DOUBLE TEAM
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1997 Michael John Legeros
(Columbia)
Directed by Tsui Hark
Written by Dan Jakoby and Paul Mones, based on a story by Dan
Jakoby
Cast Jean-Claude Van Damme, Mickey Rourke, Dennis Rodman,
Natacha Lindinger, Paul Freeman
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for violence and profanity)
Running Time 98 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC
(05APR97)
==
Jean-Claude Van Damme's third pairing with a renowned Chinese film- maker-- director Tsui Hark, a veteran of fifty films including ONCE UPON A TIME IN CHINA-- is wonderfully dumb fun. And, I believe, even more movie than either HARD TARGET (directed by John Woo) or last year's MAX- IMUM RISK (Ringo Lam). In fact, the plot is so convoluted that even *I* couldn't follow all the twisty turns. (Terrorists. Counter-terrorists. Six-foot-eight arms dealers. Pregnant wives in peril. A Roman order of Internet-surfing monks. An island think tank of "retired" specialists. And one big Bengal tiger. Got it?) However head-spinning it sounds, this is another movie of stunts and set pieces and explosions. Lots of explosions. Forget the holes. Forget the believability quotient. For- get the high-profile presence of Dennis Rodman, one of many internation- al "stars" who appear here. It's Hark, his editor, and his many stunt coordinators and choreographers who take your breath away. All you have to do is buy a ticket. And a Coke.
Grade: B-
--
Mike Legeros - Movie Hell http://www.n-vision.com/hell/
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