# Knock Off (1998)

### reviewed by
David Sunga

    KNOCK OFF (1998)

    Rating: 2.0 stars (out of 4.0)
    ********************************
    Key to rating system:
    2.0 stars - Debatable
    2.5 stars - Some people may like it
    3.0 stars - I liked it
    3.5 stars - I am biased in favor of the movie
    4.0 stars - I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out
    *********************************
    A Movie Review by David Sunga

    Directed by: Tsui Hark

    Written by: Steven E. De Souza

    Ingredients:
    Hong Kong, thwarting a plan to smuggle mini bombs, goofball agents, bad
    guy named 'Skinny'

Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Rob Schneider, Lela Rochon, Michael Wong, Paul Sorvino, Carmen Lee, Glen Chin

Synopsis: In this Hong Kong comedy Marcus (Van Damme) and his buddy Tommy (comedian Rob Schneider) are wheeler dealers in freewheeling Hong Kong. They are V 6 company representatives running a factory for producing V 6 designer jeans for export to the United States, but in KNOCK OFF Hong Kong is notorious for fake designer goods called knock offs.

One day the boys get a visit from V 6 investigator Karan Leigh (Lela Rochon), accusing them of producing cheap knock offs instead of the real jeans. Of course, this being an action comedy, this means that some anonymous terroristic bad guys are responsible for making the fake jeans and trying to hide microbombs inside them in a bid for world domination. Enter the CIA, the Russian Mafia, Hong Kong mobsters, Hong Kong cops Lt. Han and Ling Ho (Michael Wong and Carmen Lee), and of course, the high-kicking Jean-Claude Van Damme.

Opinion: For H.K. movie fans, KNOCK OFF features popular New York born Hong Kong actor Michael Fitzgerald Wong, and model-turned-actress Carmen Lee. But the main characters are Belgian kickboxer Jean-Claude Van Damme and comedian Rob Schneider from TV's MEN BEHAVING BADLY. In this case, teaming up a martial artist with a comedian for a buddy action comedy is a good idea, since it takes half of the acting burden off of the martial artist. Schneider is not a kung fu man or action star, and Van Damme is better known for slow motion spin kicks, but luckily director Tsui Hark and his team use judicious cuts and film speed to keep the action up front and flowing.

Surprisingly, WAITING TO EXHALE actress Lela Rochon, playing company investigator Karan Leigh, gets to do a decent amount of action work, kung fu kicks, and machine gun shooting. As an action gal, Rochon actually does well enough to get my fan vote as the next Bond girl or Foxy Brown sequel heroine.

Teaming such an athletic cast of legitimately good actors with DIE HARD scriptwriter Steven E. de Souza, you'd think KNOCK OFF would be a great movie. But the bad news is, the plot is somewhat of a disappointment, the dubbing is evident, and people chase each other around the city without dramatic tension or character sympathy. If a building blows up, it doesn't mean anything unless the building is somehow important to the plot. Or if a character gets chased or bombed, the character should be someone of significance to the movie, not a stranger. But in Knock Off, a lot of action goes on without any particular meaning. For example, the 1997 Hong Kong handover is extraneously thrown in, but doesn't have any significance to the movie.

In Knock OFF not as much attention is paid to the plot as to the scene-by-scene choreography. When Marcus informs the police so they can make a big raid on the big Russian Mafia boat, only one lieutenant shows up to make the raid. Why? Carmen Lee plays another cop who is introduced early in the movie, but fades away, so we never find out about her personality or adventures, either.

Despite plot holes and characters the audience doesn't get to know or care about, watching cops run around can still mildly entertain. But I'd wait for the video unless you're a big fan of one of the stars or choreography.

    Reviewed September 6, 1998

    Copyright © 1998 by David Sunga

The review above was posted to the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due to ASCII to HTML conversion.

Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews