Knock Off (1998): Dir: Tsui Hark / Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rob Schneider, Lela Rochon, Paul Sorvino, Carman Lee: The title is absolutely correct. Everyone tries to knock each other off while viewers struggle to stay awake. The story is simply an excuse for Jean-Claude Van Damme to physically beat the tar out of bad guys and further prove that acting isn't his strong point. Tiny button shaped bombs are placed in dolls and phony salesman Van Damme and Rob Schneider get involved after a friend is murdered. Tsui Hark handles the action but he fails to drag a good performance out of Van Damme or Schneider. Hark and Van Damme previously collaborated to bring the world another action embarrassment called Double Team. Together, these films can be strapped together and sold cheap in the bargain bin at the local supermarket. Schneider does as expected and that is to provide horrible comic relief. Lela Rochon has the misfortune of playing damsel in distress because she just happened to be within arms length of the producers during casting. Also wasting time is Paul Sorvino. No point but to entertain senseless violence. Double Team was a stupid movie so it should come as no surprise that Knock Off is just as dumb. I wish they would knock it off and write a decent script, or at least give viewers the option of knocking the film off with several blows of a baseball bat. Score: 2 / 10

Hong Kong director Tsui Hark (Once Upon A Time In China 1, II, III and V) first worked with Jean-Claude Van Damme on the incredibly daft Dennis Rodman vehicle Double Team, which was about as insane as action cinema gets. Knock Off sees the director and martial arts star once again teaming up to deliver a movie that simply has to be seen to be believed.Van Damme plays 'King of the Knock Offs' Marcus Ray, a shady businessman based in Hong Kong. When he and his partner Tommy (Rob Schneider) accept an order of counterfeit jeans to be shipped to the U.S., they become unwittingly involved in a plot by evil Russians to hold America to ransom, each pair of trousers containing a tiny micro-bomb that can be detonated by remote control.Knock Off rattles along at breakneck speed, the daft plot becoming more and more ridiculous with each and every scene, and with numerous characters switching sides throughout, the film can be a little hard to follow at times; thankfully, Tsui Hark compensates for his unnecessarily convoluted narrative by ensuring that the action is as exhilarating as possible, with brilliantly choreographed fight scenes and death defying stunts galore, including a wonderful rickshaw race through the streets of Kowloon and a breath-taking battle on board a freight ship where the massive metal containers prove to be just as dangerous as the enemy.Hark enhances his already bonkers action further with highly innovative visuals, the viewer presented with a dizzying array of impressive sweeping camera-work, inventive POV shots and creative camera angles that ensure maximum excitement. As far as the acting goes (as if that really matters), performances range from the good (Lela Rochon as sexy, sassy CIA agent Karen Lee), to the irritating (Rob Schneider doing his obnoxious comedic sidekick schtick), to the forgettable (Paul Sorvino phoning it in as CIA boss Harry Johanson), to the wooden (JCVD displaying his usual limited range).Sadly, Knock Off wasn't too well received at the box office, fans of the Muscles from Brussels obviously struggling with the film's crazy Asian style—a shame, because I would have loved to have seen Hark and Van Damme work together at least one more time.7.5 out of 10, rounded up to 8 for IMDb.

when I first saw this when it came out, I wasn't impressed. I thought Tsui Hark was selling out to Hollywood, and getting unnecessarily flashy in doing so.Seeing it again some ten years later, I have to admit I'm impressed. It's not just the story or the action scenes, or the integration of humor into the thriller storyline. But what once looked like flashiness now reveals itself as careful restraint. Tsui is working hard here to avoid any unnecessary frame, creating a film that admittedly jars visually, but does so tightly, with almost no excess imagery or story element. The film still looks fresh after a decade; while not great art, it's just supremely professional movie making. And in keeping with that, Tsui also manages to get restrained performance by two slices of Hollywood ham, Van Damme and Rob Schneider, the latter being one of the least tolerable comic actor I've ever had the misfortune to encounter on film. But here he seems almost at home in a Hitchcockian spy thriller with Jackie Chan flavored sense of humor - exactly where you would least expect to find him.Over all, although only a B-movie thriller, remains a neat accomplishment for Tsui Hark.

This movie had good moments but the cheesy acting and Schneider made this one worse than Double team.Yes Double team was bad but at least there was better action scenes.The problem with it was the script,even Paul Sorvino sounded b-list.I dislike the fact that the studio's kept on giving JC movies to Hong Kong directors.It's o.k, if you catch it on the tube, but don't take valuable DVD time for this one.There were some cool moves,it kinda had a Rush hour vibe but that ended in the first 20 minutes.As a loyal JC fan i can tolerate this movie but i wonder some times what was the average viewer was thinking when they saw this one? this one ended his long run in theaters,i thought that this was going to revive the JC legacy but it ended up demoting him to direct to video. It's true folks you don't know the good times when there happening.