One of the most distinguishing things about Jean Claude Van Damme's career is he brought over so many Hong Kong directors to Hollywood. Hard Target introduced us to John Woo and this was the Hollywood debut of Ringo Lam, famous for City on Fire. Good move too for Lam is clearly trying hard to make this fresh and different - there is plenty of energy, the quality of support acting is strong, the action sequences are consistently interesting (a chase through a Russian steam bath, crashing on to taxis, fights in rickety old elevators). Van Damme gives one of his best performances.
The story isn't bad either and gets off to a great start, with Van Damme being pursued... then killed... then revealed to have a long lost identical twin a la Double Impact who is the actual hero. He takes his brother's place, which involves going to New York, meeting a comic relief cab driver (whose death is a big shock and good writing) and his brother's girlfriend (the gorgeous and ever-likeable Natasha Hestridge, who flashes a bit of boob and proves to be probably Van Damme's strongest female co star ever), and has Russian mafia.
However after 40 minutes or so I began to feel the filmmakers made a mistake killing off the brother - there was something a little hollow about him avenging the death of someone he never met and would never meet; the brother surviving and entering the action would have made a great third act. It would have enhanced the emotion of the film.
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