Double Team (1997)

reviewed by
Jamie Peck


DOUBLE TEAM
RATING: *1/2 (out of ****) 

TriStar / 1:30 / 1997 / R (language, violence, Dennis Rodman) Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme; Mickey Rourke; Dennis Rodman; Natacha Lindinger; Paul Freeman Director: Tsui Hark Screenplay: Dan Jakoby; Paul Mones

Ripe with explosions, mass death and really weird hairdos, Tsui Hark's "Double Team" must be the result of a tipsy Hollywood power lunch that decided Jean-Claude Van Damme needs another notch on his bad movie-bedpost and NBA superstar Dennis Rodman should have an acting career.

Actually, in "Double Team," neither's performance is all that bad. I've always been the one critic to defend Van Damme -- he possesses a high charisma level that some genre stars (namely Steven Seagal) never aim for; it's just that he's never made a movie so exuberantly witty since 1994's "TimeCop." And Rodman ... well, he's pretty much Rodman. He's extremely colorful, and therefore he pretty much fits his role to a T, even if the role is that of an ex-CIA weapons expert.

It's the story that needs some major work. Van Damme plays counter-terrorist operative Jack Quinn, who teams up with arms dealer Yaz (Rodman) to rub out deadly gangster Stavros (Mickey Rourke, all beefy and weird-looking) in an Antwerp amusement park. The job is botched when Stavros' son gets killed in the gunfire, and Quinn is taken off to an island known as "The Colony" -- a think tank for soldiers "too valuable to kill" but "too dangerous to set free."

Quinn escapes and tries to make it back home to his pregnant wife (Natacha Lindinger), but Stavros is out for revenge and kidnaps her. So, what's a kickboxing mercenary to do? Quinn looks up Yaz and the two travel to Rome so they can rescue the woman, kill Stavros, save the world and do whatever else the screenplay requires them to do.

With crazy, often eye-popping camera work by Peter Pau and Rodman's Lite Brite locks, "Double Team" should be a mildly enjoyable guilty pleasure. But too much tries to happen in each frame, and the result is a movie that leaves you exhausted rather than exhilarated. The numerous action scenes are loud and headache-inducing and the frenetic pacing never slows down enough for us to care about what's going on in the movie.

And much of what's going on is just wacky. There's a whole segment devoted to net-surfing monks that I have yet to figure out. And the climax finds Quinn going head-to-head with a tiger in the Roman Coliseum while Yaz circles them on a motorcycle, trying to avoid running over land mines and hold on to Quinn's baby boy (who's in a bomb equipped basket) -- all this while Stavros watches shirtless from the bleachers. Did I mention "Double Team" is strange?

When it all comes down, this is just another rarely entertaining formula killathon, albeit one that feels no need to indulge in gratuitous profanity. Rodman juices things up with his blatantly vibrant screen persona, though, leading up to a stunt where he kicks an opponent between the legs. But we didn't need "Double Team" to tell us he could do that, did we?

© 1997 Jamie Peck E-mail: jpeck1@gl.umbc.edu Visit the Reel Deal Online: http://www.gl.umbc.edu/~jpeck1/


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