Maximum Risk was released in 1996, the year after Species was released and was, if I remember correctly, a huge hit. I was in high school at the time, and I know it was highly popular with my peers, who are clearly the same target audience that director Ringo Lam was shooting for with Maximum Risk. Van Damme lends his cult star power along with Natasha Henstridge (which the IMDb claims is sometimes credited as "The Chick From Species") under the direction of Hong Kong action director Lam and the result is a remarkably bad, by-the-numbers revenge drama.
The movie opens with a routine high speed chase that is interesting only because it takes places through tiny alleys in the south of France and ends in a wild jump into oncoming traffic by the man being chased, who is played by Van Damme and who dies before we even see the title of the movie. The last movie that I watched before this one was Universal Soldier, another movie in which Van Damme's character is killing within the first few minutes of the movie, so I was surprised to see it happen again given that this is obviously a very different movie. But if nothing else, the opening chase definitely gets your attention, if only to make you wonder what would make him so desperate to escape from the men chasing him, who turned out to be government agents.
But an early death is not the only familiar thing we'll see. Van Damme also plays a double role and spends most of the movie trying to avenge his brother, You see, it seems that there is a French cop who bears an astonishing resemblance to the man killed in the chase, and after some investigation it's revealed that he is a long lost brother. The mother tearfully admits that she had to give up her other son when he was an infant because she couldn't support two children, and never told her other son Alain (the French police officer) that he ever had a brother.
That's basically the set-up, and Alain drops everything and sets off on a personal quest to find out who his brother was and who killed him and why. This is what leads him to Alex, his dead brother's girlfriend, played by Natasha Henstridge, who surely would never have taken such a ridiculous role had she not been brand new in the movies. This is her second film, and I am at a loss to explain why she would accept such a ludicrous role other than her inexperience in film.
Alex is an ex-stripper who is now a waitress for questionable characters ("less money but more respectable"), who doesn't blink when Alain shows up at her work, other than to rush him out because he's not exactly welcome there. He tends to be stone silent when he approaches people who think that he is his brother, but in most cases ultimately he comes right out and tells them, and when he tells Alex, she joins him in his mission.
Sadly, there is nothing interesting or original about the movie. Every character is a cliché, good guys or bad. All that's left is Alain's quest to learn about his brother's life and bring his killers to justice, which is honorable but all he can do is spout cheesy lines about how he's not going to rest until his brother's killers are brought to justice. I have said before that Van Damme gets a lot of bad press about his movies, and I think that because of that people often forget that his characters are almost always motivated by very honorable ideas and values. He delivers a good message in a way that very few other action stars do, and unfortunately in Maximum Risk the problem is that it's too obvious and there's not really anything else in the movie to entertain us along the way.
James Berardinelli, for example, claims in his review that Van Damme's acting ability "can charitably be described as 'limited,'" so clearly there can be no satisfactory emotional content in the movie. He's right that Van Damme's acting is often wooden and unconvincing, but dead wrong that he can't do it. Sadly, it wasn't until eight years later, in Wake of Death (which Berardinelli didn't see) that Van Damme showed without question that he can definitely convey emotions. WOW.
There is the issue that there is no chemistry whatsoever between Van Damme and Henstridge, but a more pressing concern is that she was a man's lover and then, after he was killed, she honored his memory by becoming his twin brother's lover. Is it just me or does something about that just not come off right? Sort of throws a wet towel over the already boring and routine obligatory ending.
Unfortunately, Lam is not the first Hong Kong action director to enter the American market with a Van Damme disaster. John Woo, an occasionally lucky director, also came to America and brought us Hard Target, another of Van Damme's few thorough disappointments. Van Damme is a major action star with genuine talent and appeal, but sadly this movie was worth the time of effort of anyone involved
The movie opens with a routine high speed chase that is interesting only because it takes places through tiny alleys in the south of France and ends in a wild jump into oncoming traffic by the man being chased, who is played by Van Damme and who dies before we even see the title of the movie. The last movie that I watched before this one was Universal Soldier, another movie in which Van Damme's character is killing within the first few minutes of the movie, so I was surprised to see it happen again given that this is obviously a very different movie. But if nothing else, the opening chase definitely gets your attention, if only to make you wonder what would make him so desperate to escape from the men chasing him, who turned out to be government agents.
But an early death is not the only familiar thing we'll see. Van Damme also plays a double role and spends most of the movie trying to avenge his brother, You see, it seems that there is a French cop who bears an astonishing resemblance to the man killed in the chase, and after some investigation it's revealed that he is a long lost brother. The mother tearfully admits that she had to give up her other son when he was an infant because she couldn't support two children, and never told her other son Alain (the French police officer) that he ever had a brother.
That's basically the set-up, and Alain drops everything and sets off on a personal quest to find out who his brother was and who killed him and why. This is what leads him to Alex, his dead brother's girlfriend, played by Natasha Henstridge, who surely would never have taken such a ridiculous role had she not been brand new in the movies. This is her second film, and I am at a loss to explain why she would accept such a ludicrous role other than her inexperience in film.
Alex is an ex-stripper who is now a waitress for questionable characters ("less money but more respectable"), who doesn't blink when Alain shows up at her work, other than to rush him out because he's not exactly welcome there. He tends to be stone silent when he approaches people who think that he is his brother, but in most cases ultimately he comes right out and tells them, and when he tells Alex, she joins him in his mission.
Sadly, there is nothing interesting or original about the movie. Every character is a cliché, good guys or bad. All that's left is Alain's quest to learn about his brother's life and bring his killers to justice, which is honorable but all he can do is spout cheesy lines about how he's not going to rest until his brother's killers are brought to justice. I have said before that Van Damme gets a lot of bad press about his movies, and I think that because of that people often forget that his characters are almost always motivated by very honorable ideas and values. He delivers a good message in a way that very few other action stars do, and unfortunately in Maximum Risk the problem is that it's too obvious and there's not really anything else in the movie to entertain us along the way.
James Berardinelli, for example, claims in his review that Van Damme's acting ability "can charitably be described as 'limited,'" so clearly there can be no satisfactory emotional content in the movie. He's right that Van Damme's acting is often wooden and unconvincing, but dead wrong that he can't do it. Sadly, it wasn't until eight years later, in Wake of Death (which Berardinelli didn't see) that Van Damme showed without question that he can definitely convey emotions. WOW.
There is the issue that there is no chemistry whatsoever between Van Damme and Henstridge, but a more pressing concern is that she was a man's lover and then, after he was killed, she honored his memory by becoming his twin brother's lover. Is it just me or does something about that just not come off right? Sort of throws a wet towel over the already boring and routine obligatory ending.
Unfortunately, Lam is not the first Hong Kong action director to enter the American market with a Van Damme disaster. John Woo, an occasionally lucky director, also came to America and brought us Hard Target, another of Van Damme's few thorough disappointments. Van Damme is a major action star with genuine talent and appeal, but sadly this movie was worth the time of effort of anyone involved