{"id":2188,"date":"2024-08-09T03:54:53","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T03:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2188"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:37:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:37:30","slug":"double-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/09\/double-impact\/","title":{"rendered":"Double Impact"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Double Impact<\/strong> (1991)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, sensuality, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sheldon Lettich\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Sheldon Lettich and Jean-Claude Van Damme\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Arthur Kempel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Richard H. Kline\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Release date: August 9, 1991 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Geoffrey Lewis, Alonna Shaw, Corinna Everson, Philip Chan, Alan Scarfe, Bolo Yeung, Andy Armstrong, Wu Fong Lung, Peter Malota, Sarah-Jane Varley, Kamel Krifa.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $30.1M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: **<\/p>\n

\u00a0It turns out twice the JCVD amounts to less than one of him. The Belgian-born martial arts star plays a dual role in Double Impact<\/strong>, a thoroughly mediocre actioner from director Sheldon Lettich (Lionheart). It has some good action scenes, but its lame storyline hurts it in the long run. Other than JCVD playing twins separated at birth, it\u2019s as routine as revenge-themed action movies come.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Identical twin brothers Chad and Alex grew up separately after their parents were brutally murdered while they were still infants. They\u2019re executed by a Triad hit squad acting on behalf of the father\u2019s greedy business partner Nigel Griffith (Scarfe, Iron Eagle II) who\u2019s in bed with Chinese mob boss Raymond Zhang (Chan, Hard Boiled). Alex is rescued by the nanny who takes him to a Catholic orphanage while the family\u2019s bodyguard Frank (Lewis, Every Which Way But Loose) takes Chad to America by way of France.<\/p>\n

\u00a025 years later, \u201cUncle Frank\u201d starts to clue in Chad, a Beverly Hills karate instructor, about his family legacy. He tells him they have to go to Hong Kong to deal with some business. That\u2019s where Chad learns he has a twin brother Alex who makes his living dealing in black market goods. It\u2019s not exactly a joyous reunion to say the least. Frank further explains they need to work together in claiming what\u2019s rightfully theirs; namely, royalties from Victoria Harbour Tunnel which their father helped build. It\u2019s going to take some doing to get the proof they need. It\u2019s a good thing Alex\u2019s girlfriend Danielle (Shaw, Cyborg Cop) just happens to work for Griffith. That it\u2019s also a mission to avenge their parents goes without saying.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The funny thing about Double Impact<\/strong> is that JCVD has absolutely no chemistry whatsoever with JCVD. I know it sounds strange saying this about an actor playing opposite himself (courtesy of split-screen processing), but it\u2019s true. Performance-wise, it\u2019s difficult to differentiate between the two brothers. JCVD plays them both with the same wooden style. The only way to tell them apart (for a little while anyway) is that Chad wears a stylish haircut and brightly-colored clothes while Alex sports a black leather jacket and slicked-back hair. We lose this gauge when Chad starts dressing like Alex. In its place, we get more scenes of people mistaking one brother for the other.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The rest of the acting in Double Impact<\/strong> isn\u2019t much better. The actors all play stock characters including Bolo Yeung (Bloodsport) as Zhang\u2019s brutal main henchman. However, he\u2019s the best thing about the cast. It\u2019s always great to see him turn up in one of these movies. He\u2019s a classic martial arts villain. Lettich puts him to pretty good use, but I still wanted to see more of him. It also would have been nice to see more of JCVD displaying his true talent. This one is disappointingly short on martial arts action and heavy on gunplay and explosions. To its credit, it doesn\u2019t skimp on the action and violence. There\u2019s enough of both to keep fans interested. One of my favorite scenes is when one of the twins (I forget which) literally smashes a bad guy\u2019s face in.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I think somebody made a mistake trying to turn JCVD into a more conventional action hero. He\u2019s not James Bond or Dirty Harry or whoever. He\u2019s in the same class as Steven Seagal, Chuck Norris and Jeff Speakman in that he\u2019s a martial artist first and an actor last. Like his peers, he has no real talent in the latter department. He\u2019s not a terrible actor per se; he\u2019s just not a very good one. But he kicks ass real good! That\u2019s what really counts when it comes to one of these movies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0To its credit, Double Impact<\/strong> is a slick production with some well-choreographed action. It\u2019s too bad it doesn\u2019t have a decent plot to support it. It\u2019s weak and it doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense. For example, there\u2019s mention of a big drug deal. It seems like it\u2019s going to be a major plot point based on how it\u2019s introduced. Instead, it gets lost in the confusion and chaos. Of course, it\u2019s possible I missed something.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Admittedly, my mind wandered more than once while watching Double Impact <\/strong>although it hardly makes a difference with a movie that knows where it wants to go, but takes a route with too many detours. Take the scene where Chad leaves their island hideout to get Danielle out of a tight spot with her boss. Alex, believing that his girlfriend is cheating on him with his brother, gets drunk and imagines a scenario where they\u2019re getting it on with each other. It\u2019s an unnecessary deviation from the main plot. BTW, Shaw gives the movie\u2019s worst performance as Danielle. Lettich could have replaced her with a plastic mannequin and nobody would be able to tell the difference.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I wanted to like Double Impact<\/strong> with its Corsican Brothers premise, but I just couldn\u2019t get into it. Frankly, I was bored at a few points. At 110 minutes, it runs longer than it needs to. Lettich could have trimmed away some of the fat to make a tighter, leaner action picture. In the end, Double Impact<\/strong> is just okay. It has its moments, but doesn\u2019t work as a whole. It\u2019s less than the sum of its JCVDs.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Double Impact (1991)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 110 minutes\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong violence, sensuality, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Sheldon Lettich\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Sheldon Lettich and Jean-Claude Van Damme\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Arthur Kempel\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Richard H. Kline\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Release date: August 9, 1991 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Geoffrey Lewis, Alonna Shaw, Corinna Everson, Philip Chan, Alan Scarfe, Bolo Yeung, Andy Armstrong, Wu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Double-Impact-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2188"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3085,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2188\/revisions\/3085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}