Double Team (1997)

User Rating:

4.0/10   

Director:

Hark Tsui

Writers (WGA):

Don Jakoby (story)
Don Jakoby (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

4 April 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

He's a one-man arsenal... with enough voltage to rock the free world.

Plot:

Counter-terrorist Jack Quinn misses his target, Stavros, on the eve of his final mission. From there...

Plot Keywords:

Agent | France | Terrorism | Antwerp Belgium | High Tech

Awards:

3 wins

Cast

Jean-Claude Van Damme	...	Jack Quinn
Dennis Rodman	...	Yaz
Mickey Rourke	...	Stavros
Paul Freeman	...	Goldsmythe
Natacha Lindinger	...	Kathryn Quinn
Valeria Cavalli	...	Dr. Maria Trifioli
Jay Benedict	...	Brandon
Joëlle Devaux-Vullion	...	Stavros' Girlfriend
Bruno Bilotta	...	Kofi
Mario Opinato	...	James
Grant Russell	...	Carney
William Dunn	...	Roger
Asher Tzarfati	...	Moishe
Rob Diem	...	Dieter Staal
Ken Samuels	...	Stevenson

Also Known As:

The Colony

MPAA:

Rated R for some nudity and brief strong language.

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #35076) | Iceland:16 | South Korea:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | UK:18 | Netherlands:12 (TV version) | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Germany:16 | Mexico:B | Netherlands:16 | Peru:18 | Portugal:M/12 | Singapore:PG | Spain:18 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Antwerpen, Antwerpen, Belgium

Company:

Columbia Pictures

Trivia:

Mickey Rourke underwent a serious martial arts regimen, not only to obtain the physical appearance in the film, but also in preparation for the fight scenes with Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Quinn places the skin from his thumb on the eraser while planning his escape, there is already blood on the eraser- probably from a previous take.

Quotes:

Yaz: Oops. Air ball.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Bang Boom Bang - Ein todsicheres Ding (1999)

Soundtrack:

Rush Hour

Van Damme v. a Tiger!

Continuing the tradition of successful Hong Kong directors going to Hollywood only to end up directing Jean-Claude Van Damme movies comes Tsui Hark with 'Double Team'. John Woo must have gotten lucky when he went to Hollywood: Ringo Lam is still making Van Damme movies, and Tsui Hark went back to Hong Kong after this and 'Knock Off'. I have nothing against Van Damme, but he seems to be some sort of trial-by-fire for any Hong Kong director with ambitions of making action films in Hollywood: If a director succeeds, he go on to Dolph Lundgren and then mainstream Hollywood action (John Woo), otherwise the director is faced with sticking with Van Damme movies or going back to Hong Kong.

Counter-terrorist Jack Quinn (Van Damme) is planning to retire after one final mission to nail the villainous Stavros (Mickey Rourke). The mission goes incredibly wrong: Stravos gets away, but somehow his son is killed in the cross-fire. Out for revenge, Stavros kidnaps the pregnant Kathryn Quinn (Natacha Lindinger), and the only way Jack can save is wife is team up with Yaz (Dennis Rodman) and kick-box his way to a happy ending.

Watching 'Double Team', I thought it was pretty clear than even Van Damme realizes that his movies are a joke to all but the most hardcore of action fans. Australian sketch comedy show 'Full Frontal' (featuring a not-so-famous Eric Bana) regularly took stabs at Van Damme for a good year or so ("YOU LAUGHTER CRACKIN' AT ME? ARRRGGGHHHHH!"), coincidentally around when 'Double Team' would have been released. At no point does 'Double Team' make any attempt to be taken as a serious action movie. All the fight scenes are played for laughs, if only slight chuckles. Van Damme gets to fight a tiger and use a coke-machine to shield himself from an explosion. All it really amounts to be is 90 minutes of action fun.

While fans of director Tsui Hark would be disappointed with this effort, something good came of Hark's short-lived collaborations with Van Damme: He went back to Hong Kong and directed the incredibly awesome 'Time and Tide' (which did not feature Jean-Claude Van Damme at all).

'Double Team' doesn't come to close to being one of Van Damme's best, and it might not even please hard-core Van Damme fans, but its all in good fun - 5/10