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DonWanton
Reviews
Time Runner (1993)
William H. Macy wants his moustache back.
Time Runner is absolute sin, the film's paradoxical forces so strong they seep through the fourth wall and manage to manipulate real life. How else do you explain the film's theatrical poster, in which Mark Hamill sports a healthy-looking moustache yet on-screen looks like a stubbled Willem Dafoe? Sadly for our star, this Terminator-in-space bootleg is one deep trough after the next as he loses his lines in a void of Gouraud-rendered pointlessness. Like most inanimate pieces of meat, Hamill and his co-stars show us (with metabolic efficiency) just how spoiled something can become in 90 minutes.
The Beast (1996)
Flat-packed psychopathic animal thriller.
Peter Benchley swaps whitefish for calamari in this watchable TV mini-series event. The Beast is a flat-packed psychopathic animal thriller even idiots can assemble; unexplained events leave an ethnically homogenous coastal town in terror, the loathsome officials are in denial, all the dumbest people get it in the first act, and the humble hero does his life's work in one evening. This may sound drab, but much like flat-packed Scandinavian furniture made from sawdust it is also aesthetically pleasing and functional. William Petersen is charming and believable as a sullen fisherman but nobody's netting a Saturn award on this expedition.
Maximum Risk (1996)
Gritty and honest JCVD.
It was last call for JCVD's formidable run of split-kick blockbusters. He was just 5 appearances from a long stint in the direct-to-video domain, yet would notably outlast rival and fellow hair-creme lover Steven Seagal by several big screen releases. Against some stiff odds, Maximum Risk stands out in a era where Jean-Claude's formulae had become 'fastidieux'. Under the energetic direction of Ringo Lam, Van Damme is convincing as Alain Moreau, a French cop who's out for justice in NYC. Doing away with the anaesthetising amount of exposition often used to explain his accent and abilities, Maximum Risk sets up a rare opportunity for JCVD to be comfortably foreign, which shows in his performance. Following a sunny start in coastal le Midi, the tone quickly darkens and there are soon moments of action brilliance despite some fairly predictable plot tropes. On several occasions Van Damme is forced into confined combat where his wide kicks are made redundant, leading to brawls that are far more brutal and realistic. His fight to the death with a huge henchman (Stefanos Miltsakakis) paired with a blaring Free-Jazz score is one such scene, elevated by some exceptional acting from both parties. While certainly not perfect, something edgy comes out of Van Damme in this picture - perhaps a reflection of his intense personal struggles at the time. Either way, the result feels more like a spiritual prelude to 2008's gritty and honest "JCVD" than another ode to the Kickboxer era, making it well worth the watch.