Until Death

Plot synopsis:
New Orleans narcotics detective Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a heroin addict who is teetering on the edge of oblivion, and he could not care less. At the moment, he is trying to bring down his former partner Gabriel Callahan (Stephen Rea), who has become a drug kingpin. Callahan is trying to, and slowly succeeding at, taking over the New Orleans underworld.
Stowe botches a sting operation against Callahan, resulting in the death of fellow cop Maria Ronson (Rachel Grant), whose fiancee, fellow cop Van Huffel (Adam Leese), nearly comes to blows with him over it. Chief Mac Baylor (Gary Beadle) has a very blunt chat with Stowe, who is dismissive. Stowe is approached by fellow cop Walter Curry (Trevor Cooper) to help his nephew beat a drug-dealing charge; he instead turns Curry over to Baylor, who fires him. After barricading himself in the station bathroom, Walter confronts an unrepentant Stowe and condemns him for betraying his fellow officers.
That night Stowe meets with his estranged wife Valerie (Selina Giles), who tells him that she's pregnant, but that he's not the father. Valerie, whose marriage with Stowe is close to collapse, has been seeing a man named Mark Rossini (Mark Dymond), the gym teacher at the school she is principal of. But he may not be the father either. Stowe brashly accuses Valerie of being impregnated by Callahan, and she tells him she never wants to see him again.
The only thing keeping Stowe from total collapse is his dogged pursuit of Callahan. But he drunkenly stumbles into an ambush masterminded by Callahan, and is shot in the head by Callahan's right-hand man Jimmy (Stephen Lord). Stowe undergoes emergency surgery, and ends up in a coma. Months later, he recovers to the point that he opens his eyes, and is transported to his and Valerie's house to recover properly.
Seven months later, Stowe is slowly learning to walk and speak again. He manages to survive an attempt on his life by someone who appears to be a cop. He attempts to get his job back, but Chief Baylor refuses, in light of discovering his heroin addiction. The coma has led to his decision to become a better man, and to right some wrongs. He reconciles with his wife, although awkwardly, and gives Walter a significant portion of insurance money that compensated his time in a coma. Finally, he visits the grave of fellow police officer Serge (William Ash), who once saved Stowe's life but has been killed by an unknown attacker following another failed sting operation.
Valerie packs up to move out of the house so she can live with Mark, but after realizing the change that Stowe has undergone, she later decides to leave Mark and come home. Stowe is convinced by his friend Chad Mansen (Wes Robinson) not to let his wife go, and goes after her. They miss each other by a few minutes.
Just after Valerie returns and meets Chad, some of Callahan's men show up. Jimmy kills Chad, and kidnaps Valerie. Stowe returns to the house, and finds Chad's body, along with Jimmy waiting for him.
Jimmy takes Stowe to a warehouse where Callahan is waiting. Along the way, Stowe manages to overpower Jimmy and take his gun, but he finds that the odds against him are impossible and Callahan has Valerie hostage. Van Huffel is revealed to be Callahan's mole on the police force, and the sting operation at the beginning of the film was a set-up. Walter suddenly arrives and saves Stowe. Together they kill all of Callahan's men, including Jimmy and Van Huffel, as Callahan tries to escape with Valerie to his helicopter. Just as they are about to reach it, Stowe fires multiple shots at the helicopter which makes the pilot lift off, in fear. Callahan, seeing his means of escape is gone shoots Stowe, undeterred he keeps coming towards Callahan and Valerie. Callahan fires several more shots at Stowe, gravely wounding him. Stowe reaches Callahan, grabs his gun hand and helps aim it at his head, simultaneously pointing his own weapon at Callahan. Two shots ring out in quick succession, and two bullet casings are shown falling. The screen goes dark. Three years later, Valerie has a 3-year-old daughter, the baby that Valerie was pregnant with, together they visited and lay flowers at the grave of Anthony Stowe, 'Officer and Husband'.
In a mid-credits scene, a found footage of Callahan executing a couple, with Van Huffel present is played.

Tags: neo noir, murder, cult, revenge, violence, melodrama, tragedy, suspenseful

Review:
I don't like spoilers, so..The movie starts a little slow but the storyline picks up and the plight of Van Damme's character is apparent.
His character is submissive and weak but yet, still has the inner strength to do the right thing in the end.Again, I was pleasantly surprised with Van Damme's acting and character in this film, not the typical Van Damme action movie, this one has heart, character and a good story.
