JCVD Plays With Himself in DOUBLE IMPACT (4K)

DOUBLE IMPACT (4K UHD)

1991 / 110 min

MVD REWIND COLLECTION

Review by Mr. Bonnie, the Brainsmasher😼

Looking back at his lengthy filmography, it’s clear that Jean-Claude Van Damme’s favorite co-star is…Jean-Claude Van Damme. Giving ol’ Peter Sellers a run for his money, the Muscles from Brussels has played dual roles in no-less than four films, meaning he has shared the screen with himself more than any other actor he’s worked with.

1991’s Double Impact was the first of ‘em. He plays Alex and Chad Wagner, separated as babies after their wealthy parents were murdered by Hong Kong gangsters. Chad is raised in America by Dad’s former bodyguard, Frank Avery (Geoffrey Lewis), where he grows up to be a martial arts instructor. Alex, on the other hand, remains in Hong Kong, becoming a tough, streetwise smuggler. 

Chad learns about his twin when he and Frank go to Hong Kong, the latter informing both that they’re the proper heirs to their father’s tunnel project, which is currently under the control of Nigel Griffith (Alan Scarfe). Working with a Chinese triad, Griffith is also the man who had the Wagners’ parents murdered. So it’s payback time as Alan and Chad ultimately team up to go scorched-earth on Griffith and the gangsters.

Of course, we ain’t exactly talking The Corsican Brothers here (though Dumas’ novel was an apparent early inspiration). Double Impact largely coasts on the gimmick of two Van Dammes for the price of one. Other than that, it’s your usual revenge-fueled action fest, its perfunctory plot serving as a clothesline on which to hang gunfights, chases, roundhouse kicks and plenty of kaboom. Thrown in for good measure is a gratuitous, amusingly out-of-place sex scene between Van Damme and Alonna Shaw (on-hand to provide eye candy and be placed in peril).

"Aw...my wittle man has tummy twouble?"

While certainly no classic, Double Impact is fairly enjoyable. Stating the obvious, Van Damme has never been gifted with a lot of range (nor has he needed it), but does an adequate job establishing the distinctive personalities of each twin. He’s sometimes even kind of funny in scenes where Alex and Chad initially do not get along (a prerequisite for all buddy action movies). Elsewhere, the action scenes are handled with slick professionalism, offering plenty of opportunities for Van Damme and his favorite co-star to do their thing, which is ultimately why we pay our two bits in the first place. 

I’ll say this much…Double Impact may be little more than a B-movie guilty pleasure, but MVD has always done right by this one. It’s been previously released on Blu-ray with the same bounty of bonus features (the best being a feature-length retrospective documentary). Now it’s being given a 4K upgrade. Since I’m decidedly not a Van Damme completist, I can’t say whether or not the new transfer is a significant improvement, but overall, the film looks and sounds really good.

EXTRA KIBBLES

THE MAKING OF DOUBLE IMPACT - The best of the new bonus features, the two-part, feature length documentary is even longer than the film itself. Features plenty of interviews with the cast and crew, including director Sheldon Lettich and JCVD himself, who sometimes speaks nonsensically.

FEATURETTES - Anatomy of a Scene features director Sheldon Lettich discussing his favorite action sequence in the film; Double Impact Behind the Scenes is an archival making-of from 1991.

EPK INTERVIEWS & FILM CLIPS

B-ROLL CLIPS

MVD REWIND PROMO

MINI POSTER

TRAILER

4K UHD Giveaway: THE RUNNING MAN (SteelBook)

FREE KITTENS MOVIE GUIDE is giving away a 4K SteelBook copy of THE RUNNING MAN, courtesy of ALLIANCE ENTERTAINMENT and PARAMOUNT. 

From the novel by Stephen King and directed by Edgar Wright, The Running Man is a fun, unhinged deadly game show where contestants must survive 30 days while being hunted by professional assassins. 

TO ENTER:

Shoot us an email at freekittensmovieguide@gmail.com

Contest ends 3/15

U.S. Residents Only

THE RUNNING MAN Almost Goes the Distance

THE RUNNING MAN (4K UHD SteelBook)

2025 / 133 min

Paramount

Review by Stinky the Destroyer😼

Stephen King’s dystopian sci-fi novel, The Running Man, was my favorite of those he originally wrote under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman. Gritty, brutal and exceedingly dark, I thought it would make a great movie. However, the 1987 version with Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn’t what I had in mind. Gleefully tossing damn near everything but the title, it was a garish, dumbed-down cartoon loaded with WWE glitz and plenty of Arnie’s eye-rolling one-liners. 

Sure, the movie is fun and still has a fanbase who embrace its kitchiness, but at the time, this was the biggest bastardization of a King story since Kubrick dug his mitts into The Shining. I walked out of the theater thinking The Running Man would still make a great movie…just not this one.

