I appreciate Samuel Shabo because he was courageous enough to speak for Vast Media and respond to my comment directly. But honestly, I was astonished having in mind that this particular Kill Em All film, which hit the theatres way back in the summer of 2017, completely depended on Shabo’s narrative universe marketing. It made one wonder as to what was the point in even going through the effort of scrubbing the blood of the maiden canvas. This was, for me, one of JCVD’s ugly works, alongside Derailed from the best period in the whole history of human civilization.
This was upsetting because there indeed were good performers made by the camera, as well as good directors of the film. Of course, it was fascinating to view Van Damme in action, but the final product was a nonbreathing and nonenergizing movie. There are no attractive screenplays that could be compensated for, for example, some of the recommendations regarding the directing were not carried out. What features prominently in the best online movies right now?
It is not obvious how such an enormous collection of mistakes could have happened. Even though Peter Malota, the director of the film, had very little experience being behind the camera, he does have extensive experience as an action choreographer in many of Van Damme’s movies such as Double Impact and more than a decade ago Universal Soldier which should have the insight to understand what works in an action movie. But this seems to have sadly eluded him while he was making Kill Em All, considering the needless amount of flashbacks the film contained which killed the movie in its entirety which is rather unfortunate considering this is a Van Damme movie.
And that is the supporting act, thank you, actors, um, such as Peter Stormare, Maria Conchita Alonso, or Daniel Bernhardt these could have complimented in lifting this movie far beyond the level of ordinary DTV. Sadly, they were for the most part wasted. At least Van Damme got the opportunity to meet Bernhardt, but by that time in this movie, was already too little too late. Given that Bernhardt began his career in the industry as a body double in place of van Dam in the series Bloodsport, it is unfortunate that it was not more of a memorable event in regard to this motion picture.
I loved the van Damme films so much that I had to watch the sequel but of course, I was skeptical about the first one. In this regard, I was not too keen on the idea that Kill ‘Em All 2 had a lot to deliver. Fortunately and without being too cruel to the other side, the sequel is a strong improvement when compared to the last one this time around they set out to tackle some of the production issues but for the 90 minutes that it ran, it kept me entertained.
As the movie starts, a flashback to the previous movie is presented. However, it is not a must to have seen it in order to make sense of the rest of the movie. The character of Phillip is taken over by Jean Claude Van Damme who portrays Phillip’s character in Italy visiting his daughter Vanessa, played by Jacqueline Fernandez.
Phillip is shocked when it is revealed that there is a group of people trying to kidnap him along with his daughter even though he has been off the radar for quite some time now. These were the very same people that were searching for Goiheida, Phillip’s ex-partner and now they seem to have the same knowledge about Phillip’s secret location where he lived for years.
Edison/ Gohei (as Eddie receives messages from Eddie) is most probably the traitor in question and Phillip suspects that this was done by his photographer locksmith friend Vlad Petrovic as deprivation took his brother’s life, and in return, Vlad tried to do the same to Phillip. So, in order to survive in these catastrophic circumstances father and daughter, are driven to remember and practice with everything that they have ever trained.
The responsibility of directing the sequel to Kill Em All has been handed over to Valeri Milev while taking over from Peter Malota who directed the original film. Let’s be honest, I was not impatient at all to see Milev’s work judging by his performance in Bullets of Justice which I sorely regret having watched. This by no means overshadows the fact that his latest work Re-Kill from 2015 was quite enjoyable.
In Kill Em All 2, I think he did a decent job as well. It’s all rather mundane without any defining stylistic flair born out of great love and creativity. Should one give him credit at all, Milev did make a conscious effort towards the pacing of the plot while allowing himself to break the monotone integrated within the movie.
However, there’s one stunt that I struggle to forget, despite my best efforts: the excessive employment of stuntmen. Van Damme did perform a couple of stunts in the film, but there are quite a few frames in which his double is featured. At other times, for instance, it appears that Van Damme just did not feel like engaging in the activity. Other stunts, on the other hand, appeared to have been designed to be easier for him to accomplish in the future.
