Double Team (1997)

Overrated and overhyped

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great Film overall

An action-packed slog

Disclaimer: If you are a viewer that mainly prefers art-house-type movies, then you might as well ignore this review. In addition, if you're not able to take an Van Damme underrated, bashed, hated solid action film, ignore this review, as well. We'll both be better off.Double Team (1997) alongside with Knock Off (1998) is very underrated, bashed and hated movie, mostly for Van Damme performance. This film has received a lot of negative reviews and was a box office fail. I understand why people does not like this movie, I understand and I like it! It is not one of my top 10 favorite Van Damme movies, but I like it, even more than Knock Off. I have always enjoyed this film more than Knock Off. Double Team was Van Damme's first time filming with Chinese film director Tsui Hark, because one year later, they both made together Knock Off another underrated action movie. In my opinion beside Van Damme, Mickey Rourke and Dennis Rodman both of the actors did a solid job and performance together playing their characters. There was a lot of explosions, a lot of action scenes, and a lot of martial arts shown from Van Damme and Mickey Rourke. I like the idea, When Jack Quinn (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a former counterterrorist agent fails to catch alive a terrorist leader Stavros (Mickey Rourke) and accidentally one of his Agent's kills Stavros 6.year old son, Jack Quinn is exiled to colony for dead agents on an empty deserted island and their is no escape from this island. Stavros plot's vengeance against Quinn and takes his wife Kathryn (Natacha Lindinger ) as a hostage and her unborn child now Quinn has to escape and team with Jaz (Dennis Rodman) to get his wife back and Stavros once and for all. I love the training sequences and the music score for the movie. I liked the performance from Van Damme and Rodman, I don't think they acted stupid in this movie, they did not! I bagged my aunt to tape me this movie on VHS, when I was a teen and she did. I like this movie a lot, I like the shoot outs. Double Team was also one of my favorite Van Damme movies. Dennis Rodman and Mickey Rourke co started in this movie. About an CIA agent who misses his target and finds him self on an island for a retired agents and he finds out that his target Stavros kidnapped his wife and his unborn baby and he plans to kill them both unless Quinn escapes. Training and action sequences are excellent and Double Team is also Van Damme's action movie that I like. It is an explosive, high-tech ride. Mickey Rourke was a good bad guy. I really had no idea Paul Freeman was in this movie, he was so awesome in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), I really had no idea he was in this movie as Quinn's guardian. I like when Van Damme fight's off the tiger in the coliseum, those scenes with the tiger where fantastic. I liked that Rodman helped Quinn saving his baby, when the baby case was standing on a mine filed and Rodman saved him. The fights between Mickey Rourke and Van Damme weren't that good, but they were not that bad either. Van Damme and Mickey Rourke both differently worked in The Expendables movies. Rourke in The Expendables and Van Damme in The Expendables 2. Double Team is a 1997 action film that marked the first American movie directed by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark (A Better Tomorrow III). The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Jack Quinn, a former counterterrorist agent who is exiled to a penal colony for disgraced operatives. Upon his escape, Quinn teams with an arms dealer to track down the terrorist who ruined his life. The film co-stars Dennis Rodman, Paul Freeman, and Mickey Rourke. Director Hark would later collaborate with Van Damme in 1998's Knock Off. This movie get's 6 by me, I wish I would have this movie on Blu-ray, I am probably the only one that just likes this movie. Much better than Knock Off! The training sequences from Van Damme where really kick ass and the action stunts from Van Damme where solid, so they weren't bad. Sorry Double Team is not your movie, that's okay I like it. 6/10 Grade: C- Studio: Columbia Pictures Corporation, Mandalay Entertainment Film Workshop Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Paul Freeman, Mickey Rourke, Natacha Lindinger Director: Tsui Hark Producers: Moshe Diamant, David Rodgers Screenplay: Don Jakoby, Paul Mones Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 33 Mins. Budget: $30.000.000 Box Office: $11,438,337

My first thought after I watched this movie was, that the cast were made before the storyline. It seems as if the focus is on showing the audience what a cool guy Rodman is and what a hard and powerful guy van Damme is. The story is therefor not so necessary. The main characters are even for a action-movie niggling. There are the supporting characters quit more interesting like a martial-arts fighter in the hotel with a knife between his toes or the character of Goldsmythe, awesome played by Paul Freeman. But as I said, this movie was made for van Damme and Rodman and not for actors.The action-scenes are moving between "already seen in other action-movies" and ridiculous. Especially the ending with a tiger and a product placement for a soft drink company appeals unwanted funny.

