Wake Of Death (2004)

If you are wondering then the answer is yes we are doing back to back nights with the muscles from Brussels as we check out another film from my favorite action star. The film that I chose for today is 2004's Wake Of Death which was directed by Philippe Martinez (The Intergalactic Adventures of Max Cloud) and it stars Jean Claude Van Damme (In Hell) as storied club enforcer Ben Archer who has just decided that he is going to hang up the boots and retire from that business. Unfortunately for Ben, his wife works for immigration services and after finding a ship full of refugee Chinese people, she is murdered at home for taking care of a girl who belongs to a drug kingpin. With his wife dead and his son kidnapped, Ben has no other choice, but to seek revenge against those who wronged him and get his son back. The film also stars Lisa King (The Wonderful World Of Disney) as Cynthia Archer, Simon Yam (Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life) as Sun Quan, Philip Tan (Kung Pow: Enter The Fist) as Han, Valerie Tian (Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief) as Kim, Tony Schiena (The Merchant Of Venice) as Tony, Anthony Fridjhon (District 9) as Max, Tom Wu (The Gentlemen) as Andy Wang, and Danny Keogh (Invictus) as Hoggins.

The action sequences in this film are actually pretty exciting stuff from the scene in the whore house to the showdown on the boat and even the car chase scene is good. I wished the ending of the motorcycle chase scene was more fulfilling then it was, but it was still good stuff. I was expecting a lot more out of some of the characters in this film, but Phillip Tan and Simon Yam did not disappoint at all in this film as they brought their a games to the film. Their characters were well written and I even loved the angle with the Frenchman who were absolutely nuts in this film. It was a fun sequence, but there was definitely some stuff they could have worked on, but it's action film what more do you want. They obviously didn't have a lot of money to do this film because some of the slow motion sequences were a little meh, but the cinematography and editing were pretty good. I would definitely say that this is an underrated Van Damme film because he is his charismatic self in the film. That is one of the reasons I love him so much because he's amazing when he gets on screen. Which is why I have decided that for a final grade, I am going to give Wake Of Death an B- for a final grade.