Kris Van Damme – Action Hero Movies

With vibes of The Equalizer from the outset, but with a bit more realism — Van Damme‘s been away for a while and is looking a bit older now but has come back with a bang.

15 minutes in the mood lightens up a bit, in a way, and it turns into something more like Taken.

Van Damme’s son Kris takes on a minor role around half an hour in, as the son of Van Damme’s character — how fitting.

While this movie was a respectable effort, having its strengths and weaknesses, the strong bits are too rare for my liking, and the unpleasant atmosphere is too common, so I have to rate this movie just about Below Average. It’s a bit slow at times, but the ending was not bad — it had some clever bits.

Although it features Van Damme in a significant supporting role, his character only appears in occasional spells — he’s far from the main focus of this movie. Cung Le practically carries this movie singlehandedly, and that’s not a bad thing – it’s good to see him do his thing – he’s a former MMA legend (a legit champion of multiple similar combat sports) and is not a bad actor either. He also co-produced this movie himself.

By the half way mark, things have become quite interesting, as Cung Le’s humble character has managed to take over and superficially cleaned up the whole neighbourhood after beating up all the local drug dealers then making them join forces with him.

Van Damme’s son Kris Van Damme also has a minor cameo role starting about 45 minutes in.

Even though it’s not a complex movie — it’s extremely one dimensional with a consistent pace and an extremely simple plot — I’m going to rate it Above Average for being spot on with the genre and generally doing alright in sustaining attention and being mildly entertaining.