good.
This film will be known for the teaming of Dennis Rodman (Yaz) and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
A lot of people call "Double Team" a "crappy movie" or a "plothole fest", since that people claims that "Indipendence Day" is a good movie, why i can't say that Double Team is cool and better than Indipendence Day ?The movie stars Jean Claude Van-Damme (playing the character Jack Quinn), i don't care about your opinion, most of people hate him because of his "bad acting" (seriously, do you care about acting ?), but he have a lot of potential and like in most of his movies, he shows good skills in martial arts.
Mickey Rourke (playing the character Stavros), plays the villain, good performance also.Double team is directed by Tsui Hark, a awesome Hong Kong director, i liked Double team as i liked his movies made in Hong Kong.The action scenes are great, we get both martial arts fighting and shootouts.The score is great also, the music in the credits by Crystal Waters (featuring: Dennis Rodman), made me watch it until the credits rolled to the last second.The cheesy CGI effects had their fashion.
DOUBLE TEAM Aspect ratio: 2.39:1Sound formats: Dolby Stereo / DTSA counter-terrorist officer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) pursues the criminal mastermind (Mickey Rourke) who has kidnapped Van Damme's pregnant wife (Natacha Lindinger).An American action movie, directed by noted Chinese filmmaker Tsui Hark on European locations, featuring an unlikely combination of Belgian beefcake (Van Damme) and US basketball icon (Dennis Rodman) as the good guys pitted against Rourke's pumped-up terrorist, seeking revenge for the death of his infant son!
The script is ridiculous, full of clichéd references to "the game." And the fight sequences, arguably the only reason to watch the movie, are so dominated by stunt-doubles I wonder if Van Damme and Mickey Rourke ever met during filming.Still, I love it.
Anti-terrorist spy Jean-Claude Van Damme and shady arms dealer Dennis Rodman star in this ridiculous and sometimes down-right stupid would-be action thriller.
A logic-free action flick that stretches plausibility way beyond breaking point, Double Team stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as counter-terrorist expert Jack Quinn who, after a botched mission to kill international terrorist Stavros (Mickey Rourke), becomes an unwilling participant in a top secret think-tank on a remote island colony for agents that are considered 'too valuable to kill, but too dangerous to set free'.When Stavros (Mickey Rourke) abducts Jack's pregnant wife, having vowed revenge for the accidental death of his son during the earlier shootout, Jack escapes the colony, seeks help from an S&M freak gun dealer named Yaz (played by eccentric basketball bad-boy Dennis Rodman), and embarks on a dangerous rescue mission that culminates in an explosive showdown inside a coliseum.Opening with Quinn escaping from some bad guys by jumping a heavily armoured stolen vehicle through a speeding train (without the aid of a ramp), this film is completely crazy from the get go, and Hong Kong director Tsui Hark doesn't let the insanity subside until the very end, chucking in such spectacular nonsense as Van Damme kicking the crap out of bad guys while hanging from an air-plane cargo net, a Chinese killer who uses his knife with his foot, a top secret society of cyber-monks, and a finale that sees the good guys fight a tiger in the middle of a mine field before escaping certain death from fireball through the use of a Coke vending machine.Special mention must also be made of the incredible amount of glass that gets smashed during the film (usually because someone has been thrown through it).Although I'll never quite understand how this film got green-lit, I'm sure glad it did: a more enjoyably insane piece of 90s nonsense you'll be hard pushed to find.Call me crazy, but I rate Double Team 8 out of 10 simply for being so bloody silly..
But to be who Rodman is and mix that with the absolute fact that he can act about as well as he shot three-pointers (23.1%) makes a mess recipe for a movie."Double Team" even had Mickey Rourke when he was an a-hole everyone hated instead of The Wrestler reborn a-hole that everyone suddenly thinks is cool because he is in Iron Man 2.
It is not one of my top 10 favorite Van Damme movies, but I like it, even more than Knock Off. I have always enjoyed this film more than Knock Off. Double Team was Van Damme's first time filming with Chinese film director Tsui Hark, because one year later, they both made together Knock Off another underrated action movie.
In my opinion beside Van Damme, Mickey Rourke and Dennis Rodman both of the actors did a solid job and performance together playing their characters.
