| Until Death (2007) Cast:Jean-Claude Van Damme, Stephen Rea Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as a dirty cop who survives a bullet to the head, upon waking up from his coma he finds out that everyone hates him and he is jobless, he is going through heroin addiction and of course he's trying hard to get his wife back, oh yeah he also wants revenge on the mobster (Rea) who shot him in the head as well. Until Death is Jean-Claude Van Damme's best in a long time. Until Death is sort of like Regarding Henry meets Hard To Kill but is actually a lot better because the melodrama works in establishing the grim circumstances and somehow the action element works because of the melodrama in question. The action sequences are a mixed bag as it all consists of shootouts (although the Diner scene shootout is well done) what makes the movie work is Jean-Claude Van Damme's very good performance (Seriously) in fact his performance centers what could've been a silly and hilariously bad actioner but the belgian's performance makes the film seem more believable and he manages to pull off both the bad side of the character and the recovering angle much better than he had any right to do. Also Simon Fellows manages to create a suspenseful atmosphere and fill the story with some fairly interesting supporting characters that make the movie work. The film's weakness is the handling of the film's villain played a tad too hammy by Rea, indeed for most of the time he just doesn't have enough screen time to be as good of a threat as he could've been, also Van Damme's change is a tad too rushed and his subplot with his wife comes off as rushed and often forced and of course the action isn't as good as it could've been. But that aside Until Death walks a fine balance of entertainment and melodrama and in the process becomes one of Van Damme's most entertaining in years.D.Simon Fellows*** |