''Maximum Risk'' is a 1996 American
action
Action may refer to:
* Action (narrative), a literary mode
* Action fiction, a type of genre fiction
* Action game, a genre of video game
Film
* Action film, a genre of film
* ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford
* ''Action'' (1980 fil ...
thriller film
Thriller film, also known as suspense film or suspense thriller, is a broad film genre that evokes excitement and suspense in the audience. The suspense element found in most films' plots is particularly exploited by the filmmaker in this genre ...
directed by Hong Kong director
Ringo Lam
Ringo Lam Ling-Tung (, Cantonese: Lam Ling-tung, 8 December 1955 – 29 December 2018) was a Hong Kong film director, producer, and screenwriter. Born in Hong Kong in 1955, Lam initially went to acting school. After finding he preferred making f ...
in his American directorial debut, and starring
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the a ...
and
Natasha Henstridge
Natasha Tonya Henstridge (born August 15, 1974) is a Canadian actress and model. In 1995, she came to prominence with her debut role in the science-fiction thriller ''Species'', followed by performances in ''Species II'' and ''Species III''. She ...
. The film was released in the United States on September 13, 1996.
Plot
A man is chased through the streets of Nice, France, ultimately resulting in his death. A cop, Alain Moreau, is brought by his partner Sebastien to the scene because the victim's face is identical to Alain's. Matches found in his pocket point towards a local hotel, where the proprietor mistakes Alain for "Mikhail Suverov" and gives him the phone message "Call Alex Bohemia." In Mikhail's room is a passport with the same birth date as Alain, and a plane ticket to New York. Alain's mother admits that Alain has a twin brother who she had to give up at birth because she was impoverished. Alain and Sebastian visit the office of the lawyer who adopted Mikhail. They find the room in flames and a large Russian man attacks Alain. Alain escapes with the adoption file, which reveals Mikhail was adopted by a Russian family who immigrated to America. Alain takes the passport and plane ticket to New York to investigate his brother's death and learn more about him.
In New York City, Alain discovers that Mikhail was a member of the
Russian Mafia
Russian organized crime or Russian mafia (, ), otherwise known as Bratva (), is a collective of various organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union. The initialism OPG is Organized Criminal (''prestupnaya'' in Russian) Gr ...
. When he mentions Alex Bohemia, he is referred to the Bohemia Club in
Little Odessa. There a woman named Alex Bartlett mistakes him for Mikhail and gives him a key to a hotel room. Wary, Alain rents the room across the hall. When Alex comes to meet him later, he reveals that he is Mikhail's brother. Ivan (who saw Mikhail in the club) and his thugs arrive to kill Alain, believing he is Mikhail. Alain and Alex escape. Alex tells him Mikhail was her boyfriend and he had a plan to leave the Russian Mafia. They go to Mikhail's home, where Alain finds out Mikhail discovered his existence when he saw an article in the paper about his war exploits. After more Russians come to the house, Alain and Alex flee to her friend's cabin.
The next morning, two FBI agents come to the cabin. They say Mikhail kept evidence against the Russian Mafia that he intended to turn over to them, wanting to reform. They want him to pose as Mikhail to access his safe deposit box back in Nice. In actuality, they want to destroy the evidence because it implicates them in colluding with the Russian Mafia. Realizing that the FBI and not the Mafia knew Mikhail was dead, Alain deduces that it was FBI agents who killed Mikhail, and refuses to cooperate. After a fight, Alain handcuffs the agents together and leaves with Alex to visit Kirov, the leader of the Russian Mafia. When he finds them at a
banya
Banya may refer to:
Places
Australia
* Banya, Queensland, a locality in the Sunshine Coast Region, Queensland, Australia
Bulgaria
*Banya, Blagoevgrad Province, a thermal spa and mountain resort in southwest Bulgaria
*Banya, Burgas Prov ...
, Alain tells Kirov that Ivan has been trying to kill him, which enrages Kirov. After Kirov tells Alain the truth about the so-called evidence he has, Ivan sends the big Russian thug from the lawyer's office to kill Kirov and Alain. Kirov dies and Alain escapes in the scuffle; during the pursuit by Ivan, Alain is arrested by NYPD. The two corrupt FBI agents find Alex, bail Alain out of jail and use her to force Alain to access the deposit box.
Bank policy dictates that only Alain himself can access the safe deposit box, forcing the FBI agents to wait outside. In the box is the evidence, thousands in cash, a gun and a tape recording from Mikhail explaining how he decided to escape the mob life and reunite with his family. He instructs a banker to turn over the evidence to the US Embassy, and sets off the sprinkler system to make his escape. Ivan, waiting with Sebastien as his hostage, sends in the big Russian. The thug kills the banker and takes the evidence, but Alain catches up and kills him in the elevator. Outside, police officers block off Ivan's escape, giving Alain time to catch up, shoot out Ivan's tires, and rescue Sebastien; Ivan dies in the wreckage. Alain then chases the FBI agents into a meat locker where he shoots them both and rescues Alex. Mikhail's evidence of Mafia collusion with the FBI leads to several arrests. Alain takes Alex, with whom he is now romantically involved, to meet his mother so she can tell her about Mikhail.
