Review: Pound of Flesh

Set in the Philippines, Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as a total fuck-up (and former Black-ops guy) who wakes up in a confused, hazy state to find that he has a kidney missing and is lying in an ice bath. This is the very same kidney Van Damme had hoped he could find redemption through donating it to his sick niece. In order to locate his missing kidney he must race against the clock with the aid of his estranged, religiously-inclined brother John Ralston, and a former rival gangster turned trusted friend in Aki Aleong, before his poor niece dies. Darren Shahlavi turns up as Drake, a bad guy in on the kidney-stealing plot.

 

Cheap-looking, but pretty decent 2015 Ernie Barbarash (director of “They Wait”, “Hardwired”, and the solid Van Damme-Scott Adkins teaming “Assassination Games”) flick isn’t the best of Van Damme’s post-cinematic release career, but solid enough to get a recommendation just the same. Scripted by Joshua James (a martial artist with one other writing credit prior), it might be a tad sappy for some, and really ought to come with the tagline: ‘They took his kidney. Now he’s gonna take back a Pound of Flesh!’. The mushy subplot does have a touch of “Until Death” about it, only not as effectively done. It has a cruel twist towards the end I probably should’ve seen coming, but didn’t so I’ll give the film that.

 

We also get a better class of actors here than “Until Death”, with veteran action movie ethnic villain Aki Aleong (for some reason credited here as Leonard Gonzales) probably taking top honours as an enemy-turned-friend of Van Damme’s. Canadian character actor John Ralston is also better than you’d expect from a film of this sort, even if playing Van Damme’s passive, religious brother is perhaps not the most exciting role. Aubrey ‘Drake’ Graham and Nina Dobrev might be the biggest stars “Degrassi” ever had, but Ralston (who has made several appearances on the long-running Canadian teen show I swear I don’t watch…much) is perhaps the strongest actor to have ever appeared on the show. The late Darren Shahlavi really ought to be in this a lot more than he is. However, for the moments he is on screen, he’s effectively villainous as usual, even with ridiculous blonde tips in his hair. It’s probably one of his better acting turns, and surprisingly rather subdued too. The film is dedicated in his memory, as he died during the filming of his next film with Van Damme (The “Kickboxer” reboot). Van Damme himself doesn’t get as much dramatic material to work with as in say “Until Death”, but when called upon to deliver, he definitely does. He has a face that looks to have lived a thousand torturous lives, and his speech explaining the rift between him and his brother is something that 90s-era Van Damme could not possibly have delivered as convincingly as 2015 Van Damme does.

 

On the action front, Van Damme (who also serves as EP) has eschewed the latter-day Steven Seagal method of stunt doubles and uber close-ups for a long time now. He appears to do a lot of his own stuff here, too, but there is still a stunt double credited and yes, it’s obvious the man doesn’t move quite like he used to. That’s just Father Time (and health issues), and Van Damme makes up for it with sheer brutality and directness in the action department, even finding a cool use for a bible as an instrument of blunt force in one moment. Like Seagal’s use of Aikido over the years, Van Damme’s fighting here is very much short, blunt, but effective bursts. No need to spin kick the fuck out of someone when a quick punch will do the trick just nicely. In his final fight he even employs an MMA-style against the physically intimidating Shahlavi. Van Damme’s use of stunt doubles here isn’t him being lazy like one could accuse Seagal of, he’s merely adapting to his advancing age and doing what he can. Meanwhile, you’ve gotta admire Van Damme for finding the oddest circumstance in which to bring out his patented splits. That’s one bit of action he is still able to do himself, and it’s a truly ricockulous moment in the best sense.

 

For me the only flaw with this is its look. It’s got a murky, muted made-in-Canada look to it and indeed it is a Canadian-made film, albeit actually shot elsewhere. It looks shitty, with inexplicably bad projection work a particular culprit (green screen for a conversation inside a moving car? Why?). It doesn’t bring the film down too much, but it does stop it from being a stronger recommendation than it could’ve been if lensed more attractively and the budget affording higher grade projection work (or not using projection work at all, preferably).

 

Intriguing mixture of dark, brooding drama, sappy melodrama, and action looks ugly as hell, but is pretty solid for this kind of thing nonetheless. A good B-cast helps, though it’s a shame the late Darren Shahlavi isn’t in the film very much.

 

Rating: B-