The plot holds together pretty well, which is not always the case in Van Damme's movies, and does not require the concoction of labored explanations for his pronounced accent.
Maximum Risk (1996)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 30
Fresh: 9
Rotten:21
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Runtime: 1 hr 41 mins
Genre: Action/Adventure
Synopsis: After making several violent Hong Kong action films in the style that's come to be known as heroic bloodshed, Ringo Lam came to Hollywood to make his first American film with Belgian martial arts... After making several violent Hong Kong action films in the style that's come to be known as heroic bloodshed, Ringo Lam came to Hollywood to make his first American film with Belgian martial arts star Jean-Claude Van Damme. MAXIMUM RISK, like Van Damme's previous DOUBLE IMPACT, is the story of twin brothers. Unlike the earlier film--in which he played brothers with contrasting characters--here he's a French policeman, Alain Moreau, who takes on the identity of his dead brother, Mikhail. They were separated at birth when their mother, Chantal, played by veteran French film actress Stephane Audran, gave one up for adoption to a Russian diplomat. He grew up to become a member of the new Russian Mafia operating out of the Little Odessa section of New York City. When Mikhail is murdered in France after a wild chase through the streets, Alain goes to New York, where he's assumed to be Mikhail by everyone from the local Russian crime boss to his brother's beautiful girlfriend, Alex (Natasha Henstridge). Working with a seemingly unlimited budget for car crashes, Lam stages the action scenes with a kinetic flair and smartly knits them together with the help of sharp editing by Bill Pankow. [More]
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Natasha Henstridge, Frank Van Keeken, Zach Grenier
Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Natasha Henstridge, Frank Van Keeken, Zach Grenier
Director: Ringo Lam
Director: Ringo Lam
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Release:
Aug 12, 2008
Reviews for Maximum Risk
...the movie has some good moments of intrigue and adventure, and with a more charismatic hero it might have worked better.
The energetic action isn't quite enough to overcome an undernourished story. [Blu-Ray]
It's a visceral delight that refuses to be deterred by niceties of plot or character consistency and prefers sweat to emotion.
A standard Van Damme pic, competently assembled but with little of the manic edge found in director Lam's Hong Kong movies.
For sweet bloody thrills, this one beats the summer blockbuster competition hands-down.
Villains curl their upper lip and snarl in bad Russian accents, while Van Damme bungles four-word sentences.
Those who approach Maximum Risk with minimal expectations will, in the end, experience at least the occasional pleasant surprise.
Fights ensue. Van-Damme kicks a lot of ass. Explosions occur. The end.
Zesty chases and Van Damme's always exciting fights scenes fit well within a story that carries more intrigue than the average kick-and-crash extravaganzas.
There are so many car crashes in Maximum Risk that Van Damme ends up playing second fiddle to an ever-expanding salvage operation.
The plot moves along so that a mandatory fight scene is sure to pop up every fifteen minutes to make sure the audience isn't snoozing, but Lam manages to botch at least half of these scenes with shaky camerawork and scrappy editing.
Lam not only handles the bravura action set pieces with ease but also a capable international cast as colorful and varied as the film's many locales.
Jean-Claude does little Van Dammage to his lukewarm reputation with this standard actioner.
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