Tsui Hark’s film Knock Off with Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rob Schneider and Lela Rochon is better than you remember. Watch this video for a breakdown and analysis on what is quite possibly the craziest, zaniest action film that Van Damme has ever made.
Now Knock Off would be the 3rd Van Damme film that took place Hong Kong, the first being Bloodsport of course and the 2nd Double Impact. But Knock Off would be the only one of the 3 that made you feel like you were a part of Hong Kong as opposed to merely a visitor. A lot of this had to do with Tsui Hark’s direction.
There’s actually an interesting dichotomy going on here with how intense he is at times contrasted with how laid back and relaxed he is throughout the film. The funny thing is that it totally works for this movie, at the same time, I’m not sure if he could’ve pulled it off if he wasn’t on drugs at the time.
Interesting Trivia is that both Jean-Claude Van Damme and Lela Rochon, both appeared in the 1984 movie Breakin’. That was the first Hollywood movie both actors first appeared in. They both had small roles as background dancers and were uncredited. How cool is it though, that 14 years later, they’d be the stars in this large Hollywood production? Knock Off had a $35 Million dollar budget by the way.
Van Damme would reteam with screenwriter Steven E de Souza on Knock Off as well, which is the guy who wrote and made his directorial debut with Van Damme on the movie Street Fighter a few years prior to this.
Here’s an interesting side-note btw, Van Damme actually briefly played a fashion designer in real life. In 2001, he had his own clothing line Dammage7, exclusively at high end London retailer Harrods. The clothing line was full of energy and vibrant colors. Much like the movie Knock Off itself (there are green explosive flames in this movie for some reason).
Overall, you could really say the late 90s was the end of an amazing era. With the one two punch of Knock Off and Universal Soldier The Return, Van Damme’s career would never be the same. But it wasn’t just Van Damme who was falling off; Audiences were losing interest in all of the big names that ruled the action genre in the 80’s and 90’s, Steven Seagal movies were starting to go straight to video for example., Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone would last a little bit longer in theaters, but not much.
Stallone kept on working at it and gave us straight to video releases such as Eye See You, Avenging Angelo and Shade. He would of course finally be able to emerge from this straight to video slump with 2006’s amazing Rocky Balboa. Leave it to Rocky, the great underdog to give Stallone the comeback he needed.
Arnold clearly seen the writing on the well and decided to take a different route altogether. Instead of being consigned to straight to video purgatory, he decided to rule the great state of California instead and became it’s governator. He would of course later re-emerge back in theaters once Stallone got audiences re-interested in these action icons again by dusting them off the shelf and making the ultimate action fans dream project, The Expendables in 2010.
Van Damme would of course get his chance to re-shine in theaters worldwide with his role as the villain in the sequel to The Expendables in 2012. It was a brief reminder of what audiences had in the 90s. And it was a real treat to see Van Damme and Stallone battle it out, mano e mano.
Read “The Underrated Insantiy of Tsui Hark and Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Knock Off” article here:
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