Name: Retro Film Review: Knock Off (1998)
Item: Knock Off
Rating: 50
Author: @drax

(source:tmdb.org)

Contemporary Hollywood is often accused of not paying much attention towards intellectual abilities of its audience. Hong Kong cinema industry sometimes goes even further and tries to give impression that their film makers are people whose IQ matches those of their intended audience. However, there are instances when even the films that look like symptom of someone's dementia can defy reason in quite unexpected ways. Even the mindless fun at times can be fun. One of those films is Knock Off, 1998 American action comedy directed by Hong Kong veteran producer and director Tsui Hark.

The plot takes place in Hong Kong shortly before the historic 1997 handover to mainland China. Marcus Ray (played by Jean-Claude Van Damme) is fashion designer with a shady past - he used to produce "knock off" jeans. Today, with the help of his friend Tommy Hendricks (played by Rob Schneider), he tries to go straight by running Hong Kong office of the American fashion company. Two men, however, can't shake off Marcus' past and old connections with local organised crime, including gang boss "Skinny" (played by Glen Chin). "Skinny" is connected with some even meaner people – former KGB agents who got hold of Soviet-era nanotechnology. Their plan is to infiltrate Hong Kong fashion industry and implant miniature deadly bombs into locally produced "knock off" jeans in order to blackmail the world. In the meantime, Marcus and Tommy have to deal with Karen Lee (played by Lela Rochon), tough company executive who came from USA to oversee their operation. They also meet Harry Johanson (played by Paul Sorvino), CIA agent who apparently tries to stop the evildoers' scheme.

Jean-Claude Van Damme as fashion designer is just one of many examples of Knock Off defying common sense. To say that Van Damme is unconvincing in that role would be an understatement. Other actors mostly sleepwalk through their roles, including Rob Schneider who fails in his, usually annoying, attempts to be some sort of comic relief. Steven E. de Souza's script is also rather poor excuse for holding series of spectacular action scenes together in some sort of plot. On the other hand, fact that hardly anything makes sense in the film didn't discourage Tsui Hark. He directs the film with the enthusiasm of the child in the candy store - MTV-style shots are so over the top that the mindlessness of the film gets surreal quality of its own. And this quality is the reason why Knock Off is so entertaining. Of course, this film requires something different than open mind to be truly appreciated - it requires no mind at all. But viewers who are willing to go through such mental transformation are going to be awarded by truly memorable experience. Rickshaw scene at the beginning of the film is just one of the reasons why Knock Off deserves to be categorised as "guilty pleasure".

RATING: 5/10 (++)

(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.films.reviews on May 13th 2004)