ok , let 's get one thing
straight right away : maximum risk is no battleship potemkin ( although it does have some russians in it ! ) , but it 's not too bad , really .
it 's the new film from ringo lam , the latest hong kong filmmaker to defect to hollywood , and stars that minor league schwartzeneggar from belgium , jean - claude van damme ( who , you will recall , also starred in john woo 's maiden hollywood effort , hard target ) .
in lam 's film , van damme plays alain moreau , a french cop ( at least his accent makes more sense here than it did in hard target ) who discovers that he was separated shortly after birth from a twin brother who was adopted by russians .
these russians defected to the united states and moved into a black neighbourhood in new york ( where , i suppose , they thought they would n't be noticed ) .
this brother , mikhail suverov ( played in his few scenes by . . .
well , you know ) , becomes deeply involved in the russian mafia and the fbi ( almost the same thing , i guess ) , and is killed in france ( in the movie , things happen so fast that you do n't have too much time to think about how weird this all is ) .
moreau does what any good surviving twin brother would do and goes to new york to find out why mikhail was killed , and why everyone in france who knows anything about him is also being killed ( we wonder the same thing ; i still do ) .
in little odessa , he meets mikhail 's girlfriend , alex ( natasha henstridge , last seen in species ) , who helps him solve the mystery and adds immeasurably to the mise - en - scene ( she has very nice breasts , and we get to seen them briefly in this movie ; it was rated r in the us but is pg here , so they must have seen more of her breasts than we do ) .
this film lacks the gloss and high production values of such other action movies as broken arrow , the fugitive , hard target , or anything starring arnold , but that works to its benefit , i think .
after all , one thing that 's been missing from woo 's hollywood films is that certain hong kong funkiness that we all know and love ( well , some of us do ) .
movies like this should n't be too pretentious , and that is part of the problem with some of these other films : they try to be too " big " in terms of special effects and sheer spectacle .
maximum risk has its share of car chases and explosions , but they do n't overwhelm the movie or detract our attention from the narrative ( not too much , anyway ) .
the emphasis throughout is on the characters and their interactions ( even if , at times , they do n't make a hell of a lot of sense ) .
in fact , one of the more interesting aspects of the film is a minor character , a rather overeager new york cabbie ( frank van keeken from tv 's " kids in the hall " ) , who begins as something of a joke but becomes an important part of the story .
unfortunately , by the time we have come to really get interested in him , he . . .
well , you 'll see .
the movie also features some set pieces of the type that we have come to expect from lam and his hong kong compatriots .
one is a fight in a russian sauna , with lots of sweaty , muscular male flesh ( this one will appeal to certain parts of the audience more than others ) , bullets in heads , and vodka .
another ,
my personal favorite , is a fight in a meat packing house , featuring pig carcasses and a chainsaw .
and even the predictable car chases are more hong kong than hollywood , as they trash those quaint french cafes , vegetable carts , and , well , french people that , we all know in our hearts , deserve trashing just for being so damn quaint .
of course , the movie does have its share of silliness .
for example , while beating the crap out of an obnoxious russian thug who obviously deserves what he 's getting , alain stops long enough to look at his own reflection in the cracked mirror with which he has been whacking the guy on the head .
in an unnecessarily dramatic moment , he apparently is shocked at what he sees , at what he has become .
but what has he become ?
a tough cop who beats the hell out of a guy who tried to kill him ?
does n't sound too unreasonable to me , considering the genre .
but let 's face it , any time van damme tries to be dramatic , he looks silly .
so maximum risk is a little different from most other action films .
while watching it , i was surprised , and a little disappointed , in the relative lack of pyrotechnics .
but watching some of these other action films is sort of like experiencing a sugar rush ; after the initial excitement , there 's not much left .
although it 's short on spectacle , lam 's film leaves a better and more lasting impression , i think .
i 'm more impressed by it now than i was while watching it , and to me , that 's a good sign .
go see maximum risk , but do n't expect a typical hollywood action movie ; expect a sort of funky hong kong - hollywood action movie .
the flying inkpot rating system :
* wait for the tv2 broadcast .
*
* a little creaky , but still better than staying at home with gotcha !
*
* * pretty good , bring a friend .
*
*
* * amazing , potent stuff .
*
*
*
* * perfection . see it twice .
dr t .
white teaches film at the english language and literature department of the national university of singapore , but we do n't hold this against him .
my personal favorite go see leaves a better and more lasting impression