With Dennis Rodman leaving the public’s eye yet again after being kicked off NBC’s “The Apprentice,” there’s a need to look back on a classic Rodman moment in entertainment. It’s not that old, but “Double Team” is irresistible because of its haphazard attempt to save falling stars.
Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dennis Rodman and, oh yes, Mickey Rourke, this 1997 action extravaganza was going for the career resurrection hat trick. But by this point, there was really no hope for any of these three searchers of celebrity. Rodman plays a character named Yaz who appears for the first time in some sort of jumpsuit while getting a tattoo. So Rodman plays, well, Rodman. From the stupid grin to having a different hair color every time he and Van Damme meet up, even making basketball references, Rodman simply feeds his ego with this movie attempting to be the badass he plays in life.
The silver screen should have a restraining order against Rodman. He seems to be reading his lines from cue cards and is a big fan of awkward movement. He really fits in better with the extras who populate the background of the film. They pay absolutely no attention to the action going on around them. At one point, Rodman fights a man in his car, firing off an entire clip from a handgun, battering the car and eventually tossing the man through the air. Nobody seems to notice. Apparently, this alternate movie universe is completely callous to extreme public violence.
One thing this world does have is Coca-Cola and lots of it. It’s surprising that Van Damme can even fight off attackers when he’s knee deep in product placement. Whether a drink is being bought or a machine is seen in the background of a fight, it’s Coke.
What kept me watching were the beautifully ridiculous machismo movie moments. A suitcase that is actually a gun is the key reason why ridiculous action films are so enjoyable. Luckily, there is one featured in this movie. The fact that a fight choreographer or props manager would even have an idea for using items like that keeps me watching these films. There is little you can do to pull your eyes away from a screen when a man pulls a knife … with his toes.
This movie gets two stars and one of them is solely for the end fight sequence. I’ll lay out the basics: Van Damme must fight for his life and to get his newborn son back in the Colosseum in Rome against Mickey Rourke and a tiger. Oh, by the way, the Colosseum is now a minefield. But don’t worry, Dennis Rodman will save the day as he flies into the scene riding a dirt bike that he apparently had stashed near by just in case.
Rourke’s expressions during this scene were hilarious simply because of how dramatic he was trying to be.
There’s nothing that could have saved this film. Even with some great unexpected action moments, you can help the fact that it’s a Van Damme movie. That alone places it in the “B” movie category. But with a washed-up cast and a sporadic series of off-the-wall fights, it’s hard to pass this up just to laugh at it.
2 out of 5 stars