In Hell (2003)

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   Siskoid

   Van Damme righteously kills his wife's murderer and ends up in a corrupt Russian prison... he's In Hell, a movie I thought might have something to offer thanks to Hong Kong-trained Ringo Lam in the director's seat. Well it does, but it still falls short of expectations. Though there are some occasional stunts and punctual fights, this is really more about the resilience of the human spirit. Van Damme's character essentially turns himself into an animal to survive and must walk back to his humanity, and though he's forced to fight other inmates for the staff's pleasure, he opts for Brazilian jiu-jitsu as opposed to his more spectacular kicking style, and much of the action feels like pro wrestling. I'm not that enthused about it. But I'm not judging it on that - I think Van Damme is allowed a dark prison drama, and the sad hangdog is definitely something he can play. To say he's one of the better actors in this should tell you what I think of the other players. At least there's a certain weirdness to the flick - the giant in the basement, ghostly visitations from Van Damme's wife (sometimes in the form of a moth), surreal dreams, etc. - that makes it modestly memorable. But it drops the ball too often for my tastes - how he gets to prison is foreshortened to save time but would have worked better as a flashback, Lawrence Taylor as a lethal poet/narrator is cool but what he has to say is rarely interesting, and what do we think happens after that ending? Jean-Claude Van Damme's Shawshank Redemption is watchable, but it does have storytelling problems. 3 years 1 month ago

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