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Double Team (1997)

Director: Tsui Hark

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From Time Out Film Guide

More than just another action director, Tsui Hark is one of world cinema's great fantasists, with The Butterfly Murders and Once Upon a Time in China among his many credits. But this is rubbish: an incoherent James Bond-ish yarn distinguished only by its formal decadence and the presence of basketball's Dennis Rodman. He looks like a punk, but has a disarmingly fey, debonair manner which gives his scenes a fillip. In contrast, Van Damme is puny and square as a CIA operative press-ganged into The Colony, a secret think-tank for 'retired' international agents. After that, the film-makers can't think of anything more interesting for him to do than the rescue of wife and new-born child from the clutches of villain Stavros (Rourke). Directing on autopilot-gone-haywire, Tsui rips off that old HK gag of the shoot-out in a baby ward, throws in a tiger for the gladiatorial climax, and blows up the Coliseum as an afterthought.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide


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