ivo-cobra8 Disclaimer: If you are a viewer that mainly prefers art-house-type movies, then you might as well ignore this review. In addition, if you're not able to take a Van Damme good dark,bloody, brutal, action flick direct to video, ignore this review, as well. We'll both be better off.Wake of Death (2004) like my title say's it is very brutal, revenge, action, violence movie! In a completely different tone from Van Damme! I have never saw him acting and playing a character like that! I am wondering now if Van Damme is in real life like his character Ben Archer is. This is my favorite direct to video Van Damme movie. I like the action in here, but the whole movie was more brutal than ever. I have watched the cut version, I don't know why was this movie cut in the first place? Maybe because they were too violent scenes in it. I don't think is a bad movie, I like it. I know a lot of people like this movie and they love it, like it or love it to death. I like it a lot and I think this movie "Wake of Death" is decent. At least is much better film than Street Fighter, Knock Off, The Quest, Inferno aka Desert Heat and Derailed was, those movies suck ass and I will not see them in a long time soon! I think this movie is good for what it is. It is a Badass violent, action, bloody, brutal movie. I've always said the thing that sets Van Damme apart from everyone else, like are Dolph Lundgren, Seagal, Gary Daniels etc..... Is that Van Damme can Act. I know that Steven Seagal did had a lot of direct to video movies, but after watching this movie, I have enjoy it much more than I would enjoy a Steven Seagal direct to Video awful movies. Not a Seagal fan anymore, but I am the biggest Van Damme fan and I care what is happening to Van Damme. I love the man and his movies and Wake of Death is not a bad action movie but is not my favorite film from Van Damme.Jean-Claude Van Damme's acting is far beyond what he was able to do with previous material and the film has a nice dark edge to it. Plenty of great, well choreographed (and violent) action scenes and you can actually see Van Damme doing most of his own stunt work for once. Visually the film looks very sleek (in a dark way) and considering it's over a decade old, very little about it has aged. The plot is fairly simple (revenge) and the dialogue and script are tight for the most part. The film runs at about 86 minutes (pre-credits) and moves at a brisk pace though it never feels short and sells itself and it's contents very well. It doesn't set the world on fire for originality but what it does, it does very nicely and in my opinion, it adds a little class to Van Dammes filmography. Simon Yam did a terrific joy playing the villain and a triad leader in this movie. I remember him from watching his early movies like were: Bloodfight (1989),John Woo's Bullet in the Head (1990), Naked Killer (1992) and Full Contact (1992) those were the movies that I liked from him. I did not saw how Simon Yam got aged in here, but he still did a good solid performance.The basic plot about this film is After his wife is brutally murdered, an ex-cop wages war against the Chinese triads. A triad leader Sun Quan (Simon Yam) murdered with knife his wife, when she wanted to leave him and taken his daughter away from him. His daughter Kim (Valerie Tian) saw him murdering her mother and she flees away from him. She comes to America with an immigrant's ship, one of Sun Quan's ships. When Sun Quan (Simon Yam) find out that out, he come to America to get her back. Cynthia (Lisa King) is a social worker with the INS, helping to process illegal Chinese immigrants. Then she discovers Kim (Valerie Tian), a young girl on board a ship that is full of immigrants, and decides to bring her home. She convinces a judge that the girl is in grave danger if deported and successfully pleads with him to give her one-week to sort out her case against deportation. Without hesitation Sun Quan (Simon Yam) orders his gang to get the girl back and kill everyone. So they kill everyone but the kids run away, when Ben Archer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) finds out about this he takes the matter in his own hands, the justice he delivers it is his own fury of hell.Philip Tan also played in this movie , I saw him in Tango & Cash (1989), Martial Law (1990) and Bloodsport II (1994), I mostly remember him from that movie. Overall I am giving this movie a 8, I like it,it is my favorite Van Damme movie, it is hell of a better movie than Seagal all shitty direct to video movies and previous shitty movies that Van Damme did before.Wake of Death is a 2004 American/German action film directed by French director, Philippe Martinez and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Ringo Lam was the original director, but he left the project after a few weeks of filming in Canada. The film was released to the cinema in France but direct to video in America in 2004.8/10 Grade: A Studio: Bauer Martinez Studios UKFS Frame Werk Produktion GmbH & Co. KG Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Lisa King, Valerie Tian, Simon Yam, Tony Schiena, Philip Tan, Pierre Marais, Tom Wu, Claude Hernandez Director: Philippe Martinez Producers: Alan Latham, Philippe Martinez, Stéphanie Martinez, Stanley Roup Screenplay: Philippe Martinez, Mick Davis, Laurent Fellous, Kristina Hamilton-Grobler Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 31 Mins. Budget: $14.000.000 Box Office: $1,206,134

Paul Andrews 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.

ma-cortes The movie begins when a Chinese little girl witnesses the killing her mother by her gangster father named Sun Quan(Simon Yam) and she flees to Los Angels aboard a ship with other abducted immigrants. An ex-gangster named Ben(Jean Claude Van Damme) is ready to retire himself; his wife(Lisa King)is a social worker, taking the refugee little girl to their house. Then, she 's cruelly killed and his son along with the Chinese girl are kidnapped. Our revenger hero wages war against the criminals .The sad Van Damme must rescue the kids and revenge his spouse, meanwhile he's attacked and pursued from all sides by Chinese triads, being only helped by a French gangster's trio.This film direct to video-rentals, displays action-packed, extreme violence, pursuit cars, thrills and is quite entertaining. It's thrilling and tense , at time suspenseful movie and the firepower, explosion, struggles, motorbikes races are very well done. Suffering Van Damme plays finely an affected gangster, acting similarly to 'Hard cops'. Van Damme confronting nasties, using his martial-arts skills, furthermore some chase cars are pretty exciting. Remaining cast though unknown make nice acting, besides appears uncredited Burt Kwouk ,the famous Chinese fighter against Inspector Clouseau-Peter Sellers. This interesting film results to be a standard actioner, but packs atmospheric action set pieces and is fast movement . The motion picture is well produced, though with middling budget, and directed by Philippe Martinez. He's a prestigious producer, such as 'Harsh times, Modigliani, The piano player, Van Wilder 2'. This is the second and best film as director , along with 'Citizen verdict'. The picture is extremely energetic and be liked for true devotees of main actor. It's a must see for Van Damme fans.

Whadever Wake of Death was the first "Van Damme" movie I'd seen in a couple of years. Shortly put it's a real surprise. Where Arnie acts in big budget movies only, Chuck Norris has become a TV star and Stephen Seagal is heading on the emotional tour, none of them has evolved the way Jean Claude has. It's a metamorphosis! The movie is still centered around action, but "Van Damme" makes you care. His character feels real enough, he's not the 'staring off in the distance' kind of muscle actor anymore. With age, he's gained bearing as well. The lines in his face, the way he acts without forcing his role. He is more patient, takes his time and it makes the roles he chooses more realistic.It's time to look at the now... and Van Damme is in it!(PS: He's come a long way even since this movie; Watch "Until Death" to see where it's taken him today.)