Pluskylang Great Film overall

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

SpunkySelfTwitter It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Leofwine_draca More Van Damme escapades, this time with an interesting set-up which is wasted in favour of a twisty-turning tale of deception, lies, deception, cover-up, two-faced allies, baddies, and some martial arts action. Pretty much what you would expect really. Once again, fans and critics alike hated this movie, but I thought it was all right, and nowhere near as bad as people say it is.The main problem for me was the annoying comedy at the beginning of the film (if I wanted a comedy I would rent a comedy). Okay, so it's good to see Van Damme not taking himself too seriously for once, but this comedy is irritating and silly, too. The fault partly lies with Rob Schneider, who goes over the top and just can't be serious, although by the end of the film he calms down a bit and isn't quite so annoying.Another annoying aspect of the film is that director Tsui Hark (who previously worked with Van Damme on DOUBLE TEAM) has to experiment with weird camera angles and slowing the film down in the action scenes, of all places. These shots are just out of place and defuse some of the pace which had been building up, and thankfully they disappear by the film's end. There are other glitches, like explosions being green, but these are minor in comparison to Hark's camera-trickery.Okay, so there isn't much of a plot, and it's basically Van Damme going along and beating up bad guys again. However, there are a few good set pieces, such as Van Damme and Schneider being chased by a mob of weapon-wielding wackos, and Van Damme taking them on one at a time; also, good moments like when a car flies out of a building , tips over a lorry and lands upright, driving off. Paul Sorvino pops up briefly too, and gets his arm eaten away by acid for his troubles.However, it's the ending where things get better, as Van Damme takes on all the baddies on a boat. There's a lot of martial art action here, plenty of violence which all gels together and has a good pace, and more bullets than you can shake a stick at. There are stylised shots of people being blown away and flying against walls, Van Damme sliding down slippery passageways shooting, and even some throat-cutting. KNOCK OFF may not be intelligent entertainment, but Van Damme has done worse.

powermandan They tried. They tried to make a an intelligent and original action-comedy. It is very apparent that they made a solid effort and most of it is passable. Problem is, most of it is amateurish. If it was directed by a college student for a film class, I'd give it an A+. But since the director has done many movies before this, I understand the rating on this site.Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Hong Kong fashion designer Marcus Ray who used to be a counter-fitter and is attempting to go straight by managing V-Six Jeans along with Tommy Hendricks (Schneider). Rob Schneider is hated and said to be unfunny, but he is what makes the movie successful in the comedy portion. He is also very serious as well as providing most comic relief. When their latest shipment of jeans prove to be phonies, they dig deep into Hong Kong's underworld and soon find out that micro-bombs are planted in soon-to-be shipments. They whole story with the mafia and the bombs is totally confusing and requires multiple watches. I liked that it had that. Throughout the course of the movie, every character switches roles and has a twist to them. I liked that too. Thing is, the characters switching roles and the complex plot do not mesh well together. But I like that they tried. The movie also provides some really cool camera tricks that, unfortunately, are just "there." Either way, I love the camera shots. They are legit.

videorama-759-859391 I really should of had my head read. I knew what I was in for. By the poster, I sorely misjudged the film, which looked intriguing. Van Dammne's films are like fodder, they're all the same. They don't get better. Believe me, this is the worst film I've seen of his. What's disappointing to also learn, is it's writers, are the same ones responsible for making some great 80's hits. Even though Paul Sorvino as a shady figure is wasted in this, he'a actually a relief, after all the misery we tolerate here amidst all this bologne. Get this, Van Damne is a fashion designer who teams up with an agent (Schneider who at least throws some comedy into this mess) to counteract these terrorists who's used these sneakers as knock offs (detonators) where these two have to separate the good shoes from the bad ones, while protecting above all, mankind. The best thing to come out of this is it's title song, that conveniently plays over the end credits. What a film of absolute bull. Van Damme ought to be knocked off for makin' it. Trivia. Knock Off almost took a year to hit video. I wonder why.

Paul Andrews Knock Off is set in Hong Kong during June 1997 as it is returned to Chinese rule after over a century of British rule, as the festivities are about to start V-Six Jeans executives Marcus Ray (Jean-Claude Van Damme) & Tommy Hendricks (Rob Schneider) are paid a visit by V-Six Jeans American corporate executive Karen Lee (Lela Rochon) who says that half of their last shipment they sent to the States were knock off's. They get the local police involved & decide to raid a factory belonging to Eddie Wang (Wyman Wong) who was storing the consignment before shipment, it turns out that the Russian mafia have counterfeited V-Six Jeans with small bomb devices in the buttons which can be detonated at any time by remote control & intend to black mail the Government with the threat of blowing millions of innocent jean wearing Americans up after flooding the States with the knock off's...This Aruban, Hong Kong & American co-production was directed by Hark Tsui who had made the awful Double Team (1997) with JCVD but one year earlier & I have to say that I quite liked Knock Off, it's no masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination but it's fun if nothing else & much, much better than the aforementioned Double Team. The script by Steven E. de Souza definitely doesn't take itself too seriously with many comical & light hearted moments, both during the action scenes & the dialogue. There are some neat one-liners as various character's trade insults, argue with each other & try to be sarcastic, Knock Off might make you smile on a few occasions which is probably a good thing since you can't take it seriously at all. There's plenty of action although it's rather silly at times but one could say that's more down to director Tsui than Souza's script, it moves along at a nice enough pace but it can also be a frustrating film. The storyline is weak & the disjointed plot is a pretty poorly strung together excuse for various oddball action set-pieces. Most of the character's are very underdeveloped, the Russian mafia angle in particular seems almost like an afterthought, the various twists are a bit underwhelming too & the main bad guy at the end just comes from nowhere & has little or no motivation. Having said that JCVD & Schneider's character's are likable & Rochon's feisty CIA agent with attitude is memorable.Director Tsui does a decent job here, he certainly injects the films action scenes with a degree of energy & visual flair. From high camera angles he has the camera spiral towards the ground to focus on JCVD, from placing a camera actually inside knock off trainers to see the glue & steams tear apart to various other cool little tricks & camera positions Knock Off looks pretty good & has had a fair amount of imagination put into it's visuals. The action scenes are undoubtedly silly, from JCVD holding off an entire mob of machete wielding thugs to a scene when he drives a car out of a second storey car park window which then hits a metal container, flips over & JCVD them drives off! The fights are OK but maybe not violent or bloody enough, all this comedy stuff is fine but when it comes down to it I'd have liked to have seen some proper action violence. There are many scenes which don't really work, many scenes which look silly, in reality wouldn't be possible & really do stretch the films already very thin credibility.With a supposed budget of about $35,000,000 Knock Off is well made & has good production values & stunts although the green CGI computer explosions look awful. Mostly shot on location in Hong Kong while the 2nd unit stuff was shot in the Philippines. The acting is alright, JCVD is up to his usual standards, Schneider is OK as the comic relief while Lela Rochon steals every scene she's in.Knock Off is a decent & fun action flick from JCVD, it's better than a lot of his recent output & much better than Double Team but it's maybe a bit too silly & the story is rather weak for it to become any sort of classic. Good harmless if forgettable & very far fetched fun.