DOUBLE TEAM

In DOUBLE TEAM, Jean-Claude Van Damme returns to the only genre he knows: the action adventure movie with the poor script and the occasional taut action sequence. This outing has many thematic similarities to other action adventure flicks such as the hero coming out of retirement to do one last hit, the secret government operation, the untouchable villain, and the vulnerable wife. With ever-changing hair colors, Dennis Rodman makes a brief appearance as the movie’s token novelty act spewing out one liners and inside jokes on his basketball career.

The story begins with Jack Quinn, played by Van Damme, being called out of retirement to make a hit on the elusive terrorist, Stavros, played by Mickey Rourke. However, when Quinn sees Stavros hugging a child, thoughts of domestic bliss overwhelm Quinn’s killer instincts, and so he fails to take Stavros out. As punishment, Jack is sent to the Colony, a re-education camp for spies who are too dangerous to be set free and too valuable to kill. Jack’s wife, Katherine (Natasha Lindinger ), is told that Jack is dead, making her vulnerable to Stavros . Stavros kidnaps Katherine, who is pregnant, and Jack enacts a plan to be the first man to escape from the Colony.

With great daring-do, Jack barely escapes the Colony. Stavros hears that Jack is on the prowl again and sends thugs to remove him. At the same time, the Colony sends a hit man to take Jack out because he now represents a serious threat to its secrecy. Jack goes to see Yaz (Dennis Rodman), a weapons specialist with a well stocked arsenal and a very pierced body. Yaz and Jack raid Stavros’s compound where they shoot him down and rescue Katherine while avoiding the Colony hit man.

The sometimes brilliant action sequences, international locations and multi-accented actors only provide mild intrigue given the cliché-ridden script. In his feature film debut, Dennis Rodman has a very limited screen time and constantly gives corny jokes about basketball such as, “Let’s slam dunk this guy.” Clearly, he isn’t a good actor. Van Damme makes the most of the shallow material, but Rourke seems quite at home with the sleazy villain.

This movie, however, will deliver what the fans expect: non-stop action. Except for a few quiet moments where Jack is lounging by the pool with his wife, this movie is flat out action. In fact, no man could go through the grueling paces that Jack goes through and survive, but then again, this is the movies. As always in these type of movies, action means violence and plenty of it. If a man can’t be gunned down, then maybe he can be beaten to death. Those who aren’t offended by the violence, may be offended by Yaz’ s dirty underworld. Yaz has several woman companions who sport S & M wear.

There are two minor notes of morality worth mentioning. One, a group of Friars help Jack in a moment of crisis. Secondly, Jack is not motivated to seek vengeance on Stavros , but merely to rescue his wife. He wants to capture Stavros so he can be vindicated and reinstated into service. Thus, this movie isn’t about vigilante justice, a man seeking revenge, but about a man trying to take care of his family and clear his own name.

DOUBLE TEAM doesn’t place Van Damme on any higher acting ground or moral ground, but DOUBLE TEAM has a few elements like Rodman’s presence and some good action sequences, that may pull him out of box office doldrums.