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Counter-terrorist Jack Quinn misses his target, Stavros, on the eve of his final mission. From there, he is sent to "The Colony", a rebirth for presumed-dead assassins. He breaks free from ... See full summary »
Director:
Hark Tsui
Stars:
Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Dennis Rodman,
Mickey Rourke
A woman hires a drifter as her guide through New Orleans in search of her father, who has gone missing. They discover a deadly game of cat and mouse behind his disappearance in the process.
Director:
John Woo
Stars:
Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Lance Henriksen,
Yancy Butler
On an out of control train holding hostages and high-tech bio-weapons agent Kristoff (Van Damme) becomes a one man army to derail the terrorists and save the lives of everyone on board!
Director:
Bob Misiorowski
Stars:
Jean-Claude Van Damme,
Tomas Arana,
Laura Harring
Shaw is an operative for the United Nations' covert dirty-tricks squad, using espionage and quasi-ethical tactics to secure peace and cooperation. When a shipping container full of dead ... See full summary »
When his mentor is taken captive, a retired member of Britain's Elite Special Air Service is forced into action. His mission: kill three assassins dispatched by their cunning leader.
Casey Ryback hops on a Colorado to LA train to start a vacation with his niece. Early into the trip, terrorists board the train and use it as a mobile HQ to hijack a top secret destructive US satellite.
Director:
Geoff Murphy
Stars:
Steven Seagal,
Eric Bogosian,
Everett McGill
Jack Conrad is awaiting the death penalty in a corrupt Central American prison. He is "purchased" by a wealthy television producer and taken to a desolate island where he must fight to the death against nine other condemned killers from all corners of the world, with freedom going to the sole survivor.
Harry Tasker is a secret agent for the United States Government. For years, he has kept his job from his wife, but is forced to reveal his identity and try to stop nuclear terrorists when he and his wife are kidnapped by the terrorists.
Director:
James Cameron
Stars:
Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Jamie Lee Curtis,
Tom Arnold
A team of skydiving crooks led by DEA-agent-turned-bad Busey specialize in landing on police roofs and breaking in so their evil computer nerd can steal undercover agents' files and sell ... See full summary »
A Hong Kong fashion designer (Jean Claude Van Damme, if you can believe that billing) who had previously been involved in knock offs of major label merchandise, such as "Pumma" running shoes, attempts to go straight with the help of his new partner (Rob Schneider), who is secretly an undercover CIA agent involved in an investigation of the black market. Their main product, jeans, is involved in the knock offs, which brings a representative (Lela Rochon) of the American company to investigate. Paul Sorvino also appears as the head of the CIA operation in Hong Kong. However, just as Schneider is not as he initially seems, everyone in the film switches roles by film's end. Written by
John Sacksteder <jsackste@bellsouth.net>
Hong Kong superstar and director Sammo Hung served as the film's 2nd unit director. The release print of "Knock Off" suffers from the removal of a lot of the martial arts action shot for the film, with a couple of sequences being very heavily edited. The final battle between Jean-Claude Van Damme's character and Australian actor/stuntman Michael Miller is less than half of the action shot for their fight, and upon careful viewing you can pick up the fact that the fight has raged across several different sections on the boat, while the fight between Jeff Wolfe's character Scar and Jean-Claude's is the most heavily edited with more of the action being shown in the "Making Of" featured on several of the DVD editions than in the finished film. See more »
Goofs
(at around 18 mins) Jean-Claude Van Damme tries to stop a black van by hooking his rickshaw onto the side mirrors of a van whose driver is a Caucasian. In the next shot (15:25), the driver turns into a Chinese stunt double. See more »
Quotes
Tommy Hendricks:
You're never gonna get away with this.
Karen Lee:
They're already getting away with it.
Tommy Hendricks:
I know. I'm trying to mind fuck them. On the placement test at Langley, I was off the chart in verbal skills.
Karen Lee:
[shouting]
Can I die alone, please?
See more »
Formulas are good. Be it the DIE HARD clone, or the buddy-picture. Action formulas win. It's got to be by the book. Or it dies.
Action movie directors rarely break the mould. Instead the mould breaks them. Ringo Lam and John Woo both came to the US when the Hong Kong action style was in vogue. But action movies need more talk and less action to satisfy American audiences. So in trying to replicate THE KILLER, they make a mess like REPLACEMENT KILLERS.
Until now that is. KNOCK OFF got abysmal reviews and audiences hated it. I don't dig that many action movies. And I loved it. Director TSUI HARK injects such enthusiasm into things it is almost impossible not to enjoy.
Hark treats us to an unrivalled, and insane array of camera tricks to liven up proceedings. Entirely unpretentious, it is action to the power of ten. Bad guys defy gravity and inertia, and the same hooded goons get beaten up time after time. There is even one character who dies, and returns inexplicably not once but twice.
Ridiculous? Yeah. But gloriously unapologetic. KNOCK OFF promises action and delivers. If you want to take it seriously then do so, vent your rage and kill it on the sliding scale. The joke is on you. KNOCK OFF invites ridicule. It also defies it. For that reason I'll give it a ten.
28 of 43 people found this review helpful.
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Formulas are good. Be it the DIE HARD clone, or the buddy-picture. Action formulas win. It's got to be by the book. Or it dies.
Action movie directors rarely break the mould. Instead the mould breaks them. Ringo Lam and John Woo both came to the US when the Hong Kong action style was in vogue. But action movies need more talk and less action to satisfy American audiences. So in trying to replicate THE KILLER, they make a mess like REPLACEMENT KILLERS.
Until now that is. KNOCK OFF got abysmal reviews and audiences hated it. I don't dig that many action movies. And I loved it. Director TSUI HARK injects such enthusiasm into things it is almost impossible not to enjoy.
Hark treats us to an unrivalled, and insane array of camera tricks to liven up proceedings. Entirely unpretentious, it is action to the power of ten. Bad guys defy gravity and inertia, and the same hooded goons get beaten up time after time. There is even one character who dies, and returns inexplicably not once but twice.
Ridiculous? Yeah. But gloriously unapologetic. KNOCK OFF promises action and delivers. If you want to take it seriously then do so, vent your rage and kill it on the sliding scale. The joke is on you. KNOCK OFF invites ridicule. It also defies it. For that reason I'll give it a ten.