I like the idea, When Jack Quinn (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a former counterterrorist agent fails to catch alive a terrorist leader Stavros (Mickey Rourke) and accidentally one of his Agent's kills Stavros 6.year old son, Jack Quinn is exiled to colony for dead agents on an empty deserted island and their is no escape from this island.
I liked the performance from Van Damme and Rodman, I don't think they acted stupid in this movie, they did not!
Training and action sequences are excellent and Double Team is also Van Damme's action movie that I like.
Double Team is a 1997 action film that marked the first American movie directed by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark (A Better Tomorrow III).
6/10 Grade: C- Studio: Columbia Pictures Corporation, Mandalay Entertainment Film Workshop Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Paul Freeman, Mickey Rourke, Natacha Lindinger Director: Tsui Hark Producers: Moshe Diamant, David Rodgers Screenplay: Don Jakoby, Paul Mones Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 33 Mins.
Instead we have Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dennis Rodman teamed up in one of the more unusual movie pairings I've seen lately.
Mickey Rourke, despite looking very out of place in a movie like this, plays a decent villain to menace Van Damme and his family.
Jack Quinn(Jean Claude Van Damme, who gets to do plenty of the high kicks that he's famous for) retires from being a counter-terrorist, is brought back(yup, the clichés, formulaic nature and stereotypes that drown every line of dialog and every other aspect of the writing in this come in right at the beginning) to take out Stavros(Rourke, who makes for a cool villain and comes off as a genuine match to him, in the realms of fighting and tactics), who used to...
Hong Kong action director Hark Tsui brings many explosive, fast-paced action scenes in this Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Jack Quinn, counter-terrorist operative who on his final mission fails to kill Stavros (Mickey Rourke).
Van Damme is good as Quinn and Rourke makes a great villain; Rodman's acting is pretty bad, but he's funny.
The idea of Dennis Rodman first of all as an action hero is bad enough but the fact that he makes Jean-Claude Van Damme seem like an Oscar contender is something that is quite surprising.
The only reason I would watch a Van Damme movie is purely for action, not plot or story.
But then again, Double Team is good for Van Damme style action that will always retain its excellence..
fantastic.Mickey Rourke is great - he only knows to play one kind of man: a brute ashtray macho villian, but he's a real expert in that.Even Van Damme is good: his first film without having him suffering all the time (I used to think, he is some kind of "anti-hero" because he is allways suffering so much in his movies).The directing and camera work is really amazing, the plot is ridiculous, but the Action is highly enjoyable..
sure dennis rodman looks out of place, but any movie with a smackdown vs van damme and micky rourke cant be anything but great.
Also if you are wanting one of the best final showdowns between good and evil then the ending of double team will blow you away.In conclusion, Double Team is a excellent movie for all you action fans out there with a love for van damme flicks..
Quinn joins forces with vivid arms dealer Yaz to fight Stavros, and a tiger.....This film, and Knock Off are easily Van Dammes most bizarre movie, but they are nothing short of entertaining.The editing is all over the shop, and the script is undoubtedly awful, but I had so much fun watching this, and still do every time I put it in my machine.Van Damme is as good as always, and Rourke as you would expect.
Double Team starts as counter terrorist agent Jack Quinn (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is assigned one last job, to catch international terrorist Stavros (Mickey Rourke) at a funfair in Antwerp.
Jack teams up with arms dealer Yaz (Dennis Rodman) to get his wife & child back & settle some unfinished business with Stavros himself...Three of Hong Kong's most well known action film makers have all made their American action film debuts directing a Jean-Claude Van Damme flick, John Woo made the excellent Hard Target (1993), Ringo Lam made the average Maximum Risk (1996) & now Hark Tsui follows his compatriots lead with the quite frankly awful Double Team.
Both Van Damme & especially Rodman are pretty awful in this, the basketball jokes & one liners are literally painful to listen too.Double Team is a crap action film that could have been great, it had the budget, it had a decent cast on paper & a good director but it turned out to be a disaster.
This gets a bad rep from a lot of movie buffs but I found it to be fairly entertaining stuff, it's nowhere near Van Damme's best but it's still a perfectly enjoyable action film!.
Spoilers attached maybe: Van damme and Dennis Rodman team up to be directed by one of asian action cinema's best action directors Tsui Hark.