Enemies Closer hit blu-ray, DVD, and digital HD on March 11, 2014 from Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
ENEMIES CLOSER BLU-RAY GIVEAWAY
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Here in his later years, Jean-Claude Van Damme has embraced a full measure of crazy… and we are all better off for it. His particular brand of recent crazy is knowing and confident. This isn’t a faded hero lapsing into self-parody. This is a legendary action star casting aside ego and having a good time with the image he has built over the decades. His recent full-on comedy turn in Welcome To The Jungle actually clicks fairly well, that “epic splits” commercial was viral for all the right reasons, and now we have Enemies Closer, in which Van Damme adds another villain to his repertoire. But whereas his Expendables 2 character was literally named “Villain” and would’ve been a totally throw-away role if JCVD hadn’t infused it with the most life of any role in that entire film, here The Muscles plays Xander, the militant drug-running vegan.
Yep. You read that correctly. Enemies Closer cements its status as a must-see Van Damme vehicle by featuring a fiery red-headed, blade-loving, no-leather-wearing, soapbox preaching mega-vegan-villain. And he’s loving every second of it. Sure, the jokes wear thin after the third or fourth guy that JCVD dispatches with some MMA death choke and then promptly picks a plump strawberry from a nearby bush and spends a moment to treasure it. But even if the jokes wear out their welcome some, Van Damme’s commitment to this thing never waivers… even until his final frames which, if there is any justice in the world, will become a meme.
The problems start to arise when you peel back Van Damme’s top billing to realize that the main characters of the film are actually a forest ranger with a sordid military past, played by the eternally sunny Tom Everett Scott (Henry) and Orlando Jones (Clay) as a mysterious man with a vendetta. We spend most of our time with the boyish and bumbling Henry as he kicks it forest ranger style on a wooded and lonely island. He rescues hikers, and raises flags on flag poles. When Orlando Jones shows up at his remote cabin and pulls a gun on him, we know that these are the titular “enemies”, whose connection will come to light through painfully lengthy scenes of dialog which never once give any illusion that we don’t know EXACTLY how this movie is going to play out.
Xander and his men interrupt a fight-to-the-death between Henry and Clay as they boat out to the island in search of a submerged plane that had been carrying a metric ton of drugs. Will these two men learn to keep their friends close and their enemies closer in order to survive being hunted down by Xander’s small army?
You know the answer. The more important questions are: How is the action? Is this worth a watch? And how many fresh berries will Van Damme pick before the final frames flash by?
Action-wise, I have to admit to having been spoiled by such DTV luminaries as director Isaac Florentine (Ninja 2, Undisputed II & III), star Scott Adkins (Ninja 2, Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning), and even director John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Regeneration and UniSol: DOR), who serves as the editor on this film which was helmed by his father Peter Hyams (Timecop, Sudden Death). When you’ve got stars like Adkins or various MMA fighters, you have the luxury of shooting unbroken action sequences that can get right up in the stars’ faces without exposing a stunt double or two.
If you can stomach the blatant and frequent use of stunt doubles during your fight scenes, then you can probably enjoy some fairly well-shot and choreographed set pieces here in Enemies Closer. I mean, on the one hand, SOMEBODY is doing some pretty sweet flips and takedowns for our enjoyment. It is just that you know in your soul that it isn’t Tom Everett Scott pulling those moves.
But the overall narrative, as penned by first time feature film screenwriters Eric and James Bromberg, is pretty disjointed and non-compelling. Breaking away from Van Damme’s antics kills the momentum just about every time. Going into the film I was actually really excited to see the cast-against-type Scott and Jones be transformed into Bourne-style super-fighters. This is not to be. Instead, there are some stunt-doubly fights and then a whole lot of talking between these two men in order to sort out their past and what not. There are some twists and turns to be found, but none that you’ll likely care about as these characters are the type we’ve seen before dozens of times. It is basically like if Hard Target crashed in and rudely interrupted Jason Bourne in the midst of one of his crazy hand-to-hand fights… only with the sole interesting character being the hunter.
But since that hunter is Jean-Claude Van Damme, and he is having a field day with his character while also being re-teamed with Peter Hyams (who directed him through two of his biggest motion pictures), there is a lot to enjoy in the end product.
When Jean-Claude Van Damme is on screen in Enemies Closer, fans will be having a blast. The film offers little to those who aren’t already card-carrying acolytes of the JCVD fan club, and you’ll certainly be disappointed if you had hoped this film might turn the tables on your perceptions of Tom Everett Scott or Orlando Jones. You get the sense that anyone could have played these roles and if that is true, you wonder why they went with these two in the first place. Why cast against type and then totally squander the novelty by making them bland characters?
Beyond just the presence of an off-the-reservation Van Damme, the film also offers some fun action set pieces like an enormous fight to the death in a tree, as well as an early siege in which villains dressed as Canadian Mounties do some very very bad things.
I watched this film with fellow JCVD fan John Ary and we laughed, cheered, groaned, and and rolled our eyes throughout. And that was the perfect way to take in Enemies Closer; with a sympathetic buddy who is ready to be entertained. Any fan of JCVD will be doing themselves a favor by renting this movie. The non-initiated will likely want to steer clear and check out a Bourne movie instead.
The Package
Surprisingly, you get a solid making of featurette here as well as an audio commentary from director Peter Hyams. This is a real treat for a smaller, tiny budget action film bowing directly to home video.
And I’m Out.
