This on tries to capture the attention of world on the problem of illegal emigrants . You will also see Van Damme in existential pain . The movie wants to be art – the scene at the balcony when Van Damme is talking with his son is a proof of that.There are some nice erotic scenes here . The story is actually a decent one (at least for Van Damme movie). You can definitely see the effort from the filmmakers and I can appreciate that. Too bad I won't remember about the movie tomorrow. It's not as bad as "Derailed" , but "Wake of death" isn't really worth watching. It's got lame dialogues , choppy editing and forgettable action.I give it 1/10.

Wake of Death starts in China as a young girl named Kim (Valerie Tian) witnesses the brutal murder of her mother (Joon Chong) by her father, a vicious Chinese triad leader named Sun Quan (Simon Yam). Cut to Los Angeles where Kim has snuck aboard a liner & smuggled herself into the US with a shipload of other Chinese immigrants, Los Angeles social worker Cynthia Archer (Lisa King) takes pity on the young Kim & decides to let her stay at her home with her & her family. Unfortunately triad boss Sun wants his daughter back & once he discovers that Cynthis has her he sends the boys round & they kill Cynthia although Kim manages to escape, as it happens Cynthia's husband is a tough ex undercover cop named Ben (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who decides to take the law into his own hands & seeks revenge against those who murdered his wife & anyone who stands in his way...This English, German, French & South African co-production ended up being co-written, co-produced & directed by Philippe Martinez after Cess Silvera was fired after a couple of weeks filming & that itself was after Hong Kong action director Ringo Lam had pulled out from directing it after various differences including a switch of filming locations from Canada to South Africa, it's perhaps surprising then that Wake of Death isn't that bad a film & it certainly passes 90 odd minutes harmlessly enough. The script & plot is pretty much by the numbers for these DTV action flicks, some sort of ex cop/soldier loses a loved one/someone close & ends up going on a one man rampage to kill all the bad guys & have some sweet revenge, we've seen it all before although Wake of Death is by far not the worst example your likely to see. As you might expect (& demand even) there's plenty of people getting shot, shoot-outs, fights & things blowing up before the obligatory final showdown between the hero & the villain. It's nothing new but it has a decent pace, a decent enough set of character's & just about enough action to make this better than expected & better than average. There's a lack of urgency to the plot, it's rather predictable & it lacks a certain something, a certain memorable something that would truly distinguish it from the crowd but overall this isn't a bad effort & show's JCVD can still turn in a decent action flick.I must admit that Wake of Death looks really good with some classy cinematography, having said that although it's often stylish it means little as we get nicely shot scenes of people getting off planes for instance but that's it, the style serves no real purpose & can sometimes be distracting & feel empty. The violence is there, there's some shoot-outs, some blood splatter, plenty of people are shot, there's a couple of slit throats & there's even a torture scene in which a power drill is stuck into someone's kneecaps, arms & eyeball. Action set-piece wise there's a neat little car chase with an exploding tanker truck at the end & a motorbike chase through a shopping mall. Although I am not sure why JCVD has a flash-forward to the car chase at the beginning (at which point it hasn't happened yet & he hasn't even met Kim), maybe as well as being as hard as nails he is psychic too.With a supposed budget of about $16,000,000 this was filmed in Cape Town in South Africa despite being set in Los Angeles & China. The acting is OK, JCVD is alright & the extreme close-ups on him show how many lines & wrinkles his face has now, Simon Yam as the bad guy is a little forgettable.Wake of Death is a pretty decent DTV action flick, it's not up there with JCVD's best but isn't as bad as his worst either, as a typical hard as nails one man army on a rampage against the bad guys flicks go you could do a lot worse.

In my opinion, this is by far the best Van Damme film. The acting is superb and first rate. The story is nothing new but it's done very well. The directing and the editing is first rate too. All about this film is first rate. There is maybe a few glitches but that's it. The fights are awesome as well. What I think makes this film superior, it's how well it was made. You actually feel "something" for the characters. I loved Max and Raymond. The actor who portrayed Max is awesome. Tony was very cool as well. My feeling is that if someone like Bruce Willis or another big time movie star played the main role of Ben Archer, the film would've been a theatrical box office success. Jean needs to stick to films like this.

This movie was worth a watch, but nothing to brag about.They tried to make Van Damme into something he's not, a good actor.Yes it has action, but the scenes of Van Damme trying to be sexy or caring just weren't believable.The Asian bad guys were really bad, bad to the point of nuts. Killing just to kill in a populated city, and no fear of being caught is just ludicrus.No real thought put into this movie.Typical explosions with no cops, yea sure.Typical B low budget movie.It's worth a watch though, just be prepared to be bored with van dammes try at emotions.