Deacon Lyle (Van Damme) is just a guy out on the town in the Philippines, when he brings a nice lady home from a disco. When he wakes up in the morning, he is in a pool of his own blood and discovers someone has opened him up and stolen his kidney. Deacon then teams up with his religious brother George (Ralston), his old buddy Kung (Aleong), and the mysterious Ana (Peters), all in some sort of mission to get to the bottom of the kidney conspiracy. A baddie named Drake (Shahlavi) - a man more unpleasant than the music made by his namesake - may be behind this, or is there a conspiracy that goes...ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP? Further complicating things is the fact that Lyle's niece is on the kidney transplant list. Will Deacon Lyle kidney-punch his way back to renal health? Just try to hold in your excitement...They've Taken (2008) my kidney! is basically Van Damme's battle cry in this somewhat puzzling new outing. Somehow a missing kidney isn't as compelling a motive for revenge as a missing daughter...or are we missing something? He still has one left, as far as we know. Van Damme is good in the fight scenes, and he moves especially well for someone who has just had some unauthorized, highly-invasive surgery done on him. There's even a novel excuse for him to do his famous split (yes, he's still doing it, and proud of it, it seems) - but some not-so-novel excuses for rampant Van Damme nudity. We don't need to see your whole body to know you've been kidneynapped.But we give ol' JCVD credit for trying. The opening alley fight is a standout, and the overall vibe of the movie is on the serious side, in keeping with most of the recent DTV JCVD output. Perhaps to maintain the "dark" vibe, to counterbalance the kidney-stealing plot, there are some religious themes that run throughout. This is mainly achieved by the brother character, the fact that Van Damme is named Deacon, and the fact that Deacon beats people up with a bible. Yes, as a society, we've reached a point where we're subjected to Biblefighting. This might not be a good thing.But rather than concentrate on "dark" subject matter, director Barbarash - of fellow Van Damme vehicle Assassination Games (2011) and Michael Jai White vehicle Falcon Rising (2014) fame - REALLY should have "turned off the dark", if we may paraphrase the title of that brilliant Broadway play. Why, oh, why do we always have to ask that filmmakers turn the lights on in their movies? Is that really so much to ask? And another no-no is here that is painfully obvious - green screen and CGI. Is it really so much better and easier to have chintzy-looking computer-graphic bullet hits on walls and gunsmoke? We're really getting tired of what we call "Alt-E", meaning some dork in an editing suite somewhere hitting "Alt-E" for "Explosion" instead of employing the technical mastery of pyrotechnics experts. So, to recap, we have barfights, darkfights, and biblefights. (We didn't mention the barfight before, but of course it's there).With the money they spent on CGI and green screen, they could have used on lighting. Priorities, people. There is some light Punchfighting, but it's barely there and hard to see (like everything else). Van Damme's buddy Kung - played by Aki Aleong of Gang Wars (1976), Out for Blood (1992) and Deadly Target (1994), among others - could have been played by Mako, if he hadn't died in 2006. Actor Darren Shahlavi - so memorable as the baddie in Bloodmoon (1997) passed away in 2015 and the film is dedicated to him. With his passing, we've lost another actor/Martial Artist so integral to the fabric of the DTV action movies we've dedicated ourselves to celebrating. He will be missed.On a lighter note, one of the highlights of the movie, appearing almost exactly an hour in, is when we see the actual kidney donor list. This might mark the first time we've seen an English-as-a-second-language attempt at a list of people's names. We have Varko Bosilhoc, Consuela Pym, John Smythe II and even Simon Rants III. Will this be important to the plot? Just wait and find out. Also there was a Boris Sharlyakov, but it looked like it said Borts Sharlyakov. We wish it said Borts. We really do. There are other names on the list, but those were some highlights. Maybe it's just us, but we found that funny.Some elements of Pound of Flesh are worth your time, but what's good about the movie is dampened by the inability to see anything, the insistent usage of green screen/CGI, and some pretty dumb dialogue. (Let's just say Kung talking about how much he loves coffee isn't likely to rival anything said by Portia from The Merchant of Venice anytime soon). It's kind of a mixed bag for Van Damme. It doesn't change his standing in our eyes or anything like that, but with some simple tweaks, it could have been significantly better.

