Is Maximum Risk (1996) underrated?

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Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
I watched it again after not seeing it for a few years and it still holds up better than I expected.

But this movie is never talked about and it seems so much better written than the average action movie in comparison.

It's also strange that the star of the movie is Jean-Claude Van Damme because it doesn't feel like one of his movies at all. Usually when you watch a Van Damme movie, you know it's a Van Damme movie, or at least it feels specifically written for him in mind.

This movie it feels like it was written for an actor like maybe Tom Cruise, or Leonardo DiCaprio if it were written later, but then they decided to cast Van Damme in it later on. Because of this the movie feels like more like a crime thriller, without action in mind, but they decided up up the action later, once Van Damme came on board.

This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and perhaps feels like a merging of two genres. The martial arts action movie, with a crime/espionage type thriller.

One weakness is the middle section more. The first and third act of the movie are a lot stronger than I expected, with the first act setting up a lot of elements that come together well in the third act for an effective pay off.

However, the middle section is a series of action scenes and feels quite simple and formulaic. I think it's because since they wanted to make it an action movie too, they felt this is where there is room to cram most of the action in, since the plot is able to take more of a break before the bigger pay off.

The sex scene also may feel gratuitous and unnecessary to show that much, or maybe it's art, and lends to the story, depending on how you look at it?

But overall, I feel it's an underrated action movie possibly, that fell under the radar. What do you think?



28 days...6 hours...42 minutes...12 seconds
How does this NOT feel like a Van Damme film? He plays two versions of himself, just like he does in a boat-load of his other films.

In terms of it being a Van Damme movie, I'd place it higher on the list than most. The director Ringo Lam, would go on to direct Van Damme in a really underrated Van Damme flick, In Hell.
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Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
Oh it just feels like a crime drama like Eastern Promises or something like that, that was converted to be a Van Damme movie with more action.

As for it having two Van Dammes, at this point it was the only second of his movies to do that, and one of him get's killed off in the first five minutes, so I didn't think it really counted as two of him much.



Been a long time but I've seen this two or three times. I'd remember it being way above average for van Damme movie. Props for its fights involving some grappling as well
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Movie Forums Squirrel Jumper
I guess the one fight that wasn't as good as when Van Damme is able to do his martial arts in a Russian style bathhouse with nothing but a towel on, but the towel still stays on the whole fight.