If nothing else, director/co-writer Edgar Wright has the right approach for the 2025 version, which is not-so-much a remake as another adaptation of the same source material. As such, it stays more faithful to the novel in terms of both the story, satiric elements and anti-authoriarian themes. And for the first two hours, this is The Running Man I’ve been waiting to see for 40 years. Too bad Wright doesn’t stick the landing. In fact, it’s more like a crash landing…the kind that leaves no survivors.

The Running Man depicts a dystopian future ruled by fascism, with nearly every aspect of daily life overseen by The Network, including televised entertainment created to placate the masses. Most programming consists of game shows in which financially desperate people have a chance to win cash by participating in dangerous (often fatal) competitions. The most popular one is The Running Man, where contestants win a billion dollars if they can stay on the run for 30 days without being killed by a squad of hunters, aided by an entire population who can also win cash for spotting contestants (or killing them themselves). 

One of those contestants is Ben Richards (Glen Powell), a married man who can’t hang onto a job due to “insubordination.” Desperate to provide real medicine for his sick daughter, he auditions for a show and is selected for The Running Man, mainly because producer Dan Killian (Josh Brolin) feels Ben's strength and anger issues will make great television. Despite the fact that no previous contestant has ever survived the full 30 days, Ben reluctantly agrees to participate.

The bulk of the film consists of Ben’s efforts to stay alive, made more challenging by the TV audience being manipulated into seeing him as an evil, violent man who deserves to die. He’s relentlessly pursued by the show’s masked star, Evan McCone (Lee Pace), and his hunters. Along the way, he’s assisted by some that want to see him go the distance, most notably those who are part of an underground resistance movement against the government. In addition to plenty of violent, explosive action, the film’s underlying themes are pretty timely, particularly those presenting the government controlled media as shamelessly manipulative (and not too far removed from what we’re experiencing in the real world right now). 

The selfie that launched a thousand restraining orders.

And up to a point, The Running Man is very entertaining and boosted considerably by Powell’s performance, who more-or-less embodies the Ben Richards I imagined when reading the book. Speaking of which, the film remains fairly faithful to the novel, if not always the plot, then definitely its spirit. Then there’s the climax. All I can say is…what happened? It’s one thing to make wholesale changes when adapting a novel into a film, which King fans should be used to by now. And I’m not necessarily opposed to such changes because films are a different medium than books, so I always remain open minded. After all, it was Frank Darabont (not King) who gave us one of horror’s most devastating endings with The Mist.

But without giving too much away, the climax of The Running Man is godawful, and straying from King’s original ending is the least of its sins. Not only is Wright’s conclusion unsatisfactory (and unnecessary), it hits us like a suckerpunch, presented in a way that totally negates the tone he worked so hard to achieve during the first two hours. It also happens to be really stupid, reflecting a rushed attempt to wrap things up with a denouement that plays more like an homage to the 1987 film than the novel it's based on.  

Until then, this is arguably the best adaptation of The Running Man that one can probably hope for. Despite its length, the film is fast-moving and boasts several impressive action sequences, as well as some amusing satire and a prevalent anti-authoritarian message (or warning?). Just be prepared to experience a bit of WTF whiplash during the climax. Or better yet, shut the damn thing off immediately after the airplane sequence (which King concluded his story with). 

For its home media release, Paramount has put together a great 4K/Blu-ray combo package featuring an excellent video and audio transfer for both formats, with vivid color, sharp detail and a booming Dolby Atmos track. The set also includes a big selection of interesting (sometimes pretty amusing) bonus features. The SteelBook release we reviewed boasts artwork that, if not particularly creative, at least reflects the movie’s overall vibe pretty effectively.

EXTRA KIBBLES

4K, BLU-RAY and DIGITAL COPIES (The 4K includes all of the bonus features listed below; the Blu-ray features selected ones).

FEATURETTES - The Hunt Begins features Edgar Wright discussing how he got involved; The Hunters and the Hunted showcases the cast & characters; Welcome to the Running Man: Designing the World is a look at the production design; Surviving the Game: Shooting The Running Man features a lot of on-set behind-the-scenes footage; Stunts Compilation; Hair, Make-up & Costume Tests.

AUDIO COMMENTARY - By director/co-writer Edgar Wright, actor Glen Powell and co-writer Michael Bacall.

THE RUNNING MAN COMMERCIALS - Faux commercials as seen in the film.

SPEED THE WHEEL and THE AMERICANOS - Footage of the fake shows as seen in the film.

THE APOSTLE - Similar to the above-mentioned features, this is footage of the Apostle’s broadcasts.

DELETED/EXTENDED SCENES

TRAILERS