Knock Off *** (1998, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Paul Sorvino, Rob Schneider, Lela Rochon) – Classic Movie Review 2085

Director Tsui Hark’s 1998 movie, set in Hong Kong,  is one of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s better all-action thrillers.

Van Damme stars as Marcus Ray, a fashion designer who is drawn into a black market conspiracy involving ‘knock off’ fashion labels. He attempts to go straight with the help of his new partner Tommy Hendricks (Rob Schneider), who is secretly an undercover CIA agent involved in an American investigation of the black market.

But jeans are their main product and they are involved in the knock offs, so Karen Lee (Lela Rochon), a representative of the American jeans company, comes in to investigate. Then there’s Harry Johanson (Paul Sorvino), the menacing head of the CIA operation in Hong Kong.

It turns out that the fashion labels hide a deadly secret. So it’s up to Van Damme, in league with the CIA agents, to combat terrorism and avert global disaster at the hands of the Russian mafia.

Tsui Hark directs with great vigour, papering over all the many plot holes and script deficiencies in Steven E. de Souza‘s modest screenplay. Though it’s a bit of a stretch of the imagination to figure out the star as a fashion designer, Van Damme fans will be happy as the movie is fast paced and pretty darned furious most of the time. It helps that talented Sorvino, Rochon and Schneider also star, along with Glen Chin as the ironically named Skinny.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2085

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