ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, September 17, 1996 TAG: 9609170129
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 6 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
SOURCE: LAWRENCE VAN GELDER THE NEW YORK TIMES
On the theory that two of anything must be twice as good, the martial arts star Jean-Claude Van Damme has been drawing lately on remembrance of thunks past.
This year, in ``Quest,'' he revisited the showy tournament format that provided the narrative spine of his 1987 hit, ``Bloodsport.'' In his new film, ``Maximum Risk,'' which opened Friday, he has returned to the twin-brother gimmick of his 1991 yawner, ``Double Impact.''
But this time Van Damme has surrounded himself with expert cinematic bodyguards. In a tale that flashes from the Old City of Nice to Little Odessa in Brooklyn, N.Y., and back again, Van Damme is first and foremost a beneficiary of the directing talent of Ringo Lam, whose scorched-earth, mashed-car, pull-no-punch approach to action typifies the Hong Kong school of film making.
From start to finish, ``Maximum Risk'' presents spectacular stunts choreographed and coordinated by Charles Picerni and some hair-raising, stomach-churning automotive chases attributed to Remy Julienne, the French master of the art.
Van Damme also has a first-rate supporting cast that includes Stephane Audran and Jean-Hugues Anglade, a host of hissable villains quick with a gun, a blade, choke hold or any handy blunt instrument, and a script by Larry Ferguson that actually holds water, or in this case, blood.
The film not only gives a Van Damme but it also provides a second, allowing the first one, a character named Mikhail, to die in the opening sequence, but not before he has been pursued through the narrow, atmospheric streets and houses of Old Nice and set the plot in motion.
Mikhail's death is followed by the introduction of a French police officer, a former army sniper named Alain, who happens to be identical to the corpse. In fact, as he soon learns from his mother (Miss Audran), the dead man is his twin, given up for adoption soon after birth because she was too ill and poor to bring up both boys.
The stage is set for Alain to learn more about his brother by pursuing his killers along a trail that leads first to Paris, next to New York and the Russian mafia and finally back to Nice. While Alain is pursuing the killers and Mikhail's secrets, he is the target of an assortment of brutal Russian mafiosi and a handful of FBI agents who have mislaid their moral compass but not their guns.
Van Damme's films have usually been as short on romance as they are long on herniated disks, but in this one, no sooner does Alain make his way to a Brighton Beach nightclub called Bohemia than a willowy brunette named Alex (Natasha Henstridge) has him in a lip lock in the belief that he is actually Mikhail.
After a few more tries by Natasha, Alain has the idea.
And now, it seems, so has Van Damme.
LENGTH: Medium: 58 linesby CNB