like the recent chinese box , most of the action in knock off takes place against the background of the hand-over of hong kong to china after a century of british rule . however , the lack of immediacy here doesn't seem to matter too much with this tired , unconvincing and rudimentary plot . rather than a poignant love story set against a backdrop of the clash between cultures , knock offis a mindless and unconvincing b-grade spy thriller that offers fading action star jean claude van damme one final opportunity to salvage his career from the scrap heap . van damme's status as an action hero reached its pinnacle with time copand the die hardclone sudden death . since then it's been largely downhill , with a series of increasingly dull , mindless and gratuitously violent action films . the muscles from brussels has placed his career in the hands of a number of influential hong kong action directors ( john woo , ringo lam , and tsui hark , but they have been unable to reverse his declining box office fortunes . in knock off , van damme plays marcus ray , an exporter and wholesaler for an american jeans company , based in hong kong . he and his partner tommy ( rob schneider , from judge dredd , etc ) accidentally find themselves mixed up in a terrorist scheme to smuggle small but very lethal bombs into the us . sinister forces are planting the bombs , which burst into green flame , inside toys , clothes and other consumer goods and shipping them to america . ray finds himself up against the cia , the triads and the hong kong police as he tries to unravel the complicated international plot . this below par effort has been written by steven e de souza , who has previously written some of hollywood's best action thrillers of the past decade - die hard , and die hard 2 , etc . there's plenty of action scenes , but the film is undermined by tsui hark's cold , clinical choreography and visual flourishes . hark , who previously directed our hero in the ludicrous double team , brings his own distinctive style to the film . he uses close-ups , a constantly moving camera , and lots of unusual angles to bring an illusion of kinetic energy to the material . unfortunately , his unnecessarily flamboyant visual style somehow removes any genuine sense of excitement and suspense . van damme's performance is more wooden and unconvincing than ever , and he seems uncomfortable with the more comic elements of the script . even schneider's desperate attempts to breathe some humour into proceedings with a series of throw away one liners fall flat . knock offis a disappointing and muddled actioner that marks a new low in van damme's declining career . at this rate , van damme will join the ranks of those other faded action stars whose films now regularly disappear straight on to video ( dolph lundgren , rutger hauer , etc ) . 
