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As Hong Kong neared its return to being Chinese rule in 1997, many of its filmmakers decided to find work abroad… just in case things didn’t work out well. One such individual was Ringo Lam, the accomplished director of Full Contact, The Twin Dragons, City On Fire (the inspiration of Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs) and several other films that ended with “On Fire”. Unfortunately, there was some sort of unwritten law (or maybe an initiation) that stated any and all Hong Kong directors that were making their American debut had to helm an action vehicle with Jean Claude Van Damme.
Why? Well, your guess is as good as mine there. Perhaps somebody on an upper rung of the Hollywood ladder was a big Van Fan and was hoping these Internationally acclaimed Hong Kong fellers would rejuvenate his waning career. Personally, I theorize that it was a combination of fear and penis envy… and that the white round-eyed devils in America wanted the (much better) boys from Hong Kong to fail because they were afraid they would take over.
Somehow, this brings us Maximum Risk, Van Damme’s fourteenth top-billed starring role (in an eight-year span!) and the beginning of his career with Sony Pictures which stated out with theatrical flicks like this and ended with direct-to-video wonders that soon had Steven Seagal and Wesley Snipes jumping on the bandwagon.
Compared to any of Lam’s earlier HK works, Maximum Risk isn’t that great of a movie… but when you hold it up to most of Van Damme’s previous (and later) pictures, Maximum Risk is a mini-masterpiece. In it, Jean Claude plays another duel role as twins separated at birth. When one (a former member of the Russian mob) turns up dead in Nice, the living one (a French cop) heads to the Big Apple to find out who his lost sibling was, who killed him, and why. Pretty standard stuff as far as your average action film goes, but this vehicle gave the fading Belgian star the opportunity to hang from things, beat up bad guys wearing nothing but a towel, and befriend his late brother’s hot girlfriend (Natasha Henstridge, or “that chick from Species” as many people still refer to her as). Also appearing in this pleasant no-brainer are Jean-Hughes Anglade, Zach Grenier, and Paul Ben-Victor (who always seems to play the same character).
Personally, I don’t think it’s that bad of a movie, but as a Ringo Lam film, it’s rather so-so.
It’s definitely better than Double Impact or Kickboxer though.
Presentation
Maximum Risk makes its Blu-ray debut in a 1080p 2.40:1 widescreen transfer. While I cannot say that it’s the best Blu-ray presentation I’ve ever seen (and I haven‘t seen that many as of this writing), it certainly looks pretty decent for a twelve-year-old film that nobody ever really gave a shit about to being with.
Soundwise, we’re treated to a very nice English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 track as well as a French TrueHD 5.1 (which wasn‘t as hot), Thai Dolby Digital 5.1 (which is better), Spanish Dolby Surround (which was a‘ight), and a Portuguese Dolby Surround track (which downright sucked). Subtitles are provided in English, English (SDH), French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean, Thai, Indonesian, Arabic, and Dutch (phew!).
Extras
I guess all of those language and subtitles tracks were added to make up for the lack of extras. All this Blu-ray title offers is the original Theatrical Trailer (1:26) and several additional Previews for Blu-Ray Promo, Redbelt, Starship Troopers 3: Marauder, Resident Evil: Degeneration, and “Damages” Season One. There’s also one of those BD Live things is on here as well.
The Bottom Line
It’s pretty low budget action fare, but as far as Van Damme films go, it’s one of his best.
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