I really hate it when action stars are given no kudos for they're acting like Sly Stallone who wowed everyone in Copland and Jet Li who surprised as well with Danny the Dog.Jean Claude Van Damme is no different and while he has put in decent gigs in such movies as Lionheart,Double Impact,Hard Target and Maximum risk that were overlooked rather unfairly.Something has happened since JCVD's fall into dtv land is that he has been a lot choosier most of the time with his projects that are top-notch like Replicant,In Hell,and Wake of Death.Its a shame these have been neglected to DTV being that they are better than some of his last big screen theater releases!Until Death continues the trend of JCVD playing darker and more sinister characters as he plays a corrupt cop named Anthony Stowe who seems like he was ripped from an Abel Ferrara movie.Anthony it seems has blurred the line between good/bad that his fellow cops despise him,His emotionally neglected wife is cheating on him,Stowe has a nice heroin habit to contend with,and a twice-as corrupt(sublimely played by Stephen Rea) ex-partner gunning for him who has designs on being the new mob boss.It changes with the flash of a gunman's bullet that leaves Stowe in a coma for several months and upon awakening he sets out to ease his conscience as well as bloody retribution.This has got to be Van Dammes best ever acting job as he leaps onto the scene growling,snarling and making life difficult for everyone around him.His deranged look in the first half of the movie was striking and a lot of viewers are going to be surprised into thinking he let himself go.Even better is the after effect of the coma.Selina Giles does an good job as the wife.Adam Leese has a couple of nice moments as Van Huffel.The actor who plays the fat Sargent gets the loud cop mode just right and has some good moments near the end.The real shock is Stephen Rea and how sublimely underplayed Callaghan is by him.I thought we would get a real tour-de-force from him along the lines of Lance Henricksen as He only seems to come to life in his scenes with JCVD at the end which are fun to watch.If only he had put more into it than just taking a paycheck.Simon Fellows does a good job here with his creative touches that seemed to fail in SIC and its pretty clear his strength is getting the performances and working with the actors.The grimy New Orleans setting is also plus.Some of his shots recall Early De Palma.The only real fault of the movie is the action.Its not that the action scenes are done badly,but it needed more kick.The gunfights are good and bloody,however the last gunfight is a bit of a jip.Where was the commentary on the state of a post-Katrina New Orleans?That would have been great explaining on the crime wave that is going on there right now.It seems to me after the Shepherd JCVD might have just couple more action movies in him.What more does he need to prove if his best efforts get dumped to dtv?Dare I say he might wanna nab another drama?Until Death was a nice surprise after the down shift into the average SIC and okay Hard Corps.Even better to watch JCVD out-act Stephen Rea!.
The movie is 90  95% drama and 5-10% action, yup, it's more of a drama than an action movie and it has a great story.The movie's main character is Anthony Stowe, a Narcotics cop who was once partnered with Callahan, a man who has since become one of the most important drug dealers in New Orleans and who began his involvement in the drug business during his time as a cop.
It is interesting to see the best actor in the movie (Van Damme) and the worst actor (Selina Giles) at the same time on screen.Had UNTIL DEATH had a better actress in the role of THE WIFE, a good soundtrack and a more emotional style of direction it could have been a 10/10 movie, as it is at the moment it's at 8.5/10.It is a completely new and different role for Van Damme, it has small amounts of action compared to his older movies and it is a DRAMA, a type of movie that people might not want to see Van Damme in Until Death told me a great story, a great dramatic story, it showed to me that Van Damme can carry this type of movie and it also gave me a lot of hope for THE SHEPERD (provisional title), Van Damme's next movie which will be filled with action and which is directed by Isaac Florentine (Undisputed 2) and produced by the same people with most of the same important crew behind it.This is why I respect Van Damme, he has grown as an actor and has created and put in place all the necessary elements to make quality movies.
Any new Van Damme movie is guaranteed to be good and interesting and the very nice fact is that his fans are disappointed when his movies fail to be GREAT and are JUST GOOD (as was the case with Second In Command).Also keep in mind that I saw an edited version so the DVD might have more scenes, more action (a tiny little bit more), a better soundtrack and an even better visual quality as I saw the movie on TV in a TV format and aspect ratio.
