Double Trouble: Timecop & Replicant

These two Jean-Claude Van Damme movies aren't strictly twin movies, but he does play multiples of himself in both and that's close enough for us!

Timecop plot unfolds something like this: Max Walker, is a security officer for an agency that regulates time travel. He's tasked with stopping his ex-partner from using time travel to profit off the stock market. But when Max comes back to present time, he finds he must now fend for his life against a politician who's been using time travel to make billions and become president.

JCVD's dual rolls: Now, this would be the easiest JCVD movie to talk me out of calling a twin movie. Truly, he's playing one character in multiple time lines and not in any way his twin. But I just don't care! The time lines keep changing so it's just as likely that he's no longer the same person in any of them. So there.

Additional great things about this movie: It co-stars Mia Sara and Ron Silver, and is one of two back to back JCVD movies for director Peter Hyams, as the next year they did Sudden Death together.

Replicant plot unfolds something like this: Edward Garrote (JCVD) is serial killer on the loose and Detective Jake Riley (lead detective on the case) is about to retire. To celebrate, Garrote has decided to kill the detective's mother. Riley's left with only once choice: to partner up with a secret government agency that has cloned Garrote and use the clone to hunt the killer down in the strangest buddy movie ever conceived. (Except for Dead Heat.)

JCVD's dual rolls: Here JCVD plays the killer, Edward "The Torch" Garrote, and the clone of the killer. As the killer he's dark, bruiting and smart enough to be a killer on the loose. As the replicant he's basically an adult toddler. As far as JCVD movies go, this is actually a good one and if you haven't seen some of his later stuff, you should check this one out. 

Additional great things about this movie: Michael Rooker plays the detective, and replicant JCVD is a parkour gymnast. Seriously, watch this movie.

That's a total of 4 JCVD movies that fit this month's theme, and that makes us very happy!

Double Trouble: Maximum Risk

Jean-Claude Van Damme plays his twin again! This time he never actually appears on camera as his twin, though his being a twin is the driving point of the plot.

The movie: Alain and his twin Mikhail were separated at birth. When Mikhail is murdered, Alain assumes his brother's identity and quickly finds out his brother was caught up in the Russian mob.

Our ranking for a JCVD twin movie: This one is pretty fun, directed by Ringo Lam and co-staring Natasha Henstridge, it's one of the better mid-90s Van Damme movies.

Other twin themed action movies directed by Ringo Lam: Replicant (though technically a clone movie) staring JCVD, and Twin Dragons staring Jackie Chan.

Double Trouble: Double Impact

Jean-Claude Van Damme will show up more times in this theme than you think, trust us. But this classic is the first instance of Van Damme playing his double.

   

The movie: Twin brothers Chad and Alex are separated as infants when their parents are murdered and 25 years later they are re-united to avenge their parents' death. Chad is the kinder simpler twin, Alex is the high rolling, rough around the edges twin, both are Jean-Claude Van Damme.


Our ranking for a JCVD twin movie: This is JCVD's first movie playing his double, but it's not the best. It's pretty hokey and slow moving, but it also features Bolo Yeung in it so it's not all bad!

No One Speaks the Same Language: Bloodsport

Oh Bloodsport, you are the gift that keeps on giving.

The plot unfolds something like this: Frank Dux was raised from brith to do one thing; win the Kumete (a super secret no holds barred fight to the death tournament that totally 100% exists). And that's just what he's gonna do...

The language barriers: Frank Dux's Overinflated Ego vs. The Truth.

The problems the language barrier presented: Frank Dux might have been born with his confidence dialed up to 100, but Frank Dux is also 100% full of shit. He's bullshitter that believes his own bullshit, no less. The film is "based on" Frank Dux's "real life experiences", a claim that came into question INSTANTLY. Reporters have called into question everything from Dux manufacturing his own Kumete trophies to his "secret missions for our military", and everything in between. But there was also tension between Van Damme and Dux. JCVD was skeptical of Dux's over the top "training" sessions, and things got heated enough that Dux claims that it almost came to blows at one point.

Further reading: If you want to read more about all this (and really why wouldn't you) this LA Times aritcal from the time period Bloodsport was released is pretty no holds barred, and the podcast How Did This Get Made has an excellent live episode covering much of the circus as well.

Double Feature: Masters of the Universe and Cyborg.

It might not seem like it to the casual viewer, but He-man was a film with sequel ambitions. Cannon was under financial duress while producing both this and Superman 4 simultaneously, but their hope was the revenue from these two films would propel their finances in the right direction. Unfortunately that did not happen, and production on the He-man sequel was scrapped. But that turned out to be a windfall for Albert Pyun, as the production for Cyborg was able to cannibalize all the unused sets!


Masters of the Universe:

In an attempt to revitalize the fading popularity of He-Man, Mattel teamed up with Cannon and to make this amazingly weird train-wreck of a movie. The cast features a young new-to-English-speaking Dolph Lundgren as He-Man, Frank Langella as Skeletor, Meg Foster as Evil-Lyn and Billy Barty plays a character called Gwildor as a substitution for Orko. There are some fun effects, great set pieces, some interesting designs elements (likely lifted from Jodorowsky's mock up for Dune) and a RIDICULOUS plot that sends He-Man and his crew to modern-day L.A.. (This movie might be bad, but it's also relentlessly entertaining.) Despite their financial instability at the time, Cannon had high hopes for Masters, and not only did they give this production one of their biggest budgets to date, they started working on a sequel before it was released. Tough break for He-man, good news for Cyborg!


Cyborg:

What do you do when you have already sunk a tons of money building sets, props and costumes for a movie you can't afford to make? You call Albert Pyun of course! Pyun quickly wrote a script that  incorporate these elements into a fun post apocalyptic cyborg movie and cast a young Jean Claude Van Damme in the lead. Pyun can make most any movie into something fun, but this is one of our favorites from his cannon.



Why this makes a good double feature: Not only are these movies tied together by production elements, they also each star a foreign actor on the cusp of stardom before they were able to speak English fluently.