In a violent and corrupt prison, decorated cop Louis Burke must infiltrate the jail to find answers to a number of inside murders. What he finds is a struggle of life and death tied in to his own past. Death Warrant is another cool and classic Jean Claude Van Damme that you're definitely going to love if you either like him or prison films in general it's great in both parts. The action is well great, the suspense hits the roof and the villain a total joy with Patrick Kilpatrick doing a pretty damn good job. Death Warrant is definitely a must see for JCVD Fans!!!

RCMP Louis Burke (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is in L.A. and brings down madman Christian 'The Sandman' Naylor. Sixteen months later, he returns to investigate Harrison penitentiary where the assistant warden as well as some prisoners have been killed. He goes undercover as a convict with lawyer Amanda Beckett (Cynthia Gibb) posing as his wife. Sergeant DeGraf (Art LaFleur) runs the prison with an iron fist. Hawkins (Robert Guillaume) is the one-eyed elder statesman prisoner. Louis runs into gang trouble but the prison holds darker secrets.There are a lot of cheesy B-movie aspect to the prison. Most notable is the basement brothel. The production is second rate. The good part is that Van Damme gets to do some butt kicking. There's nothing wrong with that. If anything, it needs more Van Damme butt kicking. The investigation is lackluster. There isn't much tension. Van Damme fans may like this but nobody else will.

Despite some of the more esoteric films that I like, I really DO enjoy watching Van Damme's movies. I think that they are a blast! A lot of people say that he is 'wooden', but I just think he pulls it off as being very cool. Not all actors in his category can do that and really DO look wooden (cough... Steven Seagal, cough...)With that said... unfortunately, in my lowly and wretched opinion as opposed to several reviewers here, I truly do NOT think that this is one of the better Van Damme films. As a matter of fact, I feel that in all the ones that I've seen, this is probably my least favourite. The story, although rather plain, is fine. His acting and the supporting actors are fine. Even some of the quirky prison stuff and people are okay. It's just that for some odd reason, around the last 30-40 minutes, to me anyway, it really seems like the director starts to get VERY lazy. All of the sudden where everything was just fine before, the scenes, acting, and ESPECIALLY the editing, line delivery, and pacing REALLY take a dive. It honestly is like about two thirds of the way into the film the director lost interest, or did a few too many funny cigarettes or something, I don't know. At that point it just seems like whatever focus or sharpness the direction had was lost. Really weird...So, being that the end of a film SHOULD indeed be stronger to finish it out, this one left me feeling like it ultimately was a bit silly. IF the director had finished it out at the exact same level of quality with which he shaped the first two thirds of the film, then I think it would have been just great.Also, Kilpatrick usually comes across as very, VERY menacing, but in this movie he seems like more of a goofy, grinning pussy somehow; I think that that really took away some of the impact that the ending could have had.I don't know, maybe for a Van Damme film I'm just thinking too 'damme' much... :) But, a film is a film, and when you start at a certain level you really should finish it at LEAST at the same level. But hey, for people who like Van Damme and his films (like most of the other reviewers here) you likely will enjoy it anyway.For me personally, this was one of his least satisfying films; one of my personal favourites would have to be 'TIMECOP' (I don't know if that helps or hurts my credibility... : )

A husky sounding Jean-Claude Van Damme is a typical Canadian mounted maverick cop who goes undercover in a maximum security prison to investigate the random deaths of certain prisoners. Surprisingly "Death Warrant" seemed to focus on Van Damme actually acting than more so on just busting body parts. The sadistic violence (and its good to see Van Damme is only human copping a battering or two) plays second fiddle to the brooding dramatics of this undercover investigation. Still the over-the-top, knuckle cracking sequences were excitingly well-done, especially when Van Damme goes up against his nemesis a maniac performance by Robert Kilpatrick as the dangerous Christian "The Sandman" Taylor. When the two come to blows (after the first being landed by a large spanner), hell erupts. Kilpatrick's character might no have much to do with the central plot, but his rousing inclusion (the atmospheric first encounter in the prison) was a memorable one. Van Damme goes about trying to make friends with the inmates, but instead sticks out like a sore thumb by finding himself in glaring competitions, asking numerous questions, using his mopping skills on unexpected victims and he can't seem to hang around with his own kind. From this he catches the eyes of the prison guards. Art LaFleur stands out as the rock-hard prison Sergeant. Robert Guillaume is good as a grizzled inmate and Cynthia Gibb as an outside contact. Also showing up in smaller parts are George Dickerson, Abdul Salaam El Razzac, Joshua John Miller and Armen Shimerman. The simplistic plot is a routine genre piece, which opens up a can of worms involving a secret conspiracy… although a predictable structural development unfolds with some uncanny acts. While it might be clichéd with its characters, circumstances and anxiety (things not entirely going to plan), director Deran Sarafian's tidy handling crafted some tough suspense and simmering visuals from its sordidly dark and testosterone laced surroundings. Sarafian has gone on to much bigger things. A commendably taut Van Damme action drama vehicle blast."Here no evil, see no evil".