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Knock
Off
Directed by Hark Tsui, 1998
Jean-Claude Van
Damme offers up another action-packed performance in
1998’s Knock Off. Marcus Ray (Van Damme) is running a
clothing factory in Hong Kong, but padding the shipments
with counterfeit goods. Meanwhile, crooked Chinese
businessmen are manufacturing and reselling the shoddy
goods; the Russian Mafia is smuggling “nanobombs” into
the USA via the knock-offs; and the CIA is trying to get
to the bottom of things. How can you tell who the good
guys are? Who cares! Knock Off doesn’t spend a lot of
time developing characters and races past some huge plot
holes, but rewards the viewer with a bunch of
well-choreographed and nicely filmed stunts and action
sequences.
An early scene involving a ridiculous rickshaw race
provides the setting for some inventive stunts and great
filming. And for the women, there are some gratuitous
shots of Van Damme’s backside. Rob Schneider plays Tommy
Hendricks, Ray’s business partner and an undercover CIA
agent. Unlike his previous roles in action movies (Demolition
Man, Judge Dredd), Schneider’s performance in Knock Off
is not played entirely for laughs. Lela Rochon (Waiting to
Exhale) provides the sexy female foil — and requisite
cleavage — managing to hold her own around the guys.
Finally, an extra, unnecessary layer is provided by
setting events in the seventy-two hours before Great
Britain’s 1997 hand-over of Hong Kong to China.
Although Rated R for violence, it is probably safe for
most teens to watch as most of the violence is obviously
cartoonish and there is a distinct lack of sex and
profanity. |
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