Darkness of Man

First off, if you are going into this film expecting your normal JCVD action film with high flying kicks and straight up action then stop right now because you will be disappointed, but that doesn't mean that the film wasn't enjoyable. Darkness of Man may not be a straight up action vehicle that Van Damme has released before but this film does offer entertainment and I enjoyed Van Damme a lot in this film, but the real Suprise for me was Spencer Breslin (Santa Clause, The Kid, Cat in the hat, Zoom) as his character was definitely not what I was expecting, their are also a slew of cameos, like 90210's Shannon Doughtery who had a small part in the film, legendary actor Eric Roberts actually had a blink of an eye cameo in the film and then martial arts dragon Queen Cynthia Rothrock as a Nurse in the film. The tone of this film gave a noir film feeling with a little gritty tone, the acting was good, the story was good and overall Darkness of man was a entertaining and great film. You can definitely tell that JC has more focus on acting now then anything and it shows ..

International police Russell Hatch (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is almost killed during a raid. Masked gunmen attack his confidential informant and faked her suicide. He promised to care for her son Jayden. It's two years later in L. A. Jayden is caught up in a Korean gang and Russell intervenes.

This is a crime drama B-movie trying to inject some neo-noir style. JCVD has been around for forty years and his acting has barely improved. This has a lot of narration from him and his accent is still the same. The filmmaking is mostly uninspired and the story is blandly derivative. There is one action scene where they try to make it interesting. The camera is stationed inside a van as the fight goes around the van outside. It would have been nice to have it a long uncut scene. JCVD is an older gentleman now and that may be asking too much from him.

I wonder what all the negative voices expected. The film has a good atmosphere, it doesn't look cheap and Van-Damme shows again that he can act. The rest of the cast acts solidly and there is no disruptive factor. The action scenes are also impressive and are staged subtly but crisply. A particular highlight is a fight scene from the perspective of a van. Very creative and the force is literally noticeable. The days of helicopter kicks and splits are over. And somehow I'm even happy about it. Van-Damme is 63 and his roles should also be tailored to his age. For me, it's the perfect midnight film because of its neo-noir atmosphere.

Omg... it's bad... it's not just bad... it's... uh.. Nicholas Cage bad, if you get my drift. I mean, I have no idea what I just watched and the story that just went nowhere with jittery action scenes that were boring and predictable.

Calling this low budget would be an understatement, and the monologue? Wow... puts me to sleep. Just skip this one and put JCVD on the list of washed out actors looking to pay their rent.

I was watching this while on the computer doing my work and it still irritated me like no tomorrow. Dark, hard to see, and just boring... save yourself the time.

I think 2 out of 10 is generous.

The film noir poster on the wall is significant, Van Damme plays the washed-up agent with alcohol problems. The focus is on that mime, JCVD focuses on acting aspects in the autumn of acting, certainly also because physical action is only possible to a limited extent. His ambitions in all honour, but let's be honest, what is it that we want to see from him? The budget was there, that's obvious, Darkness Of Man looks good and has some nice cameos. In terms of staging, however, it overreaches itself, wanting to be more audience-orientated than it should be. Above all else, the voiceover constantly echoes with the audience, no doubt intended as a Hemingway-esque pretension screw.

Once again, the cultural enrichment through immigrants is thematised. The living conditions of the original citizens are improved by robbery, murder, receiving stolen goods, drugs, prostitution, blackmail and so on. Funnily enough, we find these officially pure fantasy products in every second action film. Just misplaced stereotypes, I'm sure.

Speaking of action, there's a little brawl every 25 minutes. But Van Damme is just a boxer, with no kick. In the last half hour, there is a categorical final revenge campaign according to the standard formula, at least the level is ok. This release will not end up in any top rating.