This is the third Jean Claude Van Damme movie I have seen. One, "JCVD", was brilliant...believe it or not. Another, "Lionheart", was good. And then there was this one!!!
"Inferno" (also known as "Deset Heat") is a Van Damme movie that is assisted by a nice assembly of supporting character actors. Pat Morita, Danny Trejo, Vincent Schiavelli and many others are nice additions, though I especially liked Bill Erwin as a very goofy and funny old codger*! However, no matter how nice these actors are in the film, it really is NOT 'Yojimbo" which it's reported to be...."Yojimbo" was a brilliant Kurosawa film. You'll see little brilliance in this picture...mostly a lot of explosions, expletives and macho histrionics which defy common sense.
When the story begins, Eddie (Van Damme) is in the middle of the desest--tired of living and in a funk. However, a gang of thugs attack him, shoot him and leave him for dead...and give him a new sense of purpose...to kill them! However, unlike most of the actor's films, he mostly shoots or stabs folks to death...which is much smarter than taking on every single one hand to hand. Unfortunately, it also suffers because after the initial confrontation, bullets never hit him and he can drive a motorcycle through a crowd of these armed thugs without getting hurt. Additionally, Eddie's bullets seem to often hit their target AND often makes things inexplicably explode!! Intellectual fare, this is definitely not!
So do I recommend the film? Not really. It's ultra violent, ultra crude and it's almost criminal to say or imply it's a remake or reworking of "Yojimbo"! In fact, it's pretty dopey.
*The characters playing the two religious fanatics were not only offensive but amazingly stupid. See the film, you'll see what I mean.
"Inferno" (also known as "Deset Heat") is a Van Damme movie that is assisted by a nice assembly of supporting character actors. Pat Morita, Danny Trejo, Vincent Schiavelli and many others are nice additions, though I especially liked Bill Erwin as a very goofy and funny old codger*! However, no matter how nice these actors are in the film, it really is NOT 'Yojimbo" which it's reported to be...."Yojimbo" was a brilliant Kurosawa film. You'll see little brilliance in this picture...mostly a lot of explosions, expletives and macho histrionics which defy common sense.
When the story begins, Eddie (Van Damme) is in the middle of the desest--tired of living and in a funk. However, a gang of thugs attack him, shoot him and leave him for dead...and give him a new sense of purpose...to kill them! However, unlike most of the actor's films, he mostly shoots or stabs folks to death...which is much smarter than taking on every single one hand to hand. Unfortunately, it also suffers because after the initial confrontation, bullets never hit him and he can drive a motorcycle through a crowd of these armed thugs without getting hurt. Additionally, Eddie's bullets seem to often hit their target AND often makes things inexplicably explode!! Intellectual fare, this is definitely not!
So do I recommend the film? Not really. It's ultra violent, ultra crude and it's almost criminal to say or imply it's a remake or reworking of "Yojimbo"! In fact, it's pretty dopey.
*The characters playing the two religious fanatics were not only offensive but amazingly stupid. See the film, you'll see what I mean.