Enemies Closer (2013)
After a major shipment of drugs goes missing on the US-Canadian border, forest ranger and former Navy SEAL Henry is plunged into survival mode when the drug cartel forces him to help retrieve the downed package. Trapped in the wilderness with no communication to the outside world, Henry finds himself face to face with Clay, a man with a personal vendetta against Henry who has returned for retribution. Now, the two mortal enemies must make a choice: put aside their past and work together, or die alone at the hands of the drug runners, a ruthless gang who will stop at nothing to retrieve their lost cargo.
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It is hard to think that once Peter Hyams was considered to be a top ranked film director. In an era where films are shot in Toronto or Vancouver to pass themselves off as US cities. This film shot in the US/Canada border is actually shot in Bulgaria as it is even cheaper.Tom Everett Scott is a park ranger and ex soldier. Orlando Jones turns up in the wilderness lodge one night wanting revenge for the death of his brother who was in Scott's army unit.They are interrupted by French Canadian drug mercenaries led by the charismatic, eccentric and ruthless Xander (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who want to steal drugs from crashed plane in the sea.Scott and Jones have to put their differences behind them to take on the bad guys. However Xander is cunning and resourceful, Scott finds out that he cannot trust people that are close to him.The script and story is lame, Scott is bland. Orlando Jones was once a rising star, now doing direct to DVD pictures. Thankfully the film has a short running time, it at least zips along and there are some nifty action scenes.JCVD has fun playing the villain, he has some one liners but his hair and dye job is terrible and distracting.
I am so delighted to have seen this corny, lousy but enjoyable grade Z movie. It is forbidden to watch it in another way, period. So, don't see it with the same eyes you could have for a Marty Scorcese's movie. Please. The most interesting for me is of course JCVD performance, because he has here the bad guy character, and he is shown, he fights as if he was the good one. The true heroes of this feature are nearly transparent, and the film focuses on JCVD the heavy dude. Don't you find this interesting and so unusual? He has here a weird and totally f...up guy, a killer fond of nature and ecology. A killer who is, I repeat, shown as if he was the hero. So, you see, a film can be damn bad but also be interesting. Pure enjoyable time waster.And, one more thing, another Die Hard scheme, not the most famous although.
Jean-Claude Van Damme, plays Xander a French-Canadian drug leader and landfill environmentalist. Supporting actor Orlando Jones (Clay) play his part well, as a mysterious lost hiker who found his way to the lake, while co-lead Tom Everett Scott (as Henry, the park ranger) is undoubtedly the weakest link in the film. The audience is clearly intended to root for his character, but his acting weighs the overall film, and the character is rather bland and isn't given much to do. Enemies Closer is a solid action film filled with decent amounts of action scenes such as one-note fight scenes, and gun shootout. The film works well since the film has a quick pace and doesn't stall or waste time compared to many action films we see today. It is only 85 minutes long (80 minutes minus the end credits) which is beneficial.
After Dark seems to be trying to get away from the Horror genre and makes a lot of Action movies as of late. This is another one and most of them seem to be at least decent. Solid story (nothing fancy or too special), solid cast, with a mix of many types and characters and a solid director mostly at hand (here Peter Hyams).Van Damme is the one thing that kind of makes this stand above average. Not much, but he does like to play the villain as of late. I'm sure he put a bit of character play in this by himself. It's obvious with how much gusto he's playing that part. Calling that over the top would be an understatement. All in all: Can be watched, not a must