The action-packed, globe-trotting Jean-Claude Van Damme adventure "Double Team" derives its sporty title from the unlikely combo of NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman and Van Damme in pursuit of arch foe Mickey Rourke. "Double Team" might have been drivel at a dribble were it not for the dazzling aplomb with which gifted Hong Kong action helmer Tsui Hark stages a number of snappy, hyperkinetic action sequences. Van Damme stars as Jack Quinn, the best counter-terrorist in the business, who retires and settles down with his wife Kathryn (French television actress Natacha Lindinger) to raise a family. His old bosses lure Jack back into the spy game to ice his oldest foe, Stavros (Mickey Rourke of "Sin City"). At an ambush in Antwerp, everything goes wrong. Quinn nearly dies from an explosion, and the wily Stavros eludes death. When Quinn recovers, he finds himself trapped on an island fortress called the Penal Colony with no hope for escape. The seas around the island are a maze of laser beams. The Colony guardian Goldsmythe (Paul Freeman), explains to Quinn that he is confined to the island for the remainder of his life in the dubious company of the deadliest spies in the world. Not only are they too valuable to terminate, but also that are too lethal to be let loose. According to Goldsmythe, the Penal Colony serves as an espionage think tank. Equipped with the latest high-tech gadgetry, these Penal Colony lifers act as consultants in resolving international disputes.Of course, Quinn devises a stunning escape plan based on split-second timing. Meanwhile, Stavros kidnaps his pregnant wife and sweeps her off to Rome. Stavros has every reason to hat Jack Quinn. Stavros took Quinn's wife as hostage. After he engineers a daring daylight escape, Quinn saves his wife from a ruthless death squad in the Eternal City. Although Kathryn gives birth to a baby boy, Stavros manages to stay a step ahead of Quinn and abducts the newborn. Quinn confronts Stavros in a land mine laden Roman Coliseum and battles a ravenous Bengal tiger. Our hero relieves heavily on the firepower provided by a weird underground CIA arms dealer named Yaz (Dennis Rodman) in both on Stavros. Yaz himself comes along to play against the bad guys in a bullet-scarred finale. Scenarists Don ("Lifeforce") Jakoby and Paul ("The Quest") Mones pull out all stops with an audacious, slam dunk script that resembles a James Bond extravaganza, complete with several exotic settings. Of course, the Jakoby & Mones' screenplay is thoroughly predictable, but these writers know how to tweak the formula with a fresh gag or two. Hong Kong action helmer Hark makes the third Royal Colony refugee that Van Damme has called on to direct his movies. Earlier, Van Damme tapped John Woo to call the shots on "Hard Target,but John Travolta has since wooed Woo to direct "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off" with Nicolas Cage. In "Maximum Risk," Van Damme imported the services of the skilled Ringo Lam. Unlike both "Hard Target" and "Maximum Risk," "Double Team" takes its far-fetched plot to preposterously outlandish lengths. Hark never lets the supercharged action idle away in this stylist thriller. He enlivens the action sequences with the kind of bravura that make you want to flinch and duck. The fight between Van Damme and as Asian henchman who grips a switchblade between his toes is invigoratingly fresh. And the computerized cyber-monks in the Vatican are a scream.Jean-Claude Van Damme spends more time averting disaster than acting, but nobody watches a JCVD movie to see the star emote. Credit Van Damme with modeling the appropriate expression for each crisis. Mickey Rourke is the thespian to appreciate. His truly cool villain is an anthology of postures. If Paul Freeman, who plays the Penal Colony guardian, appears familiar, you may remember him as the adversary with whom Indiana Jones tangled in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Meanwhile, Dennis Rodman is not so much an actor as he is a special effect. As Yaz, Rodman pedals a flashy arsenal for Van Damme as well as gives the film some of its lighter moments. When the initially encounter each other, Van Damme looks at Rodman and questions him about who does his hair? Siegfried or Roy? With a ring or a stud on most of his bodily appendages, an array of Yazoo Tattoos and his multicolored turf, Rodman looks as funny as he does lethal.The scene where Rodman steals a car that he has to steer with his head sticking through the sun roof is hilarious. Director Tsui Hark deploys the scene-stealing Rodman at the right moments to offset the straight-faced heroics of Van Damme. The worst thing that you can say about "Double Team" is the shameless product placement scene in the Coliseum. A number of Coke machine keep our heroes from getting cremated by the usual quota of apocalyptic explosions. On the other hand, the scene where scores of Coke cans complicate the heroics of Jean-Claude is good.If you are a JCVD fan, you get to see our protagonist articulate his muscles from Brussels in a couple of well-choreographed combat sequences. If you enjoy watching glossy, superbly lensed action movies, "Double Team" ought to keep you entertained and occupied. The inventive script, the electrifying directing, and the stirring Gary Chang music contribute to the success of "Double Team."

