I guess Jean-Claude Van Damme is now the de facto importer for Hong Kong action directors looking to score on American screens. First up was John Woo with the underrated HARD TARGET (1993), in which Van Damme played a sailor mixed up with Lance Henriksen and Arnold Vosloo in The Most Dangerous Game. That, of course, would be hunting humans, not playing Twister. Too bad the flick paled in comparison to Woo's HK efforts and even the similarly-themed AVENGING FORCE starring Michael (AMERICAN NINJA) Dudikoff.

Next up, The Linguist from Brussels starred in DOUBLE TEAM, the US debut from Tsui Hark (PEKING OPERA BLUES, A CHINESE GHOST STORY). However, let us not overlook poor Ringo Lam (CITY ON FIRE). Ringo, like his Beatle namesake, just doesn't get any respect. How else do you explain having to helm MAXIMUM RISK, Van Damme's most senseless flick since DOUBLE IMPACT ("Twice the Van Dammage!")?!

This time JCVD revisits the "twins" concept, though we're saved from watching him act with himself again. Instead, the "bad" twin is killed at the flick's outset, ostensibly sending the audience into a tizzy. "Why is Jean-Claude dead?" "Who will they make buttocks comments about?" And let us not forget, "How will they explain his outlandish accent this time?" (For the record, the bad brother was adopted by a Russian lawyer and got mixed up in the Moscow mob while the good Van Damme stayed with his French mother and became a sniper in the military.)

Though it turns the corner from dismal to watchable after about an hour, MAXIMUM RISK serves up an all-you-can-stomach buffet of the worst Van Damme cliches available: there's sledgehammer symbolism (light vs. dark, cracked mirrors, "good side and bad side play tug-of-war"); Natasha Henstridge (SPECIES, ADRENALIN) as the bad brother's slinky girlfriend; the usual Van Damme action sequences (watch him kick, Kick, KICK!); and, let us not forget the comments about his hard buttocks. Ugh. Where's Yakov Smirnoff when you need him?