Double Impact Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Review
Between 1988 and 1994, Jean-Claude Van Damme starred in 12 movies. The Van Damme craze kicked off with 1988’s BLOODSPORT and came to a crashing halt with the abysmal STREET FIGHTER in 1994 where even Van Damme seemed confused as to why he was there. But smack in the middle of the Van Damme hysteria was 1991’s DOUBLE IMPACT. It’s an easy joke to make, but one can only assume that studio executives were trying to find creative ways to capitalize on Van Damme’s appeal and we can only imagine someone yelling out “what if there were two of them?” And so birthed DOUBLE IMPACT. If we’re judging those 13 movies, I put DOUBLE IMPACT in the bottom half. It’s another “action” movie that sometimes forgets about the action. And at the risk of sounding like overly PC, the movie is insanely misogynistic, so much so that it’s hard to watch it by today’s standards.
The most surprising aspect of DOUBLE IMPACT is the fact it doesn’t start horribly. In fact, I’d argue that the filmmakers justify the separated twins gimmick pretty well by having the twins go their separate ways as babies when their politician father gets gunned down in Hong Kong. But it doesn’t take long for the filmmakers to bring everything back down to expectations because no plot point from that point forward makes sense. To be clear, we’re not really even sure why the brothers so angry. We understand that a ruthless crime boss had their parents murdered, but there’s a loose promise of them getting money/land/power (we’re not really sure) once they carry out their vengeance. But the story is enough to propel the plot forward and so the two brothers team up with the old man that raised one of them and the other’s girlfriend.
You didn’t show up to a Van Damme movie in the 90’s (or ever, really) hoping for an intricate plot that made sense. You showed up to watch Van Damme do the splits and beat up a lot of bad guys. Well, he does the splits early on and beats up plenty of baddies, but none of the fights are very well choreographed. Van Damme was a world champion kickboxer and some of his bad guy foes were martial artists in real life, so I’m not sure why the fight scenes were so bad, but they were some of Van Damme’s worst. Part of the blame can go to director Sheldon Lettich, who is better known for his screenplays and actually got his start writing the underrated RUSSKIES and then went on to write a few Van Damme films as well as RAMBO III. Oh, and did I mention it was misogynistic? The low point in the film comes after Chad gets drunk and imagines his girlfriend sleeping with his brother. The scene was terrible and was clearly an excuse for some T&A, but she’s rewarded by a punch in the face from Chad when she sees him again. But this was the early 90’s, so all is quickly forgiven and she’s back in his arms a few beats later.
DOUBLE IMPACT is not Van Damme’s worst film, but aside from there being two Van Damme’s, it’s pretty forgettable. People that remember the film from 1991 might get a bit of nostalgia revisiting it, but I can’t see newcomers appreciating it at all. People looking for fun Van Damme movies can do much better than DOUBLE IMPACT.
BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: For what kind of movie this is, MVD has done a great job of cleaning up this transfer. The film looks great and is an improvement over the previous Blu-ray release.
Audio: The audio is fine.
The Making of Double Impact (1:51:30): This is broken up into two parts, but I have no idea why. And right off the bat, I can’t believe a movie like DOUBLE IMPACT gets a nearly two hour making-of featurette. And what’s worse, it’s actually pretty great and gives you just about every detail you can think of into the making of the film. It’s fun to see how candid the cast and crew are with their interviews, including Van Damme.
Deleted Scenes (54:00): If the two hour making-of featurette wasn’t enough, how about almost an hour of deleted scenes? These are in various stages of quality, but they’re fun to watch, just for the sheer surprise that they exist.
Anatomy of a Scene (8:00): Ledditch talks about a fight scene in Hong Kong.
Behind the Scenes Featurette (7:00): This is an old fluff piece.
B Roll Selections (8:05): Random behind the scenes shots.
Film Clips, Interview clips, MVD Rewind Promo and Trailers