Double Team (1997)

An international spy teams up with an arms dealer to escape from a penal colony and rescue his family from a terrorist.

Director:

Hark Tsui

Writers:

Don Jakoby (story), Don Jakoby (screenplay)

Stars:

Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Mickey Rourke

4 wins.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean-Claude Van Damme	...	Jack Quinn
Dennis Rodman	...	Yaz
Mickey Rourke	...	Stavros
Paul Freeman	...	Goldsmythe
Natacha Lindinger	...	Kathryn Quinn
Valéria Cavalli	...	Dr. Maria Trifioli
Jay Benedict	...	Brandon
Joëlle Devaux-Vullion	...	Stavros' Girlfriend
Bruno Bilotta	...	Kofi
Mario Opinato	...	James
Grant Russell	...	Carney
William Dunn	...	Roger
Asher Tzarfati	...	Moishe
Rob Diem	...	Dieter Staal
Ken Samuels	...	Stevenson

Storyline

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 there, and seeks the aid of Yaz, a weapons dealer, for his final battle with Stavros.

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Plot Keywords:

opens with a car chase | car explosion | two word title | time bomb | man murders a woman | 

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Taglines:

You're either on their side...or in their way.

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Genres:

Action | Comedy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some nudity and brief strong language

Details

Country:

USA Hong Kong

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

4 April 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Colony

Filming Locations:

Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium

Box Office

Budget:

$30,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$5,034,914, 6 April 1997, Wide Release

Gross USA:

$11,438,337, 6 July 1997

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$36,700,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Mandalay Entertainment, One Story Pictures, Columbia Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mickey Rourke underwent a serious martial arts regime to obtain the physical appearance in the film, and to prepare for his fight scenes with Jean-Claude Van Damme.

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Goofs

Van Damme is training to hold his breath, for the duration it would take a cigarette to burn up. This would take over 5 minutes and would cause death or brain damage to normal people.

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Quotes

Stavros: You know, Jack... I can call you Jack, can't I? I bet there's not a single night where you can close your eyes tight enough without seeing my little boy's face. I'm gonna give you a chance to know your son. If you live today, you'll get to know your son. And if you don't, I'll raise him as my own. You know, men are strong, Jack, but the tiger is stronger. Oh, one more thing, Jack. There's nothing wrong with stepping on a mine. It's stepping off that counts.

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Connections

References The Prisoner (1967)

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Soundtracks

Double Delight
Written by Joey Schwartz
Performed by Joey Schwartz and Eric Swerdloff

User Reviews

Van Damme v. a Tiger!

Continuing the tradition of successful Hong Kong directors going to Hollywood only to end up directing Jean-Claude Van Damme movies comes Tsui Hark with 'Double Team'. John Woo must have gotten lucky when he went to Hollywood: Ringo Lam is still making Van Damme movies, and Tsui Hark went back to Hong Kong after this and 'Knock Off'. I have nothing against Van Damme, but he seems to be some sort of trial-by-fire for any Hong Kong director with ambitions of making action films in Hollywood: If a director succeeds, he go on to Dolph Lundgren and then mainstream Hollywood action (John Woo), otherwise the director is faced with sticking with Van Damme movies or going back to Hong Kong.

Counter-terrorist Jack Quinn (Van Damme) is planning to retire after one final mission to nail the villainous Stavros (Mickey Rourke). The mission goes incredibly wrong: Stravos gets away, but somehow his son is killed in the cross-fire. Out for revenge, Stavros kidnaps the pregnant Kathryn Quinn (Natacha Lindinger), and the only way Jack can save is wife is team up with Yaz (Dennis Rodman) and kick-box his way to a happy ending.

Watching 'Double Team', I thought it was pretty clear than even Van Damme realizes that his movies are a joke to all but the most hardcore of action fans. Australian sketch comedy show 'Full Frontal' (featuring a not-so-famous Eric Bana) regularly took stabs at Van Damme for a good year or so ("YOU LAUGHTER CRACKIN' AT ME? ARRRGGGHHHHH!"), coincidentally around when 'Double Team' would have been released. At no point does 'Double Team' make any attempt to be taken as a serious action movie. All the fight scenes are played for laughs, if only slight chuckles. Van Damme gets to fight a tiger and use a coke-machine to shield himself from an explosion. All it really amounts to be is 90 minutes of action fun.

While fans of director Tsui Hark would be disappointed with this effort, something good came of Hark's short-lived collaborations with Van Damme: He went back to Hong Kong and directed the incredibly awesome 'Time and Tide' (which did not feature Jean-Claude Van Damme at all).

'Double Team' doesn't come to close to being one of Van Damme's best, and it might not even please hard-core Van Damme fans, but its all in good fun - 5/10