The DVD version could be drastically better, but even if it isn't this is still a movie I would recommend to anyone who loves a great drama, a great COP drama and some cool action from a classic star of the genre who has reinvented himself and who gave his best acting performance, a performance that I dare say is great by ANY standards.8.5/10 on any scale.
Well, I have to say that this film did indeed entertain me and Mr. Van Damme even surprised me because he was rather good, even with a script that went a little overboard with movie cop-talk.
For all of his critics,I say, give the man a break, he is making an effort and trying something different.As an Irishman I was as surprised as anyone to see Stephen Rea in such a film as I hadn't looked at the full credits before watching it, but he was solid as usual.I don't want to summarise the film for anyone because I watched the film without knowing anything about the story except that Van Damme played a dirty cop, and I found the story to be very entertaining ,even in spite of the poor dialogue at times.
In New Orleans, the abusive narcotic detective Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a dirty cop, addicted in heroin and booze, hated by his colleagues and divorcing from his wife Valerie (Selina Giles).
After months in coma, he wakes up trying to fix the errors of his past life.After many bad movies, Jean Claude Van-Damme finally makes a very good film.
I hope this movie be a milestone and a second chance in the career of Van Damme, and like his character and Phoenix, he raises from the ashes to please his fans.
The acting is great, the plot is new for Van Damme, the action is better than expected (no martial arts though), and Van Damme looks awesome.
Okay lets just for a second forget that Van Damme is playing here(cause most of the people will thing of me as another JCVD fanatic fan which i am not).Themovie has a killer plot, but a few things missing.So the story goes that Anthony Stowe is a bad cop playing it good.And he is really a hell of a cop except for his drug abuse , which messes everything.He finds out that trying' to fix things after the awakening isn't easy.In the end he not only makes a wrong wright but makes other people see the light as well.The first one was a longer runtime , cause obviously the script was cut or edited to fit the time.Second a little more budget.And third a more dramatic ending.A dramatic ending would have made this movie great.But the movie is better for me than the so haloed "300".So i have an advice for all you good movie lovers(that's wright not action movie lovers)go see this movie.It's not great , it's not flashy but it's never the less a nice movie to watch..
Since I was little I have always loved watching Van Damme and Steven Seagal movies, I just hope that they keep up the good work!
Until Death wasn't bad, but the problem is that Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't half the actor that Lau Ching Wan, the star of the original is and director Stephen Fellows is no Johnny To. The love story between the recuperating police officer and his pregnant wife is handled much more effectively in the original.
Very good acting and action type filmIt's probably very underrated and it is in fact tons better than many movies (new releases) out right now.THANKS VAN DAMME!!.
He produces two good films "In Hell" and "Wake of Death." Amazingly, I did like "In Hell" much more than any Van Damme movie.
He is also focusing on his acting rather than kicking the 360 degree spin kick .The film revolves around Van Damme (Anthony Stowe) and Stephen Rea(Callahan) the villain.
The fight scene in which Van Damme is drunk in the bar and some people come to kill him was the main action sequence of the movie and was perfectly filmed by Simon Fellows.The most important thing is that Van Damme Looks very smart n fresh as compared to his all previous DTV movies.Any how I gave it 7 out a 10 ..
Most of them are simple revenge stories, with Jean losing a loved one (or several) and then relentlessly killing everybody until he gets to the big bad guy.This movie is a different kind of Van Damme vehicle.
In real life Van Damme has had problems with drugs, and his face is now aged and somewhat tired-looking.There isn't as much physical action (martial arts) as you would expect, but there is significant gun play.While Until Death is a little too long (very common these days), it's a revelation to watch Van Damme actually act.
I must start by saying this is by far the best DTV action movie I've seen for along time, i know thats not saying much the out put from Mr's Snipes, Van Damme and Segal have been really bad of late.
Until Death however is a very different beast indeed more a cop drama than an action movie this sees Mr Van Damme moving into uncharted acting territory and he succeeds and impressively so.This is not a perfect film, there are some bits of wooden acting and stilted action on the whole though this film work.
First off Van Damme plays the role of a wretched drug addicted cop expertly, the man has seriously pulled up a gear in the acting stakes, I was genuinely surprised at how he portrayed Anthony Stowes decline and redemption, never over playing it he mumblers and curses his way through the first half of the movie.
