Death Warrant

Death Warrant



Few of the action genre forefathers made it safely out of the eighties. Schwarzenegger and Stallone managed to weather the storm. Willis re-invented himself as an everyman actor adding comedy and horror to his resume. But, spare a thought for those others; The guys who didn't make it back to the chopper and ride into the nineties with their heads held high. Think of Lungdren, Segal and Rutger Hauer. Think, my friends, of Jean Claude Van Damme.

The mussels from Brussels was a heavyweight too. He starred in iconic favourites such as Cyborg, Bloodsport and this, the prison based actioner, Death Warrant.

After uncovering a spate of mysterious killings at a local penetentiary, Officer Louis Burke (JCVD) goes undercover. His plan, to investigate and infiltrate the killer and then severely kick the shit out of him.

It transpires that the killings are part of an elaborate plot to harvest vital organs and sell them onto desperate transplant patients. The very people who know Burke is undercover are at the centre of it.

Now, it's time for Burke to escape before the inmates can kill him, but an old adversary arrives in the form of The Sandman (Patrick Kilpatrick). An almost unkillable giant, The Sandman throws Burke around like a rag doll, barely giving him a moment to land his round-house kicks.

Van Damme suffered from the same sort of verbal disabilities that his contemporaries did, but the role of Burke was perfectly suited for him. He was a cop who let his feet do the talking. The action is so frenetic, you barely have a moment to dwell on his loose grasp of the English language. Despite a tacked on romantic subplot, this film is easily one of the best action films from the eighties.

While a lot of eighties movies feel dated, this one has lost none of its original impact. It's just a shame that you have to actively seek a film from that decade to see the high-kicking action man in his element.

With his new movie 'JCVD' coming out at the end of the month, let's hope he can resuscitate his career.

Verdict 9/ 10
An action master, not forgotten.