Knock Off (1998)

Every once in a while, I get in a kick of checking out films that I hadn't seen from some of my favorites in Hollywood like I did with Zoey Deutch, Robert De Niro, and Jean-Claude Van Damme (Swelter) who happens to be the subject for today's film that I chose. In the late 1990's, he released a lot of films that I just never got around to seeing so I decided that for today I would check out 1998's Knock Off which was directed by Tsui Hark (Once Upon A Time In China). Van Damme plays fashion designer Marcus Ray who just wants his product to be known around the world. Someone though is creating knock off versions of his jeans with bombs in them so he has to team up with a CIA agent to figure out who is behind it before it's too late. The film also stars Rob Schneider (Deuce Bigelow: Male Gigolo) as Tommy Hendricks, Lela Rochon (Any Given Sunday) as Karen Lee, Paul Sorvino (The Rocketeer) as Harry Johanson, Glen Chin (Natural Born Killers) as Skinny, Wyman Wong (12 Golden Ducks) as Eddie Wang, Carman Lee (Forbidden City Cop) as Detective Ling Ho, Michael Wong (Transformers: Age Of Extinction) as Han, Moses Chan (Black Mask) as Officer Fong, and  Ray Nicholas (The Dark Knight Rises) as Karl.

This is probably one of my least favorite Van Damme films that I have ever seen and that is saying something because he has been apart of some bad ones. I felt like this film was trying to be a knock off of a Jackie Chan film and it just didn't work for me at all because it's not what I wanted. I know that Rob Schneider was supposed to be the comedic relief in the film playing alongside the action star, but he was honestly my least favorite thing about the film besides the weird editing choices that went in to it as well. There was not one single scene in the whole film where I was like wow that was funny from Rob and I am surprised because he has been in some great comedies, but he should have stayed away from this one. The story itself is a little whacked out too because you have Russians and CIA all fighting for the same thing and they tried to do the whole double cross agent thing and they failed because it was absolutely stupid. I am a completest because once I start something I have to finish it, but this was honestly one film that I wish I had stopped watching because it sucked. The only cool thing about the film is the final battle/fight sequence that happens at the end where Van Damme is sliding on a slip and slide while his little hand gun shoots bad guys like they were hit by a shotgun. That was the only good thing which means that I am going to give the film an D- for a final grade and I never have given those out before. If an F is 65 that means the film got a 66 just to put it into comparison.

The Rocketeer (1991)

Before the creation of the MCU by Disney, there were not a lot of comic book films that were coming out or at least that were treated seriously by the box office. In the 1990's, various film studios started to take chances on random comic book titles that faithfuls would know like Tank Girl, Judge Dredd, Barb Wire, The Crow, and today's film The Rocketeer which was released in 1991 by Disney and directed by Joe Johnston (Captain America: The First Avenger). The film stars Billy Campbell (Bram Stoker's Dracula) as airplane pilot Cliff in pre-World War II 1938 Los Angeles who just wants to fly a plane in Nationals and marry his girl Jenny (Jennifer Connelly), but an accident with one of the planes sets him back. One day, Billy stumbles on to a prototype of a jet pack that allows him to become a hero, but there are some very bad people after this jet pack. The film also stars Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine) as Peevy, Timothy Dalton (License To Kill) as Neville Sinclair, Paul Sorvino (Goodfellas) as Eddie Valentine, Terry O'Quinn (Primal Fear) as Howard Hughes, Ed Lauter (King Kong) as Fitch, Jon Polito (The Crow) as Bigelow, Tiny Ron (Last Man Standing) as Lothar, and Eddie Jones (Sneakers) as Malcolm.

When I saw that Joe Johnston directed this film, it made a lot of sense to me because it had the same feel and aesthetic as Captain America: First Avenger. It's almost an updated version of The Rocketeer, but this film was actually pretty good that was actually an enjoyable film from beginning to end. The only thing that I would criticize is that Lothar just looked like he was wearing a mask the whole entire film much like the look of Dick Tracy (the film). I thought that Timothy Dalton was actually a really good villain and it makes perfect sense because he's a great actor, but he is a good opposite of what Billy is. Billy is a grease monkey pilot who is blue collar in love with a girl that is out of this world and just happens to be an actress which is what Dalton's character is. It was definitely the perfect set up for a great show down at the end of the film inside of a Zeppelin. I thought the gangsters int he film were a little cheesy, but they actually matched the times and what we thought of how Gangsters were in those Cagney times so it's safe to say that I loved it. All I could think of was Cagney and him saying, "Yeah! tell him the Valentine Gang did it!" The one thing that I absolutely did love about this film was the sets that were used like the Bull Dog Cafe which is so cool looking and in fact Disney has a replica of it in a museum. This isn't the greatest superhero movie ever made because I think that still belongs to The Dark Knight, but this was fun and it's all thanks to DC and Batman 1989 being so popular. I am going to give the film an B- for a final grade.