When it comes to the movie’s ANC the voiceovers are actually a sore point. Rather, it seems that the filmmakers bore every intention to have the lines cut. It’s a replacement for the video of a call exchange between Van Dam and the principal’s evil character. The voice was overblown it was even better to blend any character trying to talk with Van Dam in the said scene. The prestige of the honor roll was literally brought home in dead dialogue. These unctionless statements fulfilled the same aim, that is, it was moving toward an accomplished version of the film, which it unfortunately did. I got a deja vu from that annoying overdub that ruined most of the movies with Steven Seagal in the early 2000s.
Milev’s film where Pot admits discrepancies comparatively saves the locations and the settings best probably making it more imaginative. If I can mild wet blanket put it, or plastic low life, overly bright where a lot of digital has been used and when Stramaglia on the occasions does not seem to cut it while doing action scenes. In some parts, he seemed to have been given a drone to test on Christmas so he used it for various shots.
Similar to the previous Darkness of Man (2023), alongside Kill ‘Em All 2, isn’t on the highest tier of Van Damme films. Albeit this is not as crucial as I never assumed it would be. However, in my case, the only thing that makes me happy is that the martial arts legend is still filming, although they will never be on par with Bloodsport (1988) or Hard Target (1993). What still helps distinguish Van Damme’s films from the performances of his contemporaries such as Steven Seagal is his intrinsic desire to serve a purpose. He doesn’t have a lot of things to do in this piece but isn’t ever the case of a voice-over.
I am quite impressed by how Jean Claude Van Damme’s character is shown to be interacting with his child. Indeed, when I first saw the movie and looked at the list of the cast, I thought that Jacqueline Fernandez would fit the role of being a romantic interest. When his daughter was Finally revealed, I did not think she would be someone in the range of when was expecting. The filmmakers have however decided to go with the ultimate reality which is his aging Van Damme. It is very clear that during the action scenes, he now receives a lot more blurs compared to his younger self, as the fighting must be taking a toll on him. There are only a few exceptions to this when Van Damme’s Phillip turns and does a flipping kick which has been shown in the film a couple of times before.
Considering her experience in the Indian film industry which comprises predominantly action films, I was left wondering why Fernandez had even agreed to take part in this project. As far as any of her works goes, Kill ‘Em All 2 ranks lower in terms of projects done by her. But at the same time, it could also be more profitable in nature. The character that she portrays doesn’t demand too much from her in terms of performance, but then again she is not any ordinary daughter who is just waiting to be rescued. She has some of Vanessa’s action-oriented tasks in the movie and she does not just lie back and watch.
That’s just what Kevin Oo and a number of the actors from the first film are doing in order to make this film part of the previous one. That is why Peter Stormare’s global life claims, portrayed by the crooked Holman, citation needed “cries never dies”. For the first time, he indeed looks like he believes in it. Stormare, for instance, around a minute or so later, seemed rather indecisive as to whether Peter wished him to do certain things in practice. It sounds as though Milev simply invited Stormare to come and take risks. So, when raising all these factors, which of course benefits the movie quite a lot Stormare is simply capable of lifting the whole production up.
On the other hand, as far as the part of Maria Conchita Alonso is concerned, she contributes nothing to the development of the film plot apart from Laughs cut scenes which anyway were likely to have been filmed simultaneously. Even in the event that her character altered the movie’s story a bit, it would not have been a big deal if she had been included since most of her scenes would have been unnecessary.
Although Andrei Lenart portrays the main villain Vlad in a seedy manner, he never at any point appears to give Van Damme any trouble in the movie. At least he is not all loved as he has quite a few faceless goons to go through and this keeps the level of interest high. Quite a fishy situation, one of his henchmen is actually Van Damme’s son Kris who the actor kills in the movie’s bloody prologue. Those who watched the first movie remember the wonderful episode of the sequel where Kris was chasing who was one of the characters being played by his dad. Now he is somebody else but his scope of appearance is limited.
Of the two Van Damme movies released in the year, I would place Kill Em All 2 right above Darkness of Man. It was a great adventure seeing how things progressed in the sequel but overall I am not so happy with the alteration. You can get enough of both iambic action and Van Damme parts even if you never ever go back to the film.
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