A serial killer is on the loose torching all his victims who
happen to be mothers. Detective Jake
Riley is on the case to stop this obsessive man until his own retirement
prevents him before he can finish the job.
A clone of the killer is created to aid in the catching of the killer
himself. Jake gets taunted to come back
and solve the case he’s worked on for the last three years.
I liked
this movie for the story along with Jean-Claude Van Damme giving a stronger
performance than usual, as he portrayed two characters. It’s definitely my top Van Damme film as of
now. Michael Rooker (whom I’m not really
a fan of) turns in a solid performance which helps the movie without a doubt. The efficient character development and
timely action sequences held the movie together from start to finish. I’ll admit I thought it could unravel at any
moment but to my surprise it didn’t. How
can a movie with Van Damme playing two roles be bad? His favorite co-star has always been himself
after all!
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| The shady glasses & long hair complete the bad guy look. |
Edward
Garrotte (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is the serial killer who sets his victims
ablaze while taking pictures of them in the act. He already seems horrible doesn’t he? Jake Riley (Michael Rooker) of the Seattle
police has been after this guy for years.
He had a last chance to catch him but came up short as Garrotte eluded
him. I’ll state now that Garrotte is
nasty bad, he is a downright evil man.
His character is incredibly consistent throughout the whole movie for
being so despicable. I love that in a
movie as I hate to see such a character get flawed with charitable acts. As he escapes from Jake, early in the movie,
he uses hostages on a bus to cover his exit craftily out a window. I was surprised at this unique simple enough
escape that is quick but well executed. He later runs down a street and kills a driver,
by shooting rounds through the windshield, which stops short of hitting him
with their car. His character is bad but
I truly appreciate how unflawed it is.
 |
| Witness the true birth of Jean-Claude Van Damme! |
Jake
has a retirement party when Garrotte calls him up and taunts him to come out of
it. Jake gets pissed and shouts all
sorts of obscenities to the listening ears of his guests. Awkward moment Jake can you hold it together
in front of everyone, think of the children!
Later on, a government agency hires Jake to help in the capturing of
Garrotte deeming him a terrorist type threat. They have cloned Garrotte and want Jake to
investigate with a “replicant” to track down Garrotte. A replicant is a clone they created from
blood and hairs at a crime scene which is farfetched. The explanation isn’t convincing enough for
most viewers’ I’d imagine but for me it’s intriguing. I like science fiction related content so
this is right up my alley so to speak.
The replicant also has a telepathic bond with Garrotte, but doesn’t know
many common everyday things. His mind
overall is like a small child as far as knowledge goes. It’s like his brain needs to boot up and get
simple input, from Jake in this case.
 |
| He's worse than a cat. |
The
fear of this replicant turning on Jake leaves him on constant edge. He has no idea when Garrotte’s possible
tendencies could come out and attack. It’s
quite an understandable feeling Jake has, I mean this replicant is supposed to
be Garrotte anyway. From the view of the
replicant though he is learning and trying to cope in a new world. I enjoy his fascination with toilet paper. He even learns to do the splits to keep Van
Damme’s trademark in his films. I can’t help
but love that he always manages to squeeze that into all his movies. He doesn’t quite understand this strange bond
with Garrotte or why Jake treats him like dog doo. Regardless of how badly Jake treats him I’m
shocked as to how the replicant still attaches to him. It’s possible because Jake was the first
human he came in contact with. The
replicant progressively views Jake as family since the two spend so much time
together even though it’s rocky at times.
What family isn’t that way though, right? In one instance he beats the crap out of the
replicant thinking he hurt a small boy in which he actually didn’t. Jake at the beginning was trying to find a
reason to inflict harm on the replicant.
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| Could you kill yourself face to face? It's so life changing! |
Jake
closes in on Garrotte’s apartment while he’s away and stumbles upon pictures of
dead women Garrotte has slain. The
replicant saves Jake and some others from a bomb Garrotte had rigged inside his
computer. You can see Jake trusting his
new partner more and more from then on.