The rest of the actors have done a fairly good job, I think this movie is much better than lots of new movies, but the problem is that it is on DVD so it is not getting as much attention as it should, but I think if vans damme keep coming to movies like this, i am sure he will be back on big screen sooner than we think..
the acting is sub-par, even for Van Damme who looks like he's at least trying to be good actor.
Until Death didn't show any "hero-charcter" of Van Damme in many previous films, so it could be noted that "No more gentlemen in this film!" Full dark side character (in the first half time of the movie) and no more martial arts fight, but gun fight instead, even he could show some skill in some scene.
I truly believe that Van Damme is one of the greatest actor in the Hollywood as same as Until Death is one of his greatest film in his acting career.For other one, Stephen Rea did a good job, he looked very nasty for his role as Anthony Stowe's former partner who later became the drug kingpin.
The plot of the dirty cop who turned later to be the good cop after a shot to coma is very interested, especially when the guy who received this role is the hero-character guy liked Jean-Claude Van Damme.
We'll both be better off.Until Death (2007) is Solid performance by Jean-Claude Van Damme in my opinion it is a good action drama movie, that I really think Jean-Claude Van Damme acted perfectly.
I seen this film for the very first time.I didn't mind the film for Van Damme's performance tough to me, I'll put this film in the same pile with ''In Hell'',''Replicant''&''Wake of Death''(I can say I felt that film's pacing & action was more well done then this film IMO) but overall still a decent film I would recommend to people who say Van Damme can't act I can safely say this film along with the others I brought up are real prove that he's a miles better actor then Steven Seagal will ever be!
Great direction and acting, Van Damme's performance is incredible (in my humble opinion), intense in first part and very sympathetic in second, and just like this movie, it's criminally underrated.
But at least fans really like them and spread the word for others to check 'em out.Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in this bone-chilling, action-packed thriller as Anthony Stowe, a down-and-out detective addicted to heroine whose days always seem to go from bad to worse.
Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a guy who is addicted to a heroin and he is a dirty cop in New Orleans.
A lot of people including my friend likes that movie.Until Death is a 2007 American action film directed by Simon Fellows, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Gary Beadle.
In this movie we have a dirty cop (Anthony Stowe / Jean-Claude Van Damme) who is addicted on heroin, and everyone else dislikes him even his wife (Selina Giles).On the other hand we have gunfights, arguments, many action scenes and surprisingly not much martial arts.
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.
"Until Death" is a very entertaining action\drama.The plot: Anthony Stowe (Van Damme) is a heroin-addicted, strung out cop who's trying to find his old partner Callaghan (Rea) who's turned dirty.
It really is a good story and Van Damme did a great job with it.Too bad that he did not have Kelly LeBrock to play his wife, as Seagal did.
Van Damme delivers a solid performance, Stephen Rea is reasonable (although far from his best) and the rest of the cast are obviously hired on the cheap.The movie isn't perfect, a few things stop it from being great...-------------------- SPOILERS --------------------If the Newspapers know Callahan was responsible for the murders then why wasn't he arrested?
The best Van Damme movie acting-like.
Still, he was a good cop at one time, and as the film progresses, he is given numerous chances at redemption.Van Damme is moving more and more away from making dumb action hero movies where his muscle man persona gets beat up and then miraculously wins fights later simply by yelling, "Come on!," and making mad faces.
The supporting cast do a fine job, with a few slightly dodgy American accents along the way, Van Damme plays the lead with great dignity and i really genuinely believe this is his best role since, well ever acting wise.Even the name of the film is quite poignant for the themes recurring in the film and at the credits I had a 'I get it moment'.If you are a fan of Jean Claude and would like to see him doing something rather than roundhouse people in the face I would definitely recommend Until Death it's a fantastic character driven movie that for a couple of quid on DVD is well worth adding to your collection.Roll on The Shepherd!
Like a good few of the films that Van Damme's been making of late, UNTIL DEATH is an attempt to do something different.
Until Death is set in New Orleans where narcotics cop detective Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is involved in a bust to capture drug lord Gabriel Cllahan (Stephen Rea) but it goes wrong & two cops are killed in the process as Callahan gets away.
It's rare to watch a direct-to-video action flick starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and come away impressed with the work of the director.
I've seen lots of movies that are much worse than Until Death, but I have to say that I liked the old Van Damme better, where he wasn't just another brooding guy with a gun and a burning motive for revenge.