Dorathen
Better Late Then Never
Melanie Bouvet
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
Aspen Orson
There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.
Prismark10
Knock Off is the film that marked JCVD's rapid decline as a Hollywood star. It does looks like a cheap knock off of a martial arts action comedy movie. I can only guess that Jackie Chan rejected the original script.Set in Hong Kong in the eve of the British handover of the colony to the Chinese, which in no way explains why the place is crawling with CIA operatives. Jean Claude Van Damme plays Marcus Ray who is involved in fake fashion designs with Tommy Hendricks (Rob Schneider) as well as taking part in Rickshaw races.However Ray and Hendricks must stop the Russian mafia who are smuggling fake goods with micro bombs inserted inside.The plot is a confusing mess, so are the fight scenes. The special effects are bad with green smoke and explosions. The acting is hammy, by the late 1990s it was obvious that only Pauly Shore was below Schneider in marking a film as comedy death if one of them appeared in it.
SnoopyStyle
It's 1997 Hong Kong. Marcus Ray (Jean-Claude Van Damme) and Tommy Hendricks (Rob Schneider) buy and sell cheap knock off merchandises. They get entangled in a deadly conspiracy when their rickshaw race is attacked by the Russians. Tommy knocks out police detective Ling Ho and they get detained. Karen Lee is an executive at V-Six jeans and she's angry at them trying to pass her their knock offs. She's raiding a factory leased by their friend Eddie Wang and threatens to send them to prison. Ray is shocked that his four-year partner Tommy works undercover for the CIA under Harry Johannson (Paul Sorvino).This is a rather silly movie. Van Damme and Schneider are trying to be a comedic duo. The joke is that all their products keep breaking. Neither are good actors and I think they make each other worst. The story is too much of a silly mess to explain. It's international espionage about nano-bombs in counterfeit jeans. Somebody should really reconsider this script. I'm willing to live with a lot from a Van Damme movie but this is too infuriating.
ebiros2
The movie is kind of like the self parody of a Hong Kong movie. Even the theme of the movie is the "Fake" merchandise going through HK. But there's nothing fake about the movie's quality. From the very opening sequence where Michael Wong goes after the smugglers, the movie has high quality action all the way to the very end.In between the hard core action, John Claude Van Damme's character puts in comical performance that's pretty funny, getting into all sorts of trouble while trying to make money on fake Nike shoes, and designer jeans. The charming insincerity seems to fit JC's character perfectly as the fake merchandise dealer / accidental good guy.While this movie is not made by any notable HK movie studio, it's easily one of the best movie to come out of Hong Kong. It's a great movie for Asian and action movie fans alike.
FlashCallahan
Marcus Ray and Tommy Hendricks are sales reps for V SIX Jeans, and they are enjoying life in Hong Kong.While Tommy busily prepares for the latest fashion show, Marcus is off looking at knock off goods: imitation watches, jewellery, and baby dolls, in which his longtime friend Eddie Wang is involved.When Marcus and Tommy's supervisor arrives and informs them that much of their last shipment of jeans was filled with knock off imitations, the two can't believe her, but they agree to help in raiding a warehouse to prove their innocence.After a violent encounter, Marcus eventually learns that Tommy is an undercover CIA agent, and so is Karen.Meeting with their boss, Johansson, Marcus learns of a conspiracy involving the Russian mafia and their attempts to smuggle tiny, but highly explosive "microbombs" to the black market.Any film that features Van Damme in a movie about exploding designer jeans, has to be seen to be believed.Is it plausible? anything is really, but is it any good? Well it's so absurd and silly, it's very very enjoyable and furthermore, a lot of fun.This was Van Dammes last proper big screen outing that wasn't a sequel, or docu-drama, and it feels like the studio has given up on him, which is a shame.Harks direction and camera-work is frenetic and downright bizarre and you can see where Neveldine and Taylor get some of their ideas from.The action is well paced and there is obvious wire work involved, but it's all comic book in tone, and it's tongue in cheek throughout.With a great supporting cast, this film is unfairly despised, thanks to movie snobs who just dismiss the actors work.A great piece to watch with Double Team..
