A surprisingly complex thriller from Ringo Lam, a noted director in the action genre, making his first western film. The amount of sub plots help to make this one more interesting than most, as throughout the film Van Damme is being chased around by four or five different groups of people, this makes for entertaining viewing. Loyalties change, baddies come and go, and the film flies by with many varied and exciting action sequences filling out the time. I liked it a lot.Thankfully, the film is not solely full of martial arts or just plain shooting. It's a mixture of both. The various shoot-outs are well staged and choreographed, while Van Damme gets to deliver some really hefty kicks to his enemies. And it's a memorable group of baddies this time around, including corrupt FBI agents, Russian assassins and the Russian Mob. One blond-haired hulk is virtually indestructible, and the three or four fight scenes between him and Van Damme are probably some of the slickest, neatest fights that Van Damme has ever put on film. The final battle in the lift is great.The characters in this film are slightly more fleshed out than usual, and the baddies at least have a reason to want Van Damme dead. There are also plot threads, including a romantic one between Van Damme and Henstridge, although thankfully this is kept to a minimum. Also, we get to see some surprisingly poignant moments, which are not necessarily laughable (although you may scoff). Jean-Claude Van Damme looks pretty old and tired in this film, but I guess that's because he was suffering from the cocaine addiction thing at the time. Still, he's as powerful and agile as ever (or is that the stuntman?), jumping through windows, falling from heights and generally being an all-round action man (but more believable than most, thanks to his everyday hairstyle and clothes, this Van Damme is closer to reality than in his other films). Natasha Henstridge is adequate as the love interest, but quite shallow really. The rest of the villains are all memorable and eminently hissable.However, the acting is not really the main priority with Van Damme's films. It's the action people watch for, and this film does not disappoint. So many different things happen in so many places (the film keeps shifting location), and there are some inspired set pieces (the entire bank thing is memorable), and even a fight between Van Damme and a chainsaw-wielding villain at the end. What more could you possibly want? I know Van Damme is not one of the most popular stars, far from it, and the general consensus is that his films are cheesy, but I'm just finding these early ones to be better and better as time goes on. MAXIMUM RISK is criminally overlooked and deserves far more respect than it currently has.

Alain Moreau (Van Damme) is a French cop who just discovered he has a twin brother. His name was Mikhail Suverov and he worked for the Russian mob. To get to the truth about his life, he travels to New York City, specifically the Little Odessa area. While there he must fight gangsters, as well as double-dealing FBI agents. But just about everyone thinks he's Mikhail. Luckily his brother's girlfriend Alex (Henstridge) is along for the ride. Now Alain has to make it back to France in one piece, but not before causing some major Van Damage in the big apple! Maximum Risk is from the good old days when Van Damme movies went to the theater. Thus, it has a high-quality look and feel, and seems to have a decent budget behind it. It's nice to see the high production values used well by the great Ringo Lam, who would later team up with Van Damme again for Replicant and In Hell (2003).It must be in Van Damme's contract to be in movies where he plays two roles. Most actors never get this chance, but Van Damme has. FIVE times. The movies being Double Impact (1991), Maximum Risk, Replicant (2001), Timecop (1994) and The Order (2001). Just why he feels there aren't enough Van Dammes currently on earth, outside of ego, has yet to be explained. To further emphasize his "double" life, here, in Maximum Risk, Van Damme seeing his reflection is a theme throughout the movie. Glasses, windows, picture frames, and of course mirrors are all employed for psychological purposes. But really this movie is an entertaining thriller that is palatable for general audiences. You don't have to be a Van Damme or martial arts freak to enjoy Maximum Risk.Say what you will about him, but Van Damme has more emotion than Chuck Norris. Or Don "The Dragon" Wilson. Speaking of Wilson, just as his Bloodfist movies are all 80 minutes, it seems another contract demand of Van Damme is that his movies be at least 100 minutes. Maximum Risk is no exception, so naturally there's some filler, but not much. And a classic cliché is on display: the "wacky taxi driver" is on show once again, but at least this time he has a more substantial part to play than usual.Following another JCVD rule, there has to be a scene where he gets nude or semi-nude. Why, we don't know. Here it's the time-honored bathhouse fight, also seen in such movies as Red Heat (1988) and Showdown in Little Tokyo (1991). But at least there's some Natasha Henstridge nudity as well to right the ship. Henstridge, in only her second-ever movie role (after Species, 1995), looks great, and it's sad to see her end up in Scott Wiper crud like A Better Way to Die (2000), but hey, you gotta make a living.Maximum Risk is solid, undemanding entertainment seemingly made to make the careers of Van Damme and Ringo Lam go over well with larger audiences. Watching it today, it's classic 90's fun that's easy to like.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Now i thought Steven Seagal had the best fight scenes in his movies but Jean Claude is way better!!!!.This movie is very solid and entertaining and in my opinion Jean Claude's best movie. The fight scenes are very well done and the brutal bone snapping fights show what Van Damme can really do in a situation with stupid french punks. Maximum Risk is a very underrated movie like The Last Boyscout and deserves way more credit that what it gets nowadays and the fight in the elevator at the end when Van Damme kills the Russian guy by lodging a knife in his boot was ingenious and suspenseful. Overall Maximum Risk is a very entertaining action movie with great fights and i recommend you get the blu ray!!

It was once said, every single person has a twin living on the planet at the same time. In this movie our hero, Jean-Claude Van Damme plays Alain Moreau a police officer who learns he bears a striking resemblance to a gangster who has just been killed. A french officer called Sebastien, (Jean-Hugues Anglade) informs him of the dead man, whom Alain discovers is Mikhail, his actual brother. Deciding he want to learn more, he pretends to take his place. What he doesn't know is that his brother was a notorious, hunted gangster, with a girlfriend and is being chased by the Russian mafia, rouge F.B.I. agents and a whole slue of vicious men who want him dead. One of the worse is a man called 'Red Face' (Stefanos Miltsakakis) who has been contracted to kill him and will not stop until he does. The movie is jam-pack with dramatic, exciting physical action, car chases and harrowing bullet ripping confrontations. This film is perhaps the best of the Jean Claude series and will stand on its own against others in the genre. Easilly recommended. ****