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