Double Impact

Double Impact offers two Jean-Claude Van Dammes for the price of one, and for fans of the Belgian-born martial arts star, it delivers the goods. It’s a solid, fast-moving action-adventure set largely in Hong Kong, which is dynamically photographed by Richard Kline. Read full review

Lawrence of Arabia it ain't. But who cares? The fighting is great, the action nonstop and this guy has killer legs from hell that can drop a 500-pound ninja before he can say Bruce Lee. Read full review

The story is silly but entertaining, the fisti/footsycuffs are generally exciting and the laughs are common. Summer fare, basically. Read full review

Double Impact is a perfectly fine film, and is easily one of the best to come out of Van Damme’s back catalogue. If you want a film to have whilst drinking some ‘manly’ beers with ‘manly’ friends, then you could do much worse than . Read full review

What makes Double Impact, for all its dull-witted theatrics, an energizing experience is the picture’s astonishing level of ballistic mayhem. Read full review

The movie has slick production values and a few clever lines, and is an invaluable illustration of the Principle of Evil Marksmanship. This principle, you will recall from my Glossary of Movie Terms, teaches us that in the movies the bad guys can never hit anything with a gun, and the good guys can hardly miss. Read full review

Director Sheldon Lettich, who also worked on the story and screenplay, gives Van Damme plenty of space for his performance, but his direction, like his star, only really comes alive during the action scenes, particularly the climax, set around the freight containers and towering cranes of the Hong Kong waterfront.

Though the fight sequences deliver the necessary kicks, Double Impact's script is a study in missed opportunities. [09 Aug 1991, p.G5]

Van Damme's doubling up merely tends to make this movie, co-written and co-produced by the self-styled Muscles From Brussels, twice as avoidable as it would otherwise be. Read full review

As it turns out, two Jean-Claude Van Dammes are pretty much the same as one. Fans who like their action unadulterated by story, character or acting know where to find it. Read full review

if you're in the mood to watch some high-class head-kicking, Double Impact is a perfectly adequate piece of work. Read full review

While this production certainly ranks above Van Damme's prior efforts, it's still full of the sort of macho overkill typical of today's action genre. [09 Aug 1991, p.B]

In recent interviews, Van Damme has announced his intentions of acting, and he tries in Double Impact. It's a shame because he and his story - which he also co-wrote and co-produced - wind up being a little too tame. [10 Aug 1991, p.C3]

Double the Van Damme equals double the dopiness in the August dog-days exploitation pic Double Impact. And though it falls somewhat short of being double the pleasure/double the fun, the film is made for one of those round-the-clock theaters with Doublemint gum stuck to the floor. [09 Aug 1991, p.5D]

There's one thing worse than a movie with two Jean-Claudes: A movie with two Jean-Claudes and bad fighting. Read full review

The idea of two Van Dammes must have seemed workable on paper, but both exude the charisma of a packet of Cup-a-Soup, and not even Van Damme seems able to tell himselves apart. Read full review

One brother grows up to be a dashing smuggler, the other is a dork and it's a tribute to Van Damme's acting ability that it's frequently impossible to tell which one is which. I could go on, I'm having a pretty good time at this, but I think I'll save my usual rants about homophobia, racism, and generally insensitive stupidity for a movie that attracts an audience that reads film reviews. Read full review