Maximum Risk

"Parents always lie to their children, to prepare them for the way they'll be treated later by the government."

What do you get when you put van Damme in a movie directed by Ringo Lam, alongside Natasha Henstridge, playing twins again but one of the two brothers dies rather quick and the movie being more towards thriller instead of the usual actioner? Well, a pretty darn entertaining movie.

Ringo Lam gets the best out of Jean-Claude here and they even made two more movies together! Both pretty entertaining! They are a great combination.

Anyway we get a great opening sequence, a fight in a sweat room, Russians, evil FBI guys, an explosive car chase, great kicks, a fight in a elevator, Jean-Claude biting bad guys, Natasha Henstridge because as beautiful as ever, Paul Ben-Victor still not having a head full of hair and a cliché end credits song.

Maximum Risk is a risk worth taking if you haven't seen this late 90's van Damme yet! One of his finest.

An immensely entertaining JCVD actioner. Top-notch direction. The entire sauna sequence is great. Van Damme is sexy as hell (he looks better when he hides his muscles under modern clothing) and is complemented by Natasha Henstridge in a role that's deserving of her statuesque good looks (unlike, say, Species). They simply look amazing together in matching leather coats. Story one might say is silly; I say it's romantic. Nothing about it feels stupid or cheap; it's serious, clean filmmaking.
p.s. There's fun to be had in hearing Stéphane Audran (as VD's mother) mucking up French with an Americanized accent.