CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Maleeha Vincent It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

coljam21 OK so whoever referred to this as a B movie is delusional. A 'D' movie is more like it. The first 47 minutes of the movie literally had no action save the skinny American kid (who came to the prison wearing a T shirt with the American flag on it) getting raped every night. It was just VanDamme moping around the prison mourning his wife.Almost 50 minutes into the movie the prisoners come across a land mind and a prison jeep gets blown to smithereens. Then Vandamme quits moping, does push-ups and pull ups in his cell and becomes the champion fighter in the prison.Typical low budget Vandamme movie but not one of his best.

daworldismine considering the van damme movie to come out before this was the rubbish 'derailed', people wasn't exactly looking forward to this ringo lam action drama, but it now only offered a cracking piece of brutal fighting action, it also showed that van damme was capable of a good performance way before 'jcvd' and 'until death', in fact i think his best performance of alltime is 2004's 'wake of death', i also think thats the best movie hes ever made, but this is a close second. now van damme actually shows some emotion here, and its easy to feel sorry for him, and you certainly don't think he can beat up anybody in the prison, not at all, in fact most the fights he has in this, are real challenges, and because he isn't using martial arts in this the movie has a realism that packs a punch. all in all a very well made, but dark and grim action drama, that i highyl recommend to fans of both action flicks and van damme

BA_Harrison With Ringo Lam directing and Jean-Claude Van Damme starring, I was expecting In Hell to be a cheesy, slam-bang, all-out fight-fest full of stereotypical hard-nut characters smashing the crap out of each other at every opportunity; what I actually got was a surprisingly grim and unflinchingly brutal prison drama, albeit full of stereotypical hard-nut characters smashing the crap out of each other at every opportunity.Lam directs with style, Van Damme is actually pretty good in a role that requires him to act for a change, and for a while the going is good, but the film is eventually sunk by a script that develops ideas above its station: in a blatant attempt to elevate the film to Shawshank/Midnight Express status, Van Damme's character, Kyle LeBlanc, takes a journey through his own personal hell, unbelievably becomes a symbol of hope and inspiration for the other prisoners, and risks his life to protect a mentally handicapped killer against the corrupt guards; all the while, clichéd brute with a brain, prisoner 451 (Lawrence Taylor), delivers a solemn, philosophical voice-over.None of this 'emotional drama' is particularly convincing (especially the previously utterly ruthless Russian mafioso coming to admire the American), but the best (or worst) is saved for last when Kyle drives straight out of the prison's front gate in what must be the dumbest jail-break in cinematic history.

Comeuppance Reviews Kyle LeBlanc (Van Damme) is an American who works in Russia. When his wife is murdered, he gets revenge and kills the assailant. Unfortunately, rather than be the end of the movie, it's just the beginning of the nightmare for Kyle. He's sent to a harsh, unforgiving Russian prison (is there any other kind?). While in there trying to survive, it comes to light that the corrupt guards bet on Punchfighting matches which they call "The Sparka" between the inmates. Kyle trains and fights, and becomes good, but in the process begins to lose his soul. Thanks to cellmate 451 (Taylor), Kyle starts the process of escaping his prisons, both mental and physical.It may have been stated before, but In Hell is truly a return to form for Van Damme. After the horrendous Derailed (2002), he probably re-assessed his life and career and demanded he do something of quality. This may be an educated speculation, but In Hell is the result. It's shot and directed well, as Ringo Lam is a talented man, and Van Damme probably thought it was foolproof to fall back on his Maximum Risk (1996) and Replicant (2001) director to deliver a good, solid production. He was right.Interestingly, In Hell balances bare-knuckle, hard-core Punchfighting with a surprising amount of depth and philosophy, primarily delivered by Lawrence Taylor (of all people) as 451. The movie shows how Kyle becomes feral and animalistic, and begins to lose his identity. But he must search his soul to get it back. On top of that, there's even some parallels to the biblical Samson story. Van Damme has a beard and long hair at one point. Can he maintain his abilities once it becomes a soul patch? While there is some CGI (we'll forgive the CGI moth, but the CGI planes are unnecessary), if you think about such movies as The Quest (1996), and compare that to this, you truly see Van Damme's range as a performer and martial artist. The Quest, for all intents and purposes, is a kid's movie, and In Hell certainly isn't. Those are two ends of his spectrum, and any JCVD haters out there should keep that in mind. He clearly saw In Hell as a chance to stretch and push himself as an actor/martial artist (in itself a good sign that at his age he still wants to grow and learn), and In Hell was the perfect vehicle to do that, and the results are winning and entertaining, while delivering a different kind of Van Damme. So it could be said that it was a success all around.Thirteen years after Death Warrant (1990), Van Damme returns to prison. And we should all be glad he did. In Hell is a Van Damme winner.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com