L'Empreinte de la mort

Perhaps for the first time since the beginning of his successful career, Jean-Claude Van Damme delivers something that with some exaggeration can be called an acting performance. In this case, however, it’s all the other necessary ingredients of a film that are missing: a better script, more skillfully filmed action, and better actors in general. Technically, the film is surprisingly well done, and nothing can spoil the night-time L.A. Van Damme showcases only a minimum of his combat repertoire, which is relatively a waste, and it's even more of a shame because it is topped off with terribly poor editing, making the action sequences unbelievably erratic and the visibility of the action is therefore minimal. The music is decent, with a few memorable lines and interesting scenes, but overall, nothing special. But there is one thing that has to be acknowledged, this is somewhat different from what what we are used to from Jean. (11/05/2006)