Knock Off

Completely nonsensical, but that is exactly what saved this film from mediocrity. Rather than move to the US, Hark brought over some Belgian Hollywood "talent" to Hong Kong. It's immediately obvious Hark feels way more at home shooting in a familiar environment, which translates to an overall better and more amusing film. If you can accept some of the kitsch that is.

Marcus Ray represents a jeans brand in Hong Kong. It's a pretty ordinary job, but things are about to heat up when it is discovered that Russian criminals are making counterfeit jeans and are padding them with experimental war tech, hoping to sell them to interested parties. Ray is the only one who is able to recognize the counterfeit jeans.

So yeah, the plot is crap, but it's not that much worse compared to some of its peers. What makes this film fun is the fact that every scene is made to be as spectacular as possible. Hark is overcompensating like a madman, and somehow it works. Van Damme isn't at his worst, the action is pretty spectacular and the pacing/runtime are on point. Not at all on par with Hark's best Hong Kong work, but very amusing regardless.