****SPOILERS*** An almost unrecognizable Jean-Claud Van Damme due to all the hits and kicks he took to his head and body over the years as one of Hollywood's top action adventure hero's is, you guessed it, action hero and former US black ops #1 government hit-man Deacon who's out of his right kidney that's been stolen from him, while he was out cold, to be given or implanted to an un-named multi billionaire who's blood and DNA are a match with his. In fact Deacon was to donate his precious kidney to his bible thumping brother George's, John Ralston,nine year old daughter Isabella, Adele Baughan, who's on life support suffering from acute kidney failure.Deacon gets the help of retired, in the city of Manlia, Chines mobster Kung, Aki Aleong, and his #1 henchman Nardo, Brahim Achabbakhe, to find his missing Kidney that was surgery removed or taken from him. That's in order to give or implant it to its rightful owner Isabella before she ends up dying of kidney failure. For a man with only one kidney Deacon or Van Damme has no trouble in taking out the some two or three dozen or so bad guys working for the billionaire Mr. Rants, David P. Booth, who needs his kidney to keep him alive.****SPOILERS**** It's when Deacon finds out just who the kidney is for and whom he has to kill to get it he suddenly gets cold feet. Not so with his bible thumping and turning the other cheek brother George who's now more then willing to murder a totally innocent man in order to get it and save his daughter who has just hours to live. It was at the very end that even George came to his senses and didn't to pull the trigger. As for Deacon like in the movie D.O.A he knew all along that he was dying but survived long enough until he took care of those that operated on him without his knowledge or consent. It's then that Deacon passed away when his remaining kidney that was doing the work of two and all the stress, in taking care of business, it went through finally gave out.

I don't want to discuss the storyline here because from the start it's off-beat, surprising and entertaining. After so many cinematic dogs that made it look as if Mr. Van Damme's films were going the way of Steven Seagal, this turnaround is arguably one of Mr. Van Dammne's best films. The script is right on, direction tight, and the storyline went off in a really different direction. He has to fight, yes, but not just to show off his acrobatics every other scene. And rather than just another action flick, this has heart and a story that may stick with the viewer. Someone once said that a good story should have an ending that is inevitable, yet still a surprise. I liken a good story to a magician on stage. He places his top hat upside down on a table and goes through his array of tricks, and although you just know it's coming, when at the end he pulls that live rabbit out his hat you're surprised and amazed. In this case, I was expecting to take a step further and really surprise with that rabbit, but still, the ending was quite satisfactory, maybe even better that what I had expected, all things considered. I'd say this is a film any Van Damme fan should have on the shelf. One little thing: Although this was shot, entirely I think, in Canada, it was supposed to be Manila. I've never been there, and I imagine there are a great many people there from China, but in much of the movie, judging from the background and all the signs and passersby, I'd have sworn we were in Hong Kong or some such place. That didn't hurt the film however. I'm just saying....

The premise of "Pound of Flesh" is interesting to say the least. It's difficult to describe the plot without any spoilers. It unfolds in every scene. It's not a "mystery" per se, but if you think you have the usual revenge type b-seagal-movie you are mistaken.Overall it is good for what it is. I liked the pace (not too hasty or abrupt), I liked the direction and editing, and the plot/script is good enough.Van Damme got old, as it was expected. We see his trademark feet open 180 degrees as in many of his movies, but the stuntman was obvious in a few scenes. The green screen used in many scenes, including many scenes inside a van are distracting but I wouldn't insist on that as a serious flaw.The newcomer (her 1st movie) Charlotte Peters has an interesting look that maybe give her some good roles in the near future but she need lots of training in her acting (despite the fact that she went to Drama Studio London, a prestigious drama school based in England).The conclusion, that I won't spoil you, is satisfying, something that lack many movies nowadays.My recommendation: Check it out. Is better than the 5 average you see here. I gave it a 8 to boost it a little. Might not worth such a high score but I think is better than other recent movies of Jean-Claude.