Journeying further into the world of direct-to-video Jean-Claude Van Damme releases from the late 1990s and early 2000s brings me to watching Replicant (2001) for the first time. Released in the waning years of Van Damme’s box office popularity, where his movies were coming out on DVD rather than cinema screens, I had heard some good word about this one, much like other JCVD movies around this time that have become critically reappreciated by action fans such as over-the-top romps like Double Team and Knock Off. While not as fun as either of them (or the other one I watched recently, Inferno), Replicant is interesting mainly for Van Damme’s dual performance, one of many in his career. Here, he’s not playing twin brothers (like in Double Impact) but a leather jacketed stringy haired serial killer who targets women who he considers “bad mothers”. After him is pissed off cop Michael Rooker and he becomes involved in a a secret government program where they’ve cloned the serial killer. This is like a low budget Face/Off and even more unbelievable than that but Michael Rooker says okay and you just go along with it. Van Damme plays the clone as a puppy dog man-child who has psychic links to serial killer Van Damme and is horrified at the violence. Watching Van Damme stretch himself as an actor, much like his legs when he does the splits, is both goofy and compelling, particularly the earnestness he brings to the clone Van Damme and his strange father-and-son type relationship with Michael Rooker’s character, which skirts with nature vs nurture child rearing issues, and is quite entertaining. Directed by Ringo Lam (of City On Fire, the movie that Tarantino ripped off for Reservoir Dogs) who brings some serious stunt work to the action sequences, though not as over the top and zany as director Tsui Hark’s efforts – there’s something more direct and solid here, and with a sincerity particularly at the climax that seems brought over from Hong Kong action cinema. Rented on iTunes. One for the Van Damme fans. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 