Knock Off

Knock Off (1998)
 

Runtime: 91 minutes

Directed by: Tsui Hark

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

From: Tri-Star

This baffling film isn’t technically good, but boy can it be wacky fun. As several people (not just on Letterboxd) wanted me to see this after reading my review of the other Tsui Hark/Van Damme collaboration-Double Team-it seemed like a wise choice for my last review of 2024. Next month, I’ll fulfill a few requests made both here and elsewhere, & tomorrow afternoon I’ll be starting something new, but that will be explained then.

I couldn’t even begin to describe the plot, so I won’t. I can just speak vaguely. It’ involves such things as frogs, Van Damme and Rob Schneider as a fashion design duo, an illegal rickshaw race, the CIA, plenty of weird camera angles, “Pumma” (sic) shoes, OOT action scenes, Russians, green fire, durian fruit, weird camera effects and “nano-bombs” in bootleg merchandise, all in Hong Kong right before the British give the territory back to the Chinese. Inexplicably, this was written by Steven E. de Souza!

Knock Off is utter nonsense; at the same time, there are some solid laughs to be had (yes, even from Schneider) and if you enjoy films w/ plenty of wanton destruction… it was too zany for mainstream American audiences but Letterboxd dorks like us are more willing to enjoy something w/ such a strong Hong Kong flavor & still feature such different Western faces like Van Damme, Schneider, Lela Rochon and Paul Sorvino.

I couldn’t tell you why it appeared as if most of the martial arts scenes were edited (what an insult to Sammo Hung, who did the fight choreography) but I suppose that makes Knock Off even stranger.