Along with Urban Justice, Seagal's latest shame, In Hell was part of our Christmas Eve DTV action movie marathon. When you're reviewing DTV Van Damme movies, you expect the crap detector to be working overtime. The Order, for instance, was more embarrassing to co-star Charlton Heston than that infamous Bowling for Columbine interview.
Why did we actually have hope for this one?
In Hell is directed by Hong Kong director Ringo Lam, who made several choice Chow Yun Fat films, which were every bit as good as "those" movies by John Woo. Classics like Full Contact, School on Fire, The Wild Search and City on Fire (Reservoir Dogs cloned City blantantly) were entertaining, if not somewhat derivative. More importantly for the purposes of our review, he made two excellent prison movies - Prison on Fire and its sequel.
That isn't to say that Ringo’s armor is not without its damage. He has still made excellent films in the last few years in Hong Kong, but it's going to be really hard to live down those two previous Van Damme misadventures. Not just two Van Damme movies, mind you, but a pair of Van Damme TWIN movies. The second of which, Replicant, is very much worth renting for Jean-Claude’s soul-searching commentary track. If you've ever wanted to hear the muscles from Brussels waxing about his declining career over a really bad sci-fi movie, look no further!
The plot here is simple - Van Damme is an American (with a strong accent) living in Russia. When his wife is murdered and the killer gets away on a technicality, the Dammster pulls out a gun and vetilates the guy right outside of the courtroom, winning him a life sentence in a brutal prison. The sadistic warden (where have we seen this before...) gets his kicks forcing the prisoners into "last man standing" fights, taking bribes to allow one prisoner to rape another, hanging people from handcuffs, putting them in "the hole" - you know, the usual exploitation movie prison shenanigans. There's also a pretty blatant Shawshank Redemption / Green Mile rip in the form of Van Damme's cellmate (football player Lawrence Taylor) and some amazing "Van Damme as Christ-figure" sequences. A scene featuring our star covered in blood, spazzing around on the ground and screaming maniacally had us in stitches. Thanks to these contrivances, it can be easily argued that this movie is basically a cross between Shawshank Redemption and Death Warrant, an earlier bad-action-in-prison Jean-Claude flick.
Why did we actually have hope for this one?
In Hell is directed by Hong Kong director Ringo Lam, who made several choice Chow Yun Fat films, which were every bit as good as "those" movies by John Woo. Classics like Full Contact, School on Fire, The Wild Search and City on Fire (Reservoir Dogs cloned City blantantly) were entertaining, if not somewhat derivative. More importantly for the purposes of our review, he made two excellent prison movies - Prison on Fire and its sequel.
That isn't to say that Ringo’s armor is not without its damage. He has still made excellent films in the last few years in Hong Kong, but it's going to be really hard to live down those two previous Van Damme misadventures. Not just two Van Damme movies, mind you, but a pair of Van Damme TWIN movies. The second of which, Replicant, is very much worth renting for Jean-Claude’s soul-searching commentary track. If you've ever wanted to hear the muscles from Brussels waxing about his declining career over a really bad sci-fi movie, look no further!
The plot here is simple - Van Damme is an American (with a strong accent) living in Russia. When his wife is murdered and the killer gets away on a technicality, the Dammster pulls out a gun and vetilates the guy right outside of the courtroom, winning him a life sentence in a brutal prison. The sadistic warden (where have we seen this before...) gets his kicks forcing the prisoners into "last man standing" fights, taking bribes to allow one prisoner to rape another, hanging people from handcuffs, putting them in "the hole" - you know, the usual exploitation movie prison shenanigans. There's also a pretty blatant Shawshank Redemption / Green Mile rip in the form of Van Damme's cellmate (football player Lawrence Taylor) and some amazing "Van Damme as Christ-figure" sequences. A scene featuring our star covered in blood, spazzing around on the ground and screaming maniacally had us in stitches. Thanks to these contrivances, it can be easily argued that this movie is basically a cross between Shawshank Redemption and Death Warrant, an earlier bad-action-in-prison Jean-Claude flick.
Predictability factor aside, In Hell is actually a solid film. We were not laughing as much as we usually do during these sorts of things. It's brutal, has some good fight scenes and Van Damme actually gives a decent performance, as his dialogue is kept to a bare minimum. Attention, future directors: the key to casting Van Damme and still turning out a good movie is to KEEP HIM FROM TALKING. We like dark films, and it has to be admitted that this one got pretty fucking bleak when Jean-Claude was Van Dammaging his head by slamming it against the cell wall. This is before the sadistic warden forces him into a fighting ring, mind you.
Jean-Claude has progressed some from being the guy doing the splits in every movie, or showing off his spandex-coated moose knuckle to his confused male fans. Out of all of the DTV action fodder that seems to pop up on a weekly basis, his movies tend to be the most watchable of the lot.
Is this movie worth your $2?:
Jean-Claude has progressed some from being the guy doing the splits in every movie, or showing off his spandex-coated moose knuckle to his confused male fans. Out of all of the DTV action fodder that seems to pop up on a weekly basis, his movies tend to be the most watchable of the lot.
Is this movie worth your $2?:
Yes, for fans of bad action who yearn for the days of olde. Ringo Lam’s bleak prison movie gets an above-average performance out of a cheesy action workhorse and is leaps ahead of most other DTV action fare. Come to think of it, it's better than most of the action movies that get released to theaters nowadays.
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