Knock Off (1998)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A Masterpiece!

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Though the jokey lines seem out of place, the somber tone of this 1998 action movie makes the political subtext more sincere and less grandiose than usual , One of Van Damme's best movies ever..Action-packed , cheesy , Whatever you think of Jean-Claude Van Damme's acting skills, there is no denying his acumen when it comes to career-development choices. Graduating swiftly from his early, funnier films (Black Eagle) to martial-arts contest movies (Kickboxer), there was even a brief moment following Universal Soldier when stardom beckoned. But then he chose to anchor his place in the mainstream by turning to Hong Kong action flicks, a sub-genre which largely supplanted the Schwarzenegger-Stallone heroics of the 80s. Knock Off is the fourth movie in six years in which Van Damme has teamed up with cult eastern directors, and his second outing for Tsui Hark after Double Team. It is of interest only in that this is far more the director's picture than his own.Tsui's imprimatur is apparent in both the convoluted plot (involving nano bombs and Russian gangsters) and the staging of the fight sequences. It has long been accepted that Van Damme's fans don't come to his films wanting the labyrinthine complexities of The Big Sleep, but they do expect plenty of roundhouse kicks, splits and at least one 'butt shot'. Knock Off has none of these, Tsui seemingly preferring to show off his own techniques rather than his star's. The fight sequences are often filmed in disorienting close-ups, while slow and fast motion, freeze frames and Evil Dead-style crash zooms whip up plenty of sound and fury to camouflage the central emptiness.

I really should of had my head read. I knew what I was in for. By the poster, I sorely misjudged the film, which looked intriguing. Van Dammne's films are like fodder, they're all the same. They don't get better. Believe me, this is the worst film I've seen of his. What's disappointing to also learn, is it's writers, are the same ones responsible for making some great 80's hits. Even though Paul Sorvino as a shady figure is wasted in this, he'a actually a relief, after all the misery we tolerate here amidst all this bologne. Get this, Van Damne is a fashion designer who teams up with an agent (Schneider who at least throws some comedy into this mess) to counteract these terrorists who's used these sneakers as knock offs (detonators) where these two have to separate the good shoes from the bad ones, while protecting above all, mankind. The best thing to come out of this is it's title song, that conveniently plays over the end credits. What a film of absolute bull. Van Damme ought to be knocked off for makin' it. Trivia. Knock Off almost took a year to hit video. I wonder why.

when I first saw this when it came out, I wasn't impressed. I thought Tsui Hark was selling out to Hollywood, and getting unnecessarily flashy in doing so.Seeing it again some ten years later, I have to admit I'm impressed. It's not just the story or the action scenes, or the integration of humor into the thriller storyline. But what once looked like flashiness now reveals itself as careful restraint. Tsui is working hard here to avoid any unnecessary frame, creating a film that admittedly jars visually, but does so tightly, with almost no excess imagery or story element. The film still looks fresh after a decade; while not great art, it's just supremely professional movie making. And in keeping with that, Tsui also manages to get restrained performance by two slices of Hollywood ham, Van Damme and Rob Schneider, the latter being one of the least tolerable comic actor I've ever had the misfortune to encounter on film. But here he seems almost at home in a Hitchcockian spy thriller with Jackie Chan flavored sense of humor - exactly where you would least expect to find him.Over all, although only a B-movie thriller, remains a neat accomplishment for Tsui Hark.

This movie had good moments but the cheesy acting and Schneider made this one worse than Double team.Yes Double team was bad but at least there was better action scenes.The problem with it was the script,even Paul Sorvino sounded b-list.I dislike the fact that the studio's kept on giving JC movies to Hong Kong directors.It's o.k, if you catch it on the tube, but don't take valuable DVD time for this one.There were some cool moves,it kinda had a Rush hour vibe but that ended in the first 20 minutes.As a loyal JC fan i can tolerate this movie but i wonder some times what was the average viewer was thinking when they saw this one? this one ended his long run in theaters,i thought that this was going to revive the JC legacy but it ended up demoting him to direct to video. It's true folks you don't know the good times when there happening.