Knock Off (1998)
Director: Tsui Hark Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rob Schneider, Lela Rochon, Michael Wong, Paul Sorvino Screenplay: Steven E. De Souza Producers: Nansun Shi Runtime: 93 min. US Distribution: TriStar Rated R: violence, language
By Nathaniel R. Atcheson (nate@pyramid.net)
Dear God, this is a fantastically bad film! Regardless of what I say about Knock Off, you can't grasp its awfulness from my words. You have to see it and experience it for yourself. Here's the kicker, though -- I suggest that you do so. Yes, this is a bad film -- easily one of the most incompetent films of the year -- but it has a certain misguided charm that makes it a unique kind of disaster to endure. In fact, I enjoyed myself for most of its brief running time, despite the dreadful acting and a completely incomprehensible story.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not excusing Knock Off. It reaches an unacceptable level of badness; it's so incoherent that I wonder if it was hacked up worse than The Avengers was. It also features some truly terrible performances from Lela Rochon, Michael Wong, Paul Sorvino, and -- of course -- Jean-Claude Van Damme. It does, however, have the entertaining presence of Rob Schneider, and the excessively inventive and pretentious direction of Tsui Hark. As I watched it, I occasionally wondered if it was aware of its own awfulness. Now, in retrospect, it seems clear that it wasn't, but it's still a fascinating kind of mess.
I don't like writing plot descriptions (it is, by far, the most boring part of writing a review), but, in this case, I'm off the hook: there is no way I could write an accurate synopsis for Knock Off. For the sake of comparison, I had no trouble understanding The Usual Suspects during my first viewing. I paid closer attention to Knock Off, and the only thing I am able to say about it is that Van Damme plays a dude named Ray, and is accused by the CIA (I think) of selling knock off products (knock off products are, of course, products that look like name-brand materials but are generic and cheap).
I don't know what any of this has to do with martial arts, but there are lots of martial arts in the film. Ray is good at martial arts, so when he has to beat up bad guys, there's no problem. Rob Schneider plays his sidekick, although I had no idea who he really was by the end of the film. Lela Rochon is just some woman who accuses them of stuff, while Paul Sorvino is both the good guy and the bad guy at once! In fact, every character goes through so many shifts from good to bad that the end provides absolutely no insight into what any of them really do. In that order, Knock Off is completely incoherent and makes absolutely no sense.
But what a strange mess it is. It was written by Stephen E. De Souza, who also wrote Die Hard and 48 Hours. Can this be the same man? I don't see how, unless, of course, huge chunks of the film have been removed for the sake of running time. Knock Off seems to have an interesting premise (as far as action films go), but there's no semblance here. For instance, Van Damme is introduced, and then seconds later he's running a chariot race through the streets of Hong Kong. Why? Who knows. What are the implications of this? I have no idea.
Most action films abandon depth in favor of action, and this is normally a problem. Knock Off, however, is the first film that I would have preferred to see with all of the talky sequences cut. The acting is embarrassingly bad: Rochon, in particular, delivers each of her lines with stiff and talentless insincerity. Sorvino, in addition, deserves better than this. Van Damme is bad, but he's charming in that bad way, and so I can't say that he's hard to watch (although I rarely understood what he was saying). The only exception is Rob Schneider, who is actually quite funny a lot of the time.
Tsui utilizes so many tricks that he makes John Woo look tame by comparison. They're all pointless gimmicks though, such as shots of the inner-workings of a knock off running shoe. But his action scenes are never boring: one particular piece inside of a fruit factory (a fruit factory?) is well-choreographed. Lots of the scenes are pitched well to comedy, such as our heroes' first encounter with the Rochon character. But did Tsui know that his film is beyond ludicrous? I hope he did, for the alternative is a frightening thought.
Knock Off has the feel of a truly terrible exercise in camp mania. If it were boring, I'd give it zero stars. But it's not boring: it's loud and excessive and completely incoherent. It's also funny, even when it isn't meaning to be funny. A bad film that succeeds as entertainment doesn't deserve to be fully lambasted. I recognize Knock Off for its irrefutable badness, but I can't deny it's zany, useless charm. Oh, I know, they're just action scenes looking desperately for a real story, but they're fun action scenes amongst a crowd of laughably inane concepts. It's fun to admire the awfulness of a film like this, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it is, indeed, awful.
*1/2 out of **** (3/10, D)
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Nathaniel R. Atcheson
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