Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Lachlan Coulson This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

ivo-cobra8 Disclaimer: If you are a viewer that mainly prefers art-house-type movies, then you might as well ignore this review. In addition, if you're not able to take an Van Damme underrated, bashed, hated solid action film, ignore this review, as well. We'll both be better off.Double Team (1997) alongside with Knock Off (1998) is very underrated, bashed and hated movie, mostly for Van Damme performance. This film has received a lot of negative reviews and was a box office fail. I understand why people does not like this movie, I understand and I like it! It is not one of my top 10 favorite Van Damme movies, but I like it, even more than Knock Off. I have always enjoyed this film more than Knock Off. Double Team was Van Damme's first time filming with Chinese film director Tsui Hark, because one year later, they both made together Knock Off another underrated action movie. In my opinion beside Van Damme, Mickey Rourke and Dennis Rodman both of the actors did a solid job and performance together playing their characters. There was a lot of explosions, a lot of action scenes, and a lot of martial arts shown from Van Damme and Mickey Rourke. I like the idea, When Jack Quinn (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a former counterterrorist agent fails to catch alive a terrorist leader Stavros (Mickey Rourke) and accidentally one of his Agent's kills Stavros 6.year old son, Jack Quinn is exiled to colony for dead agents on an empty deserted island and their is no escape from this island. Stavros plot's vengeance against Quinn and takes his wife Kathryn (Natacha Lindinger ) as a hostage and her unborn child now Quinn has to escape and team with Jaz (Dennis Rodman) to get his wife back and Stavros once and for all. I love the training sequences and the music score for the movie. I liked the performance from Van Damme and Rodman, I don't think they acted stupid in this movie, they did not! I bagged my aunt to tape me this movie on VHS, when I was a teen and she did. I like this movie a lot, I like the shoot outs. Double Team was also one of my favorite Van Damme movies. Dennis Rodman and Mickey Rourke co started in this movie. About an CIA agent who misses his target and finds him self on an island for a retired agents and he finds out that his target Stavros kidnapped his wife and his unborn baby and he plans to kill them both unless Quinn escapes. Training and action sequences are excellent and Double Team is also Van Damme's action movie that I like. It is an explosive, high-tech ride. Mickey Rourke was a good bad guy. I really had no idea Paul Freeman was in this movie, he was so awesome in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), I really had no idea he was in this movie as Quinn's guardian. I like when Van Damme fight's off the tiger in the coliseum, those scenes with the tiger where fantastic. I liked that Rodman helped Quinn saving his baby, when the baby case was standing on a mine filed and Rodman saved him. The fights between Mickey Rourke and Van Damme weren't that good, but they were not that bad either. Van Damme and Mickey Rourke both differently worked in The Expendables movies. Rourke in The Expendables and Van Damme in The Expendables 2. Double Team is a 1997 action film that marked the first American movie directed by Hong Kong director Tsui Hark (A Better Tomorrow III). The film stars Jean-Claude Van Damme as Jack Quinn, a former counterterrorist agent who is exiled to a penal colony for disgraced operatives. Upon his escape, Quinn teams with an arms dealer to track down the terrorist who ruined his life. The film co-stars Dennis Rodman, Paul Freeman, and Mickey Rourke. Director Hark would later collaborate with Van Damme in 1998's Knock Off. This movie get's 6 by me, I wish I would have this movie on Blu-ray, I am probably the only one that just likes this movie. Much better than Knock Off! The training sequences from Van Damme where really kick ass and the action stunts from Van Damme where solid, so they weren't bad. Sorry Double Team is not your movie, that's okay I like it. 6/10 Grade: C- Studio: Columbia Pictures Corporation, Mandalay Entertainment Film Workshop Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman, Paul Freeman, Mickey Rourke, Natacha Lindinger Director: Tsui Hark Producers: Moshe Diamant, David Rodgers Screenplay: Don Jakoby, Paul Mones Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 33 Mins. Budget: $30.000.000 Box Office: $11,438,337

