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      Wake of Death

      R 2004 1h 30m Action Adventure Drama List
      Reviews 43% 5,000+ Ratings Audience Score When Ben Archer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) decides he wants out of the organized crime world, he moves to America with his wife, Cynthia (Lisa King), and son, Nicholas (Pierre Marais). Cynthia brings home a rescued Chinese girl who she turns out to be the daughter of Triad kingpin Sun Quan (Simon Yam), who murders Cynthia and takes the girl and Nicholas. Rekindling his old mob connections, Ben embarks on a bloody vendetta to save the kids and punish Quan for his wife's death. Read More Read Less

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      Wake of Death

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      Audience Reviews

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      Alain M "Wake of Death" is a 2004 action film starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. The movie follows Van Damme as Ben Archer, a former police officer who becomes embroiled in a dangerous underworld of organized crime after his wife is killed by a notorious gang. Van Damme delivers a solid performance as Archer, bringing a combination of physicality and emotional depth to the role. The action scenes are well-done, featuring fast-paced fight sequences and explosive set pieces. The film's story is engaging, with plenty of twists and turns to keep the audience invested. While the film may not be one of Van Damme's most well-known movies, "Wake of Death" is a solid entry in the action genre. Fans of Van Damme's work and action films in general will find a lot to enjoy here. The film is fast-paced, brutal, and packed with intense action, making it a fun and exciting watch. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review The M Van Damme has another impressive film after IN HELL, with this ode to 70s, French film noir. His wife is murdered by a triad boss inserch of his off this boat immigrant daughter. Van Dammes character is a mob bruiser who bring his cohorts into the fray against the triads Great acting from Van Damme here as he delts out the beatings and gunfire. Simon Yam is evil as, San Qaun, the triad boss. The story seems like it had some pages torn from it and has some choppy editing. The bike chase in the mall is a highlight Rated 3 out of 5 stars 12/05/22 Full Review Audience Member I really had hoped that Jean Claude van Damme had improved with age but the fact remains that the guy just can't act. Instead of improving with age, this film appears to magnify the horridness of JCVD films...and at one time, I was a hardcore JCVD fan. Like Steven Seagal, van Damme appears to be trying to cloak the reality of his age and lack of prowess; much of this movie was very dark (as in "lighting", not the tone of the film) and the few (VERY few!) fight scenes there were amounted to a couple of roundhouse kicks that seemed to be spliced together in post-editing. If you're expecting a better JCVD and better fight choreography, let me save you an hour and a half: there are none. This movie is about 70 minutes longer than it should have been. I won't say it's "predictable" (unless you count "predictably bad") because it's very unlike early van Damme movies that featured the same horrible acting but at least had some decent fight scenes. This is 90 minutes of wandering, disjointed scenes featuring repeated extreme close-ups of different facial expressions, tears, smoldering anger, rage, etc...all wanting to pull you in (yet failing miserably). I was very disappointed in this movie because - again - I had expected JCVD to really get better with age, but he still can't act. And again, like Steven Seagal, van Damme needs to stick to movies that are 99% fighting and leave the "romance" totally out of it. Can you say "awkward"? The handful of "emotional" moments...well, friends and neighbors, I just don't have the words. If, like me, you are (or were ) a fan of Jean Claude van Damme, do yourself a favor and go watch "Bloodsport" again. Twice. Three times. Watch all the fight scenes from "Lionheart" . Just don't watch this (and for heaven's sake, don't watch "Kickboxer" again! That one needs to stay buried forever.) Rated 1 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member Maratonando Jean-Claude na Paramount, mas um bom filme, com todos os tiros, porradas e bombas de praxe, a morte da esposa, um pacote cheio para a vingança, orientais malvados, corruptos e sanguinários, ok, tudo nos conformes para uma "Temperatura Máxima"... Legalzinho... Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/12/23 Full Review Audience Member Oof. Some cinematography was great. There were some gorgeous shots and some awful, ugly shots. There were some good action and stunt sequences that seem to have been shot poorly enough that they could not be saved in the editing. Some of the acting seemed awful some of the acting seem good. I guess this is the definition of an uneven film. There was some good stuff in there, but I'm going to have to blame a lot on the director who either didn't get a shot or edited poorly, or didn't get some script changes made that should have been made. It was also too violent and gory. Some of the gory shots were poorly captured so that you had the setup and the gore/aftermath but didn't really get to understand how or why. There is one good example that I'm thinking of. Also there was at least one action screen that was missing a shot to explain what was going on but also mixed up the action to make it hard to watch even if you did know or even didn't care what was going on. Perhaps surprisingly, Van Damme did a great job I think. But it was poorly directed and edited which undermined his performance. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review steve d Big dumb action film that is a lot of fun and quite exciting. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

      Cast & Crew

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      Wake of Death

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      Critics Reviews

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      Pablo Villaça Cinema em Cena Uma fotografia surpreendentemente boa em um filme previsivelmente ruim. Rated: 1/5 Jan 13, 2005 Full Review David Nusair Reel Film Reviews ...Jean-Claude Van Damme's most enjoyable movie in almost ten years. Rated: 2.5/4 Jan 9, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis When Ben Archer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) decides he wants out of the organized crime world, he moves to America with his wife, Cynthia (Lisa King), and son, Nicholas (Pierre Marais). Cynthia brings home a rescued Chinese girl who she turns out to be the daughter of Triad kingpin Sun Quan (Simon Yam), who murders Cynthia and takes the girl and Nicholas. Rekindling his old mob connections, Ben embarks on a bloody vendetta to save the kids and punish Quan for his wife's death.
      Director
      Philippe Martinez
      Producer
      Donald A. Barton, Karinne Behr, Antony Blakey, Helmut Breuer, Paul Feetum, Barry Filby, Andreas Klein, Stephen Mardsen, Douglas W. Miller, Juan Montilla Eslava
      Screenwriter
      Mick Davis, Laurent Fellous, Philippe Martinez
      Production Co
      Lucky 7 Productions LLC, Bauer Martinez Studios, The Tower Limited Liability Partnership, Frame Werk Produktion GmbH & Co. KG
      Rating
      R
      Genre
      Action, Adventure, Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Jan 23, 2019
      Runtime
      1h 30m
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