This movie is available from www.amazon.com

Rating:

7

AKA: After Death

Year of release: 2004

Genre: action

Director: Philippe Martinez

Action directors: Remy Julienne, Tom Delmar

Writers: Philippe Martinez, Laurent Fellous, Mick Davis

Cinematography: Emmanuel Kadosh

Editor: Dedan Ouziel

Music: Guy Farley

Stars: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Simon Yam, Valerie Tian, Philip Tan, Tony Schiena, Claude Hernandez, Anthony Fridjohn

Rated R for violence, language and sexuality

DVD Information

Company: Columbia Tristar

Format: widescreen

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Extras: trailers, featurette

Notes: Not much for extras, but the DVD looks and sounds nice.

Related links:

Simon Yam biography
Movie Review index
Main Page

Wake of Death

For a while, it seemed like Jean-Claude Van Damme's career was over. With straight-to-video junk like Derailed gathering dust on store shelves, it seemed like our boy was just one mortgage payment away from doing an infomerical hawking exercise equipment. However, "the muscles from Brussels" looks like he has caught his second wind. Unlike other 80's action movie stars like Steven Seagal, Van Damme looks to have realized that he can't bank on his fists of fury selling tickets or DVDs any more, and has actually started to act in his films. As with his last movie In Hell and (to a lesser extent) 2001's Replicant, Van Damme shows that he can accomplish more on screen than doing the splits or flashing his bare ass.

Wake of Death has Van Damme playing a bouncer who wants to quit so he can spend more time with his family. His wife is an INS agent, and after a boatload of illegal Chinese immigrants is picked up, she brings home one of the refugees, a cute little girl who seems harmless. However, the girl's father (played by Hong Kong movie veteran Simon Yam) is a vicious Triad boss who slashed the throat of the girl's mother after she threatened to leave, and he doesn't take kindly to white people "stealing" his daughter. Simon massacres Van Damme's wife and in-laws -- and, you guessed it, it's time for some "Van Dammage".

It takes a little while for Wake of Death to get going; there's not any real action until about a half-hour into the movie. But actually, the exposition is handled well. Van Damme creates a tough but likeable character. When his wife is killed and he brings up tears, it's believable. The other actors do a good job as well. Simon Yam, as always, is solid (even if his English isn't the greatest) and I really liked Anthony Fridjohn, who plays Van Damme's uncle. He plays a nice old guy for most of the movie, but does a total 180 during one of the more vicious torture scenes I've ever seen (I won't spoil anything, but let's just say it has creative uses of a power drill). Even the child actors -- who I normally abhor in movies (just take a look at Rumble in the Bronx) -- do well.

The action here is good, but I wish there was more of it. I know Van Damme is getting up there in age, but I would have liked at least one or two fights that took longer than a couple of minutes. Still, there are some solid fisticuffs, as well as some decent gunplay and a frantic chase scene co-ordinated by the world-renowed Remy Julienne. We're probably never going to see Van Damme doing action on the scale of Bloodsport at this point in his career, but as long as he continues to refine his acting chops, I don't think too many fans are going to mind all that much.