Comeuppance Reviews Jack Quinn (Van Damme) is a retired CIA operative who wants to do nothing more than lounge by the pool with his wife Katherine (Lindinger), who happens to be pregnant, after a long career of CIA operations. However, trouble rears its head in the form of super-evil baddie Stavros (Rourke), a longtime enemy of Quinn's. Stavros is so dangerous, Quinn must travel to Antwerp to meet Yaz (Rodman), a colorful, flamboyant arms dealer, to sell him the latest in hi-tech weaponry. After a shootout and one-on-one battle with Stavros, he ends up escaping once again, and Quinn is sent to a mysterious place called "The Colony" which is not at all based on The Prisoner TV show. Quinn spends most of his time at The Colony training and working on his escape plan. Once firmly out of the grasp of The Colony, he and Yaz team up to take one last shot at Stavros - who has kidnapped Katherine, and now his newborn son. Will Quinn and Yaz make the ultimate DOUBLE TEAM? Double Team is classic 90's Van Damme. The presence of Dennis Rodman cements the fact that it's classic 90's, period. This was not only an era in time when JCVD movies came to the theater, but when DENNIS RODMAN movies came to the theater. It truly was a more innocent time for us all. The fact is, Rodman's outlandish female outfits, wacky hair, silly one-liners and, let's face it, infectious charisma enliven the movie immeasurably. Director Tsui Hark brings that kinetic HK style and crazy camera angles he and his brethren are known for. Throw in some Mickey Rourke as the baddie and a tiger (during the climactic battle) and you have the enjoyable and entertaining movie we know and love today.During a big chunk of the movie, namely the "Prisoner" sequence, you might find yourself asking "where's Yaz?" or "this movie could really use more Yaz". The fact is, Rodman and Van Damme do have very good chemistry together, and there's certainly no shortage of basketball jokes and references in the movie. During the heyday of Rodman, he only appeared in two movies. This one and Simon Sez (1999). Fascinatingly, and inexplicably, both films feature "Cyber-Monks". That is, underground monks using modern technology. A quick look on Urban Dictionary for Cyber Monk includes this excerpt: "They have a strange tendency to show up in high-tech espionage movies starring Dennis Rodman. Some are known to dance." Whether they are in Rodman's contract as a prerequisite to him being involved, we don't know, but Cyber Monks are definitely a thing. And we don't know why. Martial Artist and stuntman Xin Xin Xiong is also involved with both Rodman vehicles.Double Team definitely delivers what fans want: wild stunts, a classic training sequence (but with a twist: Van Damme's time-honored split is done vertically this time, not simply horizontally as usual), at least one character walking away from an explosion in slow motion, and many characters who scream while shooting their machine guns. Because Hark is the director, there are certainly some odd close-ups and such, and there are many moments that are weirdly nonsensical, but it's all part of the fun. Plus the movie mentions North Korea as a threat, which was pretty ahead of its time in 1997.Rodman knows you can never get enough Rodman, which is why he also appears on the closing credits song, "Just a Freak" by Crystal Waters featuring Dennis Rodman. Maybe that's why his star burned brightly but quickly back in the 90's. But at least we have Double Team as proof that he teamed up with Van Damme back in that heady time. And the results are everything you could ask for.

FlashCallahan Jack Quinn is top counter-terrorist, and before his final mission he misses terrorist Stavros. During this epic battle, Quinn is wounded and sent to the Colony, where everyone else presumes he is dead.He is reassured by Belloq from Raiders, and gets fit by smoking cigarettes, and lifting a bath.Stavros had his son killed in the earlier fight and as revenge he is hunting Quinn's pregnant wife. Quinn joins forces with vivid arms dealer Yaz to fight Stavros, and a tiger.....This film, and Knock Off are easily Van Dammes most bizarre movie, but they are nothing short of entertaining.The editing is all over the shop, and the script is undoubtedly awful, but I had so much fun watching this, and still do every time I put it in my machine.Van Damme is as good as always, and Rourke as you would expect. Rodman, well he's in it, and that's all I can say.The fight scenes are awesome, some of the camera-work inspired, and the fact that it's on less than 90 minutes, only adds to the charm.Yes it may have lots and lots of flaws, but it's entertaining, and any film that involves a man kick shoes at Van Damme or the man kick a tiger, has to be seen.

