Pound of Flesh (2015)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Such a frustrating disappointment

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Deacon Lyle (Van Damme) is just a guy out on the town in the Philippines, when he brings a nice lady home from a disco. When he wakes up in the morning, he is in a pool of his own blood and discovers someone has opened him up and stolen his kidney. Deacon then teams up with his religious brother George (Ralston), his old buddy Kung (Aleong), and the mysterious Ana (Peters), all in some sort of mission to get to the bottom of the kidney conspiracy. A baddie named Drake (Shahlavi) - a man more unpleasant than the music made by his namesake - may be behind this, or is there a conspiracy that goes...ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP? Further complicating things is the fact that Lyle's niece is on the kidney transplant list. Will Deacon Lyle kidney-punch his way back to renal health? Just try to hold in your excitement...They've Taken (2008) my kidney! is basically Van Damme's battle cry in this somewhat puzzling new outing. Somehow a missing kidney isn't as compelling a motive for revenge as a missing daughter...or are we missing something? He still has one left, as far as we know. Van Damme is good in the fight scenes, and he moves especially well for someone who has just had some unauthorized, highly-invasive surgery done on him. There's even a novel excuse for him to do his famous split (yes, he's still doing it, and proud of it, it seems) - but some not-so-novel excuses for rampant Van Damme nudity. We don't need to see your whole body to know you've been kidneynapped.But we give ol' JCVD credit for trying. The opening alley fight is a standout, and the overall vibe of the movie is on the serious side, in keeping with most of the recent DTV JCVD output. Perhaps to maintain the "dark" vibe, to counterbalance the kidney-stealing plot, there are some religious themes that run throughout. This is mainly achieved by the brother character, the fact that Van Damme is named Deacon, and the fact that Deacon beats people up with a bible. Yes, as a society, we've reached a point where we're subjected to Biblefighting. This might not be a good thing.But rather than concentrate on "dark" subject matter, director Barbarash - of fellow Van Damme vehicle Assassination Games (2011) and Michael Jai White vehicle Falcon Rising (2014) fame - REALLY should have "turned off the dark", if we may paraphrase the title of that brilliant Broadway play. Why, oh, why do we always have to ask that filmmakers turn the lights on in their movies? Is that really so much to ask? And another no-no is here that is painfully obvious - green screen and CGI. Is it really so much better and easier to have chintzy-looking computer-graphic bullet hits on walls and gunsmoke? We're really getting tired of what we call "Alt-E", meaning some dork in an editing suite somewhere hitting "Alt-E" for "Explosion" instead of employing the technical mastery of pyrotechnics experts. So, to recap, we have barfights, darkfights, and biblefights. (We didn't mention the barfight before, but of course it's there).With the money they spent on CGI and green screen, they could have used on lighting. Priorities, people. There is some light Punchfighting, but it's barely there and hard to see (like everything else). Van Damme's buddy Kung - played by Aki Aleong of Gang Wars (1976), Out for Blood (1992) and Deadly Target (1994), among others - could have been played by Mako, if he hadn't died in 2006. Actor Darren Shahlavi - so memorable as the baddie in Bloodmoon (1997) passed away in 2015 and the film is dedicated to him. With his passing, we've lost another actor/Martial Artist so integral to the fabric of the DTV action movies we've dedicated ourselves to celebrating. He will be missed.On a lighter note, one of the highlights of the movie, appearing almost exactly an hour in, is when we see the actual kidney donor list. This might mark the first time we've seen an English-as-a-second-language attempt at a list of people's names. We have Varko Bosilhoc, Consuela Pym, John Smythe II and even Simon Rants III. Will this be important to the plot? Just wait and find out. Also there was a Boris Sharlyakov, but it looked like it said Borts Sharlyakov. We wish it said Borts. We really do. There are other names on the list, but those were some highlights. Maybe it's just us, but we found that funny.Some elements of Pound of Flesh are worth your time, but what's good about the movie is dampened by the inability to see anything, the insistent usage of green screen/CGI, and some pretty dumb dialogue. (Let's just say Kung talking about how much he loves coffee isn't likely to rival anything said by Portia from The Merchant of Venice anytime soon). It's kind of a mixed bag for Van Damme. It doesn't change his standing in our eyes or anything like that, but with some simple tweaks, it could have been significantly better.

