Wake of Death (2004)

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Director Philippe Martinez brings a touch of French class to what is a very unusual and striking revenge thriller, boasting some fine moments of originality, great camera-work, and top-notch performances. Now, these aren't things you'd usually associate with the likes of Van Damme and Seagal, whose recent films have all been straight-to-video fare. The good news is that Van Damme seems to be coming out of his rut, and, with this and IN HELL, making some of the best films of his career. The focus on these films, and what makes them so successful, is that Van Damme actually acts and gives a decent performance. Recently, he seems to be drawn to darker, more mature fare and he's been great, proving to be a stable, fleshed-out lead with whom the audience can really engage.WAKE OF DEATH borrows from modern Asian cinema in providing thrills which have a real dark edge, a real bite to them. The level of violence is pretty extreme, with shotgunned heads and nasty knife slashings. The film's darkest moment is in a gratuitously nasty torture sequence, in which a guy gets his just desserts when a French mob start working on his arms and knees with an electric drill. The blood spatters and gore sprays everywhere, making this possibly Van Damme's most violent film.The performances are good, with Van Damme's grieving widower equally matched by Simon Yam's cold-hearted gangster, who likes nothing better than slashing a woman's throat with his flick-knife. Van Damme's buddy Donny is also great. The action is over-the-top in places – the motorbike/car chases, for instance – but the stunts are good, the effects fantastic, and the physical battles brilliant. I especially loved the ending on the boat, which offers vintage thrills and spills. All in all this is a very good film with plenty to offer for those who can stand the intensity.

At first, I'm a Van Damme Fan. I like him since Bloodsport and shame or not but I hate him since UniSol2. I think everyone knows why... Since 1999 something broke his ego. Maybe, it was his mental problem and the thing with drugs or the world changed but something moved in different way. Sadly all these came back in movies too. Everyone who watched JCVD knows this. He tried and tried to became an actor against martial arts star, but I think he is much more a fighter like an actor. And that was what I always loved in Van Damme. I think this move isn't good. It want to be a drama-action flick but it works not. There are so many weak moments. Please, I think who loves action movies knows what's the different between good and bad. Cheap effects, laughable scenes with overplayed characters kills everything. JC is OK, the problem is the story the cast and directing. Everything is B... Double Impact was B-movie too, but million miles away from this. In 1990 there was mood and an elegant style for these kind of movies. I think after the year 2000, this kind of cinema is only for renting. Somewhere in the past Van Damme was a cinema star, not only a product for DVD... I hope he shows us more JCVD in the future!

Wake of Death starts in China as a young girl named Kim (Valerie Tian) witnesses the brutal murder of her mother (Joon Chong) by her father, a vicious Chinese triad leader named Sun Quan (Simon Yam). Cut to Los Angeles where Kim has snuck aboard a liner & smuggled herself into the US with a shipload of other Chinese immigrants, Los Angeles social worker Cynthia Archer (Lisa King) takes pity on the young Kim & decides to let her stay at her home with her & her family. Unfortunately triad boss Sun wants his daughter back & once he discovers that Cynthis has her he sends the boys round & they kill Cynthia although Kim manages to escape, as it happens Cynthia's husband is a tough ex undercover cop named Ben (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who decides to take the law into his own hands & seeks revenge against those who murdered his wife & anyone who stands in his way...This English, German, French & South African co-production ended up being co-written, co-produced & directed by Philippe Martinez after Cess Silvera was fired after a couple of weeks filming & that itself was after Hong Kong action director Ringo Lam had pulled out from directing it after various differences including a switch of filming locations from Canada to South Africa, it's perhaps surprising then that Wake of Death isn't that bad a film & it certainly passes 90 odd minutes harmlessly enough. The script & plot is pretty much by the numbers for these DTV action flicks, some sort of ex cop/soldier loses a loved one/someone close & ends up going on a one man rampage to kill all the bad guys & have some sweet revenge, we've seen it all before although Wake of Death is by far not the worst example your likely to see. As you might expect (& demand even) there's plenty of people getting shot, shoot-outs, fights & things blowing up before the obligatory final showdown between the hero & the villain. It's nothing new but it has a decent pace, a decent enough set of character's & just about enough action to make this better than expected & better than average. There's a lack of urgency to the plot, it's rather predictable & it lacks a certain something, a certain memorable something that would truly distinguish it from the crowd but overall this isn't a bad effort & show's JCVD can still turn in a decent action flick.I must admit that Wake of Death looks really good with some classy cinematography, having said that although it's often stylish it means little as we get nicely shot scenes of people getting off planes for instance but that's it, the style serves no real purpose & can sometimes be distracting & feel empty. The violence is there, there's some shoot-outs, some blood splatter, plenty of people are shot, there's a couple of slit throats & there's even a torture scene in which a power drill is stuck into someone's kneecaps, arms & eyeball. Action set-piece wise there's a neat little car chase with an exploding tanker truck at the end & a motorbike chase through a shopping mall. Although I am not sure why JCVD has a flash-forward to the car chase at the beginning (at which point it hasn't happened yet & he hasn't even met Kim), maybe as well as being as hard as nails he is psychic too.With a supposed budget of about $16,000,000 this was filmed in Cape Town in South Africa despite being set in Los Angeles & China. The acting is OK, JCVD is alright & the extreme close-ups on him show how many lines & wrinkles his face has now, Simon Yam as the bad guy is a little forgettable.Wake of Death is a pretty decent DTV action flick, it's not up there with JCVD's best but isn't as bad as his worst either, as a typical hard as nails one man army on a rampage against the bad guys flicks go you could do a lot worse.

The movie begins when a Chinese little girl witnesses the killing her mother by her gangster father named Sun Quan(Simon Yam) and she flees to Los Angels aboard a ship with other abducted immigrants. An ex-gangster named Ben(Jean Claude Van Damme) is ready to retire himself; his wife(Lisa King)is a social worker, taking the refugee little girl to their house. Then, she 's cruelly killed and his son along with the Chinese girl are kidnapped. Our revenger hero wages war against the criminals .The sad Van Damme must rescue the kids and revenge his spouse, meanwhile he's attacked and pursued from all sides by Chinese triads, being only helped by a French gangster's trio.This film direct to video-rentals, displays action-packed, extreme violence, pursuit cars, thrills and is quite entertaining. It's thrilling and tense , at time suspenseful movie and the firepower, explosion, struggles, motorbikes races are very well done. Suffering Van Damme plays finely an affected gangster, acting similarly to 'Hard cops'. Van Damme confronting nasties, using his martial-arts skills, furthermore some chase cars are pretty exciting. Remaining cast though unknown make nice acting, besides appears uncredited Burt Kwouk ,the famous Chinese fighter against Inspector Clouseau-Peter Sellers. This interesting film results to be a standard actioner, but packs atmospheric action set pieces and is fast movement . The motion picture is well produced, though with middling budget, and directed by Philippe Martinez. He's a prestigious producer, such as 'Harsh times, Modigliani, The piano player, Van Wilder 2'. This is the second and best film as director , along with 'Citizen verdict'. The picture is extremely energetic and be liked for true devotees of main actor. It's a must see for Van Damme fans.