courtesy of www.PopBunker.net We've all had it happen. A day will be going merrily along with normal annoyances and accomplishments. Then suddenly, out random chaos, something triggers the memory of an innocent of something so profoundly awful and cringe-inducing that all he wishes is that the memory would have stayed forgotten.Sometimes the buried memory is in the form of an embarrassing moment; like taking out one's junk and swinging it around at a wedding reception. And other times it is bewildering reminders of craptacular movies like Double Team.My day "job" includes managing an online inventory. Recently we obtained around 300 DVDs to add to our online and brick and mortar inventory. Usually I don't pay attention to titles when mindlessly adding to our inventory. But yesterday I was struck as if by a malevolent satorie when this DVD came through.I tweeted about it and got back a few colorful responses with regards to re-opening this wound of a movie in the minds of many.So what was so awful about "Double Team?" Well, first of all the name: Double Team. Everyone is entitled to his most far-fetched fantasy, but I can't imagine anyone – not even the most strong stomach celeb stalker – wanting to be doubled teamed by JCVD and Dennis Rodman. It would be like having a fantasy involving a threesome with Larry King and Frances Bay (Granda from Happy Gilmore) while everyone wears a KISS mask. It just doesn't compute even to the most perverse of minds.The next thing… well… Dennis Rodman. I mean just image google his name. Or don't.Be who you wanna be, kid. It's all good. But to be who Rodman is and mix that with the absolute fact that he can act about as well as he shot three-pointers (23.1%) makes a mess recipe for a movie."Double Team" even had Mickey Rourke when he was an a-hole everyone hated instead of The Wrestler reborn a-hole that everyone suddenly thinks is cool because he is in Iron Man 2. (A side note: Rourke is the ultimate retro-cool has-been a-hole re-made into the suddenly in-demand cool a-hole that soon everyone will remember is an a-hole and will be cast aside once again. It's a crazy business.) The last thing I'm going to point out in "what was so awful about…" is that it was a stone cold career killer for JCVD. It may well be that JCVD was going to have a short career arc as a major action player anyway, but in the three years leading up to "Double Team," he was in Timecop (1994), Streetfighter & Sudden Death (1995), The Quest & Maximum Risk (1996). "Double Team" flushed down in 1997 and then… that was it. I think everything after "Double Team" was a direct-to-DVD or limited release for JCVD. JCVD was not known for quality cinema, but he was known for exploitative movies made for men who love movies made for men. JCVD movies were cheap to make and did enough bank at the box office… until "Double Team." Not even men who love movies made for men could love JCVD after he was in a movie with Dennis Rodman that, if I remember correctly, featured a fight or chase or something where Rodman's mode of attack was Grabbing a Rebound Kung-fu or some ridiculous junk like that. I know it involved a gratuitously out of place basketball reference somehow.courtesy of www.PopBunker.net