Inferno

Hey, if you want art go to a museum. This thing is entertaining. Slow start but it makes up for that. Funny in understated ways. Vivid characters that weren't all made with cookie cutters. If the dialog had been witless the life would have drained out of this movie as easily as the bad guys die. But I'll wager the writer (Tom O'Rourke II) was awake and had some fun. I was too and I did too. Hats off to him.

We (viewers) made Hollywood (filmmakers) to have a steady source of diversionary schlock. This one delivers.

P.S. Should get an award for egregious miscasting: Vincent Schiavelli as a Sikh?

I originally didn't really have any intentions of watching Dessert Heat. As much as I love a Van Damme film, the fact this is one of his released straight to DVD films did put me off. I only ended up purchasing it because I happened to come across it in the 50 Pence section of a DVD and Games store we have in the UK. I thought for 50p why not. And to be fair, I really enjoyed it.

If you can prepare to watch a movie and not take it too seriously then it's worth a watch to let the time pass and entertain you. Don't get me wrong, it's not Universal Soldier or Sudden Death. But Van Damme kicks ass in this.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable.****Very Good.***Okay.**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead.*Avoid At All Costs.

Granted the Belgian one's recent spate of work has been the deplorable 'Knock Off'and,although I hav'nt seen it(don't want to)rather repellent 'Universal Soldier:The Return',and granted the overall quality of the movie,Inferno is a Van Damme movie I rather enjoyed.The opening scene especially,of Van Damme in the desert with the nutty Mexican bloke off 'Con Air' and 'Point Blank' was very well written and strangely effecting.You also got to feel for the resident's of the town,including the 2 pretty waitresses,the old guy,and the standard wise old Japanese guy.And there was of course,some great kickboxing action,at the end especially.

Also,towards the end especially,the movie loses it's sense of pace a bit,and goes a bit awry.And the gunfights wer'nt great.But overall,these were minor quibbles in a very entertaining action vehicle.****

Fair to say that the Muscles from Brussels has put out much better films both before and after 'Desert Heat' aka 'Inferno', in which JCVD plays a mysterious Eddie Lomax left for dead in the desert by some goons who steal his bike. It was apparently a nice bike because Lomax can only think of getting it back, and exacting a little revenge on the guys who took it.

This is Van Damme's attempt at a modern day western revenge saga, I guess. It takes a long while to really hit it's stride, the characters are kind of weird, and not even your standard Van Damme action scenes are enough to make this a good film.

I tried hard, because I like good and bad Van Dame, but just couldn't get excited about this one.

Anyway, you shouldn't compare this movie to either of the above. Although I haven't seen Yojimbo (pronounced Yo-Jimbo by one of the characters), but I'm sure it won't be fair to all of them.

This movie is an action movie, with Van Damme as the good guy, but it's not very serious. Sure, there are explosions and guns and kicks and a completely unnecessary sex scene and all that, but it seems like there are quite a lot comic relief moments and characters. Pat Morita and Bill Erwin reminded me of Statler and Waldorf from The Muppets, for one.

Van Damme plays an American, which meant that he talked very little and tried to talk in a raspy voice to disguise his accent. And you know what? It worked. The only thing that I couldn't let go is because I expected to hear his unique accent.

This movie is 95 minutes well spent. Don't go out of your way looking for it, but you don't have to avoid it either.