Replicant (2001)

John Chard

6.0

Feb 12, 2015

Double Trouble for Van Damme again! Yet another Jean-Claude Van Damme film that sees him tasked with playing two characters. In spite of its shaky reputation this isn’t half bad, it delivers what most Van Damme fans expect, namely bonkers fights and shifty science. Plot has Van Damme as a fire obsessed serial killer who is always one step ahead of the police. Enter science as a chance to clone the killer arises and this sets in motion the wheels of the Van Damme clone trying to come to terms with his alien world as he, and world weary police officer Jake Riley (Michael Rooker), set about ca…

Jean-Claude Van Damme does the Italian neorealists one better; not only was he born to play himself, but also his twin — here, however, he mixes it up a bit, playing his clone instead. JCVD ​​is Edward 'The Torch' Garrotte, a serial killer who likes to burn the corpses of the women he murders (why they gave him that last name but don’t have him use an actual garrotte, I haven’t the foggiest), whom Detective Jake Riley (Michael Rooker) has unsuccessfully pursued for the past three years — up to and including his last day on the force before retiring to apparently take up boat repairing.…