zardoz-13 The action-packed, globe-trotting Jean-Claude Van Damme adventure "Double Team" derives its sporty title from the unlikely combo of NBA bad boy Dennis Rodman and Van Damme in pursuit of arch foe Mickey Rourke. "Double Team" might have been drivel at a dribble were it not for the dazzling aplomb with which gifted Hong Kong action helmer Tsui Hark stages a number of snappy, hyperkinetic action sequences. Van Damme stars as Jack Quinn, the best counter-terrorist in the business, who retires and settles down with his wife Kathryn (French television actress Natacha Lindinger) to raise a family. His old bosses lure Jack back into the spy game to ice his oldest foe, Stavros (Mickey Rourke of "Sin City"). At an ambush in Antwerp, everything goes wrong. Quinn nearly dies from an explosion, and the wily Stavros eludes death. When Quinn recovers, he finds himself trapped on an island fortress called the Penal Colony with no hope for escape. The seas around the island are a maze of laser beams. The Colony guardian Goldsmythe (Paul Freeman), explains to Quinn that he is confined to the island for the remainder of his life in the dubious company of the deadliest spies in the world. Not only are they too valuable to terminate, but also that are too lethal to be let loose. According to Goldsmythe, the Penal Colony serves as an espionage think tank. Equipped with the latest high-tech gadgetry, these Penal Colony lifers act as consultants in resolving international disputes.Of course, Quinn devises a stunning escape plan based on split-second timing. Meanwhile, Stavros kidnaps his pregnant wife and sweeps her off to Rome. Stavros has every reason to hat Jack Quinn. Stavros took Quinn's wife as hostage. After he engineers a daring daylight escape, Quinn saves his wife from a ruthless death squad in the Eternal City. Although Kathryn gives birth to a baby boy, Stavros manages to stay a step ahead of Quinn and abducts the newborn. Quinn confronts Stavros in a land mine laden Roman Coliseum and battles a ravenous Bengal tiger. Our hero relieves heavily on the firepower provided by a weird underground CIA arms dealer named Yaz (Dennis Rodman) in both on Stavros. Yaz himself comes along to play against the bad guys in a bullet-scarred finale. Scenarists Don ("Lifeforce") Jakoby and Paul ("The Quest") Mones pull out all stops with an audacious, slam dunk script that resembles a James Bond extravaganza, complete with several exotic settings. Of course, the Jakoby & Mones' screenplay is thoroughly predictable, but these writers know how to tweak the formula with a fresh gag or two. Hong Kong action helmer Hark makes the third Royal Colony refugee that Van Damme has called on to direct his movies. Earlier, Van Damme tapped John Woo to call the shots on "Hard Target,but John Travolta has since wooed Woo to direct "Broken Arrow" and "Face/Off" with Nicolas Cage. In "Maximum Risk," Van Damme imported the services of the skilled Ringo Lam. Unlike both "Hard Target" and "Maximum Risk," "Double Team" takes its far-fetched plot to preposterously outlandish lengths. Hark never lets the supercharged action idle away in this stylist thriller. He enlivens the action sequences with the kind of bravura that make you want to flinch and duck. The fight between Van Damme and as Asian henchman who grips a switchblade between his toes is invigoratingly fresh. And the computerized cyber-monks in the Vatican are a scream.Jean-Claude Van Damme spends more time averting disaster than acting, but nobody watches a JCVD movie to see the star emote. Credit Van Damme with modeling the appropriate expression for each crisis. Mickey Rourke is the thespian to appreciate. His truly cool villain is an anthology of postures. If Paul Freeman, who plays the Penal Colony guardian, appears familiar, you may remember him as the adversary with whom Indiana Jones tangled in "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Meanwhile, Dennis Rodman is not so much an actor as he is a special effect. As Yaz, Rodman pedals a flashy arsenal for Van Damme as well as gives the film some of its lighter moments. When the initially encounter each other, Van Damme looks at Rodman and questions him about who does his hair? Siegfried or Roy? With a ring or a stud on most of his bodily appendages, an array of Yazoo Tattoos and his multicolored turf, Rodman looks as funny as he does lethal.The scene where Rodman steals a car that he has to steer with his head sticking through the sun roof is hilarious. Director Tsui Hark deploys the scene-stealing Rodman at the right moments to offset the straight-faced heroics of Van Damme. The worst thing that you can say about "Double Team" is the shameless product placement scene in the Coliseum. A number of Coke machine keep our heroes from getting cremated by the usual quota of apocalyptic explosions. On the other hand, the scene where scores of Coke cans complicate the heroics of Jean-Claude is good.If you are a JCVD fan, you get to see our protagonist articulate his muscles from Brussels in a couple of well-choreographed combat sequences. If you enjoy watching glossy, superbly lensed action movies, "Double Team" ought to keep you entertained and occupied. The inventive script, the electrifying directing, and the stirring Gary Chang music contribute to the success of "Double Team."