Disclaimer: If you are a viewer that mainly prefers art-house-type movies, then you might as well ignore this review. In addition, if you're not able to take a good solid action Van Damme thriller, drama flick, ignore this review, as well. We'll both be better off.Pound of Flesh (2015) in my opinion it is a solid action thriller Van Damme action movie to watch. This is the last movie of him that he made he is filming now a Kickboxer remake, it is my favorite movie that does not need a remake, neither does Bloodsport those two are classic Jean-Claude Van Damme movies. It is time for me to end the Jean-Claude Van Damme marathon, 6 Bullets will be the last movie I will review about Jean-Claude Van Damme. I am not going to review, No Retreat, No Surrender, Street Fighter, Nowhere To Run, The Quest, Inferno aka Desert Heat, Derailed, Dragon Eyes, Welcome To The Jungle, Enemies Closer and Swelter. Because they suck all and they are time wasters for me. Pound of Flash and 6 Bullets are the last movies of Van Damme I will review I am not going to review JCVD because I did not enjoy it the movie and I thought it was sad satire but still a good acting performance from Van Damme.This movie Pound of Flash is pretty solid action film that is mostly drama. You do have a few action scenes, shootouts and a little martial arts fights. The film is more about a hunt about man's kidney who are trying to save a young girl's life and the clock is ticking. Deacon Lyle will do anything that it is in his power to save his nice, who in fact is his daughter. Mostly the movie ends dramatically that Van Damme dies which that shouldn't have happened, but sacrificing himself for saving the young girl's life was beautiful. I know there's a lot of people out the who doesn't like this movie and I think is horrible, I think it was much more better than Assassination Games because that movie sucks! Plot: In Manila, Philippines to donate his kidney to his dying niece, Deacon Lyle (Van Damme), a former black-ops agent, awakes the day before the operation to find he is the latest victim of organ theft. Stitched up, Deacon descends from his opulent hotel in search of his stolen kidney and carves a blood-soaked path through the darkest corners of the city brothels, fight clubs, back-alley black markets, and elite billionaire estates. The clock is ticking for his niece and with each step he loses blood. 'Pound Of Flesh' sees Van Damme back to what he does best - nonstop, hardcore action.Two of my favorite actors start in here Darren Shahlavi who is no longer with us anymore and Aki Aleong. Darren Shahlavi died last year January 14th 2015. R.I.P. I have enjoyed the actor in his action film and one of my favorite all time action films Bloodmoon (1997) who played the martial artists killer. The lead role had Gary Daniels and Chuck Jeffreys who did a great terrific job playing the detectives and martial artists hunting Darren Shahlavi and fighting with him on the end of the film. Aki Aleong played the main villain in my all time favorite Chuck Norris film Braddock: Missing in Action III (1988) which is very underrated action film that I just love.I think a lot of people are expecting 'JCVD does Crank' and although Pound of Flesh is quite insane it's never quite as over the top as Crank. It isn't without a sense of humor though with a few choice one-liners and it relishes the rather crazy concept. I like this movie for what it is, it is not my favorite Van Damme movie, but it has a lot of drama and action in it. I just see this movie at the primer with Van Damme himself and I must say it's very good film. Great movie, Van Damme did a great job.OK there reason this does not get the full 10 by me stars is because the script is no Shakespearian play! I know that sounds really harsh but honestly in general the film is surprisingly good. Van Damme acts well and his fight scenes are not all about high kicks, there's a great deal of punching, blocking and hand to hand combat. There are also some fight scenes where the choreography really surprises you when you expect one thing and something else happens. Well done Van Damme.Overall: Pound of Flesh is a more serious movie than you'd maybe expect but it's definitely worth watching for the first rate action scenes, JCVD doing the splits and of course Darren Shalahvi's scene-stealing villain. I think it was a good movie and I did like it at all, was little slow paced in the beginning and the movie quickly went fast around not bad for Van Damme.Pound of Flesh is a 2015 Canadian action thriller film directed by Ernie Barbarash, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Darren Shahlavi. It is the third collaboration between Van Damme and Barbarash (following Assassination Games in 2011 and Six Bullets in 2012).8/10 Grade: B- Studio: Ace Studio Odyssey Media Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Darren Shahlavi, Aki Aleong, John Ralston, Charlotte Peters, TFBOYS, Jason Tobin, Philippe Joly, David P Booth Director: Ernie Barbarash Producers: Jonathan DuBois, Jeffrey Giles, Mike Leeder, Henry Luk, Michael Lurie, Kirk Shaw Screenplay: Joshua James Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 44 Mins. Budget: $7.500.000

I can''t understand why everyone hated this movie so much. It is classic Van Damme at his best. Heroic intentions repaid with a stolen kidney? Check. Endless ass-kicking revenge beatings? Check. Gratuitous and unnecessary explicit violence and gore? Check (e.g. eyes getting poked out). What did you all expect? This was so much better than Taken 2 or 3 (Taken 1 being the awesomest revenge movie ever, except maybe for the Aussie independent film "The Horseman"), and totally delivered, after only six beers and five bong tokes in. I really think we all need to lower our standards, accept the film for what it is, and enjoy it as much as we've enjoyed all the younger Van Damme films. I find that is key. Acceptance. For example, I went into the new Road Warrior with very high expectations, and truly hated it. I had all these preconceived ideas about how awesome and recapturing of my youth it should be. But it's actually a very entertaining film, as long as you don't build it up. Have fun with this one, bitches.

PLOT: 5/10 - The movie plot was fine. Nothing special at all. It's pretty straight forward, though that's not a bad thing at all if done right. And this movie doesn't do it that wrong.SOUNDTRACK 5/10 - To be honest, nothing to see here, folks.SPECIAL EFFECTS 4/10 - I debated with myself if I should give it a 5, but the green screen effects in this movie is used way too often on scenes that didn't need it. I know, it's a B movie, but there're plenty of them who does it right.ACTING 5/10 Though some acting can seem shallow, most of it is fine and, sometimes, believable. Nothing new on Van Damme's acting (comparing it to most recent movies he's made); John Ralston does a nice job on acting here too. Some fight scenes aren't that good, as the moves are really badly done.OVERALL 4/10 - Though the movie may look kinda cliché, it's a nice action flick, that's pretty straight forward in general. Some scenes might have some bad visual effect but, overall, it's a movie that's OK to watch, considering you know you're in for a B-action movie.