Maximum Risk (1996)

While not necessarily one of my favorites from his more "classic" collection (Bloodsport, Kickboxer, etc.), I give this one a lot of credit for creating an overall highly suspenseful experience, full of intense action/chase sequences, and with more of a story than many other action-oriented efforts in its class. The script by Larry Ferguson (writer of The Hunt for Red October and definitely one of the more respected people to pen a Van Damme movie) places storytelling over action setups and, in general, feels a bit smarter than the average Van Damme vehicle. There isn't any real mystery to the story, though: the revelation of Alain's brother and his affiliation with the Russian mafia is dealt with without too much buildup, and the story begins to revolve around Alain retreading his brother's unsuccessful steps to distance himself from the mob and escape from corrupt FBI agents. His relationship with his brother's old flame (Natasha Henstridge, Species) is interesting at first but is then more or less dropped into your lap. Nevertheless, the movie never loses a sense of suspense: Alain doesn't seem quite as empowered as other characters Van Damme was playing at the time, so it rarely seems impossible that he could be killed. Soundly-weighed production values by director Lam help set a good mood and the art direction is, at times, inspired.

The film features a pretty good cast, including Jean-Hugues Anglade (Betty Blue) as Alain's partner and David Hemblen (Exotica) in a limited role as the leader of the Russian mafia, but the unexpected dramatic moment of the picture belongs to Van Damme for a surprisingly adept instance of silent acting near the end of the movie wherein Alain listens to a recorded message by his late brother. Ringo Lam would continue to bring a little something extra out of Jean-Claude in the future, even directing him to his first-ever dramatic award nomination five years later, but "Maximum Risk" is probably the most palatable of all their collaborations for its all-around strengths and mainstream appeal.

Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Fmovies: Maximum Risk is the second Van Damme-movie to be directed by a HongKong-director(the first was "Hard Target" by John Woo), Ringo Lam delivers stylish action as always, but this isn`t the same as "Full Contact", but this is very good after American standards. Van Damme delivers his usual stuff. Maximum Risk is great! 9/10

"Maximum Risk" is one of my personal favorite vintage Van Dammage's action thriller. I love this film to death, it is Van Damme Vs. the Russian Mafia and corrupt FBI agents. It is a decent action film from the 90's I saw. This was improvement over Street Fighter and The Quest. This was the first collaboration with Van Damme and Ringo Lam later they worked on direct-to-DVD "Replicant" and "In Hell". Jean-Claude Van Damme is joined by sexy and beautiful Natasha Henstridge (Species) in their most explosive roles yet.

Welcome to another movie review of my Van Damme Movie Marathon for December, the month of my birthday. 28th December is my birthday so I am making Van Damme movie reviews. I grew up watching this movie, I always loved this film, my mom bought me this movie on VHS tape before she past away. I was in 8th grade that time. I don't have the VHS tape anymore but I do have this movie on Blu-ray and watch it again I must say I agree with other reviews it is not just good it is one of Van Damme's best films from the 90's.

Jean-Claude Van Damme's solid acting performance plays a twins Mikhail Suverov and Alain Moreau in double role, separated at birth. Alain Moreau (Van Damme) is a French cop and an ex military sniper. He is investigating the life of his dead brother Mikhail Suverov trail leads him from beauty of the south of France to the mean streets of New York and in to arms of his brother's girlfriend (Henstridge). He is pursued by ruthless Russian mobsters and renegade FBI agents, the duo race against time to solve his brother's murder and exspose international conspiracy. Sparked by the erotic chemistry between Jean-Claude Van Damme and Natasha Henstridge, spectacular stunts and globe-hopping action.

I love the action sequence in this film, practical effect no CGI. The fights are real because Van Damme did his own fights stunts, that's how Van Damme fights not like was in Sudden Death in which he had stunt doubles for his fights. There was some stunt doubles in which Van Damme runs trough streets on New York dogging taxi cabs. Those were dangerous stunts Van Damme was in his best shape. This was Natasha Henstridge third role as Alex Bartlett in this movie and one of her best roles yet.

You have sex scene between Alain Moreau (Jean-Claude Van Damme ) and Alex Bartlett (Natasha Henstridge) I like, like Natasha Henstridge a lot as an actress she is beautiful and sexy. You have Jean-Claude Van Damme using his spin kick on a Russian mobster standing on a car. Van Damme hungs him self upside down and shoots the assailant with a chain saw with a gun in the legs and the guy cut whole meat with a chain saw, shocking. Fights off Red Face (Stefanos Miltsakakis) which was a good villain.

This a really good decent action film Ringo Lam directed well he made a great job, great fight sequences, good car chases, shoutouts. This was the second film Van Damme played twins again. Good stunt work one of my favorite Jean-Claude Van Damme films. I love this film to death I love sexy Natasha Henstridge in this movie so much.

Maximum Risk fmovies. Maximum Risk is the first US feature film from acclaimed Hong Kong director Ringo Lam with Van Damme as star. He previously brought in John Woo to direct action classic Hard Target, but JCVD and John Woo didn't exactly hit it off creatively. Ringo Lam and JCVD worked well together and would continue to work together on two more films(Replicant and In Hell). Maximum Risk is much different than the movies JCVD normally works on, it is pretty dark, gritty and has less stylish action that he is known for. The film is mostly devoid of humor and is presented in a serious and more realistic manner. Ringo Lam gets Van Damme to focus more on his acting and by the time he works with JCVD next, his acting improves significantly. While the whole twin brother plot has been done to death at this point, JCVD is a cop and must investigate the circumstances of his estranged twin brother's death. Natasha Henstridge is good in this as JCVD's love interest and damsel in distress. I would regard this as more of a thriller than straight up action movie, but as a mash up of genres it does it fairly well. This is also the 1st action movie I seen that involves the Russian mob, which nowadays is common with movies like John Wick, The Equalizer, etc. As a whole this was done well and JCVD would work next with legendary Hong Kong director/producer Tsui Hark on Knock Off which is unfortunate because that movie is a giant turkey of a movie, completely terrible. But that is another story...

This has to be the best Jean-Claude Van Damme action movie he has made. It has it all, and it has it in spades. This movie is 100 minutes, and 95 of those are pure action.

You have great car chases through the streets of Nice and New York.

You have a whole lot of people the Government is not going to have to arrest and try because they will not be around.

You have three, count them three outstanding fights between Jean-Claude Van Damme and the biggest, baddest dude you can imagine.

And, you have Natasha Henstridge in the bathroom making love and giving us a view we will long remember.

What more can you ask for?

This Jean-Claude Van Damme action vehicle gets good marks for sound, low profanity, some very good action scenes and some interesting characters that keep your attention. It loses marks for excessive violence, too much "Rambo" mentality (good guys don't get hit despite a barrage of bullets) and, yet, another modern-day film in which the FBI is corrupt.

This is also another of these action films that has TOO much action. It would be better with some more lulls. It almost gets ridiculous in spots. Nevertheless, some of the scenes such as car chases, fires and explosions are so well-done you have to admire the great stunt work in here. Man, those stunt men earn their money!

You would be hard-pressed to find two leads in any film with the bodies of Van Damme and Natasha Henstridge and neither are shy about showing them off, so you have the usual gratuitous sex scenes, but they are brief, as is the profanity. This is a loud film. If you have good speakers, be ready to have the room shake with lots of bass.

Overall, it's about 100 minutes of mindless but entertaining diversion.