The replicant was able to know of the bomb through Garrotte. The replicant sights Garrotte on the street
and pursues him to a bar. It’s a brutal
engagement as Garrotte murders the bartender but can’t come to kill the
replicant. I’m guessing it’d be
difficult to blow your own brains out even if it wasn’t you. Not long after this first meeting they meet
up again underneath a hotel. Garrotte
tries to mind play the replicant to come to his own aid by saying Jake can’t be
trusted. Jake catches up to them but
Garrotte escapes with the replicant’s help.
It infuriates Jake but at least the replicant found out Garrotte’s true
identity: Luc Sevard. The replicant is
clearly confused but not hostile luckily for Jake.
 |
| Does old & busted come to mind with this guy? |
Luc
visits his dying mother in a hospital showing her all the women he has killed
in photographs. At first I thought how
sick this man was to be doing this! However
you learn here that his mother locked him into a closet when he was a boy and
set fire to their home. His mother also
abused him badly driving him to hate women later in life so much he sought out
mothers he thought were mistreating their sons and killed them. Now I’m not so sickened at just Luc but also
his mommy. It’s a good back story to
explain why he is how he is, not just some wacko without a cause. Luc didn’t die that one night since it rained
and put out the fire. Luckily the
forecast was on his side but unlucky for all his victims, it’s really a tragedy
either way when you think about it.
Should Luc burn alive because of an abusive mother or live to go on to
kill numerous other women? It’s
interesting isn’t it? Jake and the
replicant also come to the hospital to visit the mother but discover she is
dead. They go to see the body when Luc
shows up with the idea of killing them both.
It’s a great action sequence between the three as the replicant refuses
to kill Jake. The brotherhood Luc tried
to create has not worked.
 |
| Can't I just burn him in peace? I always get in my way! |
Luc
flees after fending the two off with superior fighting skills. He also shoots the corpse of his mother;
perhaps I should have not stated that part, it’s disturbing I know. Jake follows him while the replicant is left
a bit dazed and a decent ambulance chase occurs inside parking garage. I’m not a fan of long drawn out finales but
this one really does it in impressive, acceptable fashion. As the ambulance eventually crashes, Luc
escapes to the cremation area low in the hospital building. He hits Jake with a shovel to the face! I told you this guy was bad and I admire how
twisted he continues to act. He prepares to set fire to Jake by placing him on
the cremation roller. Its Luc’s curse,
he just loves to torch his prey! The
replicant returns to save Jake and have a final showdown with Luc. The scene is done well in action again
displaying Van Damme’s physical prowess in a much more pleasing manner. The replicant locks Jake out, of the now on
fire room, to apparently die with his “brother”. Luc is already dead as Jake shot him
previously and the room explodes leaving you to assume Luc and the replicant
died. The replicant seems torn on his
entire existence and the longing for a family.
It’s possible that was Luc’s inner turmoil all along but only seen
through the replicant.
Jake is
happy at home with the boy from earlier in the movie he was with when he sees
the replicant leave a message in his mailbox.
He goes out to see him but the replicant is nowhere to be found. The gift is an item that meant something special
to the replicant that he now wants Jake to have. I suppose it’s a sort of memento between the
two of them. The replicant decides to
return to a hooker he previously helped earlier in the movie. It seems he wants to have sex with her still
as before he went in his pants prematurely!
Technically it’s his first time and he has much to discover in the
world. The two connected and who knows
he might get a freebie! He might also
try to start a life with her, who knows?
Good luck to you man, she was alright.
It’s a neat solid film, but can’t the agency that created him still
track him down? Let’s hope not, let his
man have a new life or follow in Garrotte’s footsteps and murder people. It’s really unknown what will happen but I
like it that way.
I’ve used my own images for this review and hope you find them suitable.
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