Jean-Claude Van Damme and
Jean-Claude Van Damme … double the fire power, double the action and, dare we
say it, double the impact!!
Fans may we have your attention! Apr.
23 can’t come soon enough as MVD Entertainment Group has picked that date for a
new Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack addition to its popular Rewind Collection line of
products … and that would be director Sheldon Lettich’s 1991 martial arts
thriller, Double Impact, starring Jean-Claude Van Damme and Jean-Claude
Van Damme!!! First time on Blu-ray!
With the theatrical hits
piling up — Bloodsport (1988), Black Eagle (also 1988 … available
as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Rewind Collection edition from MVP), Kickboxer
(1989) and Lionheart (1990 … available as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Rewind
Collection edition from MVP) — it was a moment of divine inspiration to come up
with a script that featured not one, but Jean-Claude Van Dammes in one film!
The result was Double
Impact, which was a monster hit theatrically, not just in the domestic
market, but internationally!! From now
on Jean-Claude Van Damme would be an international, bankable action star … and
nearly three decades later there are no signs of him slowing down.
In Double Impact we get to
see two sides of Van Damme, which was accomplished through split-screen film
techniques and the use of no less than three different body doubles (each with
unique “Van Damme” talents).
Through a prologue
sequence, which takes place in 1960, we find that Paul (Andy Armstrong) and
Katherine (Sarah-Jane Varley) Wagner are the proud parents of infant twin boys,
named Alex and Chad. Paul is in partnership
with a chap by the name of Nigel Griffith (Alan Scarfe — Lethal Weapon 3, Back in
Business, The Wrong Guy, etc.) and they are in the middle of
celebrating an engineering project they’ve completed (the Victoria Tunnel from
Hong Kong to mainland China). Paul and
his wife are murdered by assassins dispatched by crime lord Raymond Zhang (Philip
Chan) … who is in league with Griffith!!
While Paul’s bodyguard,
Frank (played by none other than Geoffrey Lewis — Night of the Comet, Any Which Way
You Can, Bronco Billy, Pink Cadillac, etc.) fails in his duties to
protect Paul and his wife, he still manages to rescue Chad, with the loyal
family nurse spiriting Alex away to a nearby orphanage.
We now skip ahead to the
present day and Frank is running a martial arts studio in Los Angeles, where he
has raised Chad by pretending to be his uncle.
It is now time to reveal the past and reunite the brothers, so a trip is
planned to Hong Kong.
Once there, Chad is
spotted by the alluring Danielle (Alonna Shaw), who mistakes him for her lover,
Alex … in short order the twins are back together. Frank fills in the gaps and Alex and Chad
are now ready to revenge their murdered parents … an unstoppable pair of Van
Dammes in action!!
Bonus features are a
still a work-in-progress with MVD having already secured newly-prepared
interviews with members of the cast and crew, plus never-before-seen behind the
scenes footage.
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