Cast
*
Jean-Claude Van Damme
Jean-Claude Camille François Van Varenberg (, ; born 18 October 1960), known professionally as Jean-Claude Van Damme (, ), is a Belgian actor, martial artist, filmmaker, and fight choreographer. Born and raised in Brussels, Belgium, at the a ...
as Alain Moreau / Mikhail Suverov
*
Natasha Henstridge
Natasha Tonya Henstridge (born August 15, 1974) is a Canadian actress and model. In 1995, she came to prominence with her debut role in the science-fiction thriller ''Species'', followed by performances in ''Species II'' and ''Species III''. She ...
as Alex Bartlett
*
Jean-Hugues Anglade
Jean-Hugues Anglade (born 29 July 1955) is a French actor, film director and screenwriter, known for his roles as Eric in ''Killing Zoe'', Zorg in ''Betty Blue'' and Marco, the boyfriend of Nikita in ''Nikita''.
Personal life
Anglade was born i ...
as Sebastien
*
Zach Grenier
Zach Grenier is an American character actor of film, television and stage. He is best known for his roles in films such as '' Fight Club'', ''Tommy Boy'', and '' Twister'' and for his roles in television such as David Lee in '' The Good Wife'' a ...
as Ivan Dzasokhov
*
Paul Ben-Victor
Paul Ben-Victor (born July 24, 1965) is an American actor. He is best known for playing Greek mobster Spiros "Vondas" Vondopoulos on the HBO drama series ''The Wire'', Alan Gray in ''Entourage'' (2005–2008), and Ray in '' Body Parts'' (1991).
...
as Agent Pellman
*Frank Senger as Agent Loomis
*
David Hemblen
David Hemblen (16 September 1941 – 16 November 2020) was an English actor who frequently worked in Canadian film, television and theatre who grew up in Toronto, Ontario. He is known for his role as George in '' La Femme Nikita'', Customs insp ...
as Dmitri Kirov
*Dan Moran as Yuri
*Stefanos Miltsakakis as Red Face
*
Stéphane Audran
Stéphane Audran (born Colette Suzanne Dacheville; 8 November 1932 – 27 March 2018) was a French actress. She was known for her performances in award-winning films such as ''The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie'' (1972) and ''Babette's Feast'' ...
as Chantal Moreau
Production
The film was originally known as ''The Exchange'', then it was retitled ''Bloodstone''.
Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer
Jason Friedberg (born October 13, 1971) and Aaron Seltzer (born January 12, 1974) are American and Canadian filmmakers. They have primarily worked on parody films, which they began writing and directing during the mid-2000s. Friedberg and Seltze ...
, better known for ''
Scary Movie
''Scary Movie'' is a 2000 American slasher parody film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans and written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans (who both also star), alongside Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. Starring Anna Far ...
'' and their other parodies, performed an uncredited rewrite on the film.
Release
''Maximum Risk'' opened on September 13, 1996, at the number one spot at the box office, taking in $5,612,707 in its first weekend, and made a final domestic tally of $14,502,483 and worldwire gross 51.7 million.
[
]
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, a review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
, reports that 32% of 37 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 4.4/10. Audiences polled by CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.
Leonard Klady of ''Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, "It's a visceral delight that refuses to be deterred by niceties of plot or character consistency and prefers sweat to emotion." Richard Harrington of ''The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' wrote that the film depends too much on car chases, which end up dominating the film. Lawrence Van Gelder of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote, "From start to finish, 'Maximum Risk' presents spectacular stunts choreographed and coordinated by Charles Picerni and some hair-raising, stomach-churning automotive chases attributed to Remy Julienne, the French master of the art."
Kevin Thomas of the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' called it "a solid, fast-moving action-adventure" in which Van Damme "does some of his best acting yet". Conversely, Peter Stack of the ''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'' criticized Van Damme's acting, which is "hobbled by a weak script that even veteran Hong Kong action director Ringo Lam can't salvage".
See also
*''Double Impact
''Double Impact'' is a 1991 American action film written and directed by Sheldon Lettich, and written, produced by and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as Chad and Alex Wagner. The film marks Van Damme's third collaboration with director Sheldon ...
'', a 1991 action film which also has Van Damme playing identical twins.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{Ringo Lam
1996 films
1996 action thriller films
American action thriller films
Films about the Russian Mafia
Films set in New York City
Films set in Paris
Films set in Ontario
Films set in Philadelphia
Films shot in Toronto
American chase films
Columbia Pictures films
Films directed by Ringo Lam
Films with screenplays by Larry Ferguson
1990s English-language films
1990s American films