Double Impact - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Double Impact



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:

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Movie
I’m going to let my inner child out for this review, as Van Damme was my idol growing up. I was the kid who grew up watching Shaw Brothers films and 1980s Hong Kong films during my formative years. Forgoing a lot of the typical fare, I rabidly watched every martial arts film I could possibly get my hands on during the 90s, going so far as to beg my dad to watch them with me when my mom was out of town (my mother wasn’t a wild fan of me watching “violent” movies that young). And while I cut my teeth on Jackie Chan, Benny Uriquidez, and Sammo Hung, I got hooked on the Mussels from Brussels when my best friend’s father lent me Van Damme’s The Quest. Back then, I really only saw Asians in the martial arts film community, so seeing a big hulking white dude like me taking Hollywood by storm had me LITERALLY begging my parents to let me start Karate classes. Now, 33 years later, I’ve been practicing multiple styles, with multiple black belts, and STILL watch Van Damme like a 12-year-old boy to this day.

After Van Damme stormed the Hollywood action box office with Kickboxer and Bloodsport, the world was his oyster. He was given a veritable blank check to make every cheesy 90s action trope he could, just with his typical accent and high spin kicks. 1990-1996 had him at the top of his game, with studios throwing money at him left and right, and the man pumping out more fun movies than you could shake a stick at. But this was the first BIG (ish) film after Lionheart established him as a bankable action star and not just a one-trick pony that was going to fade. And being the 1990s, what better way to do a movie than have Van Damme play himself….twice.

When a Hong Kong business mogul is murdered by his partner, infant sons Chad and Alex (Van Damme as an adult) are separated and whisked off to different parts of the world to keep them safe. Chad was raised by his father’s bodyguard, Frank (Geoffrey Lewis), in France and the United States, while Alex was taken by his nursemaid and raised on the streets of Hong Kong. After tracking down Alex after 25 years, Frank uproots Chad and himself and heads back to Hong Kong to reunite the two unsuspecting brothers and turn them into weapons to avenge their parents’ deaths.

There, the two brothers have to deal with the fact that they’re polar opposites. Chad is a sunny California dandy, with perky hair, that charming Monaco Forever and Breakin’ goofball persona, while Alex is hamming it up as the gruff and grungy bad guy with slicked back hair and a hair temper. But despite their differences, both men want the same thing. Revenge. And they’ll get it, whether they have to punch, spin kick, and shoot their way through every one of Zhang and Griffith’s men to get it.

Double Impact HAS to be seen with a sense of humor to really get the most out of it. The action tropes are actually pretty stale, as we’ve seen the revenge actioneer before. But this time it’s just DRENCHED in 90s martial arts cheese. Bad guys who never say a word but walk around with a suit and spurs on his boots. Six time Miss Olympia bodybuilder Corinna Everson walking around in black leather and choking people out with her thighs, and Van Damme absolutely reveling in that over the top machismo persona that he would dominate the 90s with (I mean, seriously, we have him chugging a shot of Johnny Walker Scotch from a tumbler, then crushing the glass in his hand and tossing the shards away in slow motion).

But seriously, none of us is watching this for an Oscar-worthy performance, or a classic action movie that will rival Die Hard or Lethal Weapon. We’re here for the cheesy, vibrant, dripping from every corner, muscle-laden Machismo that made the early 90s so much fun. Van Damme rips his shirt off more than once, and we get a fantastic fight with Bolo Yeung near the end that is arguably better than his Bloodsport fight. I don’t care what people say, Double Impact is one of those childhood memories that is still a blast to revisit, almost 30 years later.




Rated R for strong violence, sensuality, and language




4K Video: Video:

I didn’t actually get a press release for Double Impact, so I’m not sure how much restoration, or whether a new master was struck, since the one used for the 2019 Blu-ray (which is included in this combo pack). But needless to say, the video quality is right about what I would have expected after seeing the MGM disc and the 2019 MVD disc. Fine details are good, but never great, and while the film is heavily warm with slightly hot skin tones, things look very nice. The upgrade in textures and details are more than I expected, showing off facial stubble and peach fuzz on Danielle’s face that I hadn’t seen before. There are some obvious early 90s green screening effects going on to do the split-screen doubling of the actor, but overall, this still looks nice. The California pastels and day-glo drenched sunniness is probably the best looking of the show, but the Hong Kong sequences still have a nice dark texture to them that stands out. Colors are slightly faded, but the HDR application (no Dolby Vision) adds some subtle boosts here and there, especially in the black level department. There’s much less crush, and banding is nonexistent. It may not be perfect, but it’s a faithful image from what I’ve seen of the source material in the past.









Audio:

MVD originally released the Blu-ray a few years back with the theatrical 2.0 LPCM audio (which was nearly indistinguishable from MGM’s 2.0 DTS-HD MA track from way back in the day), but for this 4K UHD release, they have also included a 5.1 DTS-HD MA mix. A mix that sounds remarkably like the old DVD era 5.1 mix from decades ago. The imaging isn’t massive on the 5.1 mix, as it’s really a 2.0 track with some added LFE for explosions and a few kick impacts, and some smattering of ambient surround usage. Personally, I prefer the 2.0 LPCM track as it’s more accurate to what I remember from the 90s (yeah, yeah, I know. Memory can be shaky and all that), but both mixes are perfectly fine. Neither is going to have massive low end (the LFE is kinda “meh”, but it’s been that way for as long as I can remember, including the 35mm print I saw back in 2010), and panning effects are just moderately well done. That being said, dialogue is crisp and cleanly present in the front of the room, and there’s plenty of action for the main characters to get plenty of use out of. Fidelity remains strong across the board, and all in all I’m rather pleased that nothing major has been changed with the mix (outside of the addition of the 5.1 track on the 4K disc).









Extras:

• The Making of Double Impact: Part 1 (HD, 53 mins) + The Making of Double Impact: Part 2 [A two part feature length retrospective documentary about the making of the film featuring interviews with star and co-writer Jean-Claude Van Damme, director and co-writer Sheldon Lettich, producer Ashok Amritraj, co-star Cory Everson-Donia, co-star and fight coordinator Peter Malota and "Chad" and "Alex" photo doubles Jeff Rector & Jerry Rector]
• Double Impact: Deleted / Extended Scenes
• Double Impact: Anatomy of a Scene [with Director Sheldon Lettich]
• Double Impact: 1991 Behind the Scenes Featurette [Rarely seen legacy featurette from 1991 featuring interviews with Jean-Claude Van Damme, Moshe Diamant, and Charles Layton]
• Double Impact: B-Roll Selections [Raw, behind-the-scenes footage from the set]
• Double Impact: Film Clips [Five full-frame clips from the film for use in TV promos]
• Cast & Crew Interview Clips [1991 EPK interview clips featuring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Moshe Diamant, and Charles Layton]
• Double Impact MVD Rewind Collection Promo
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Collectible Double Impact "4K LaserVision" Mini-Poster
• Reversible Cover Art
• Collectible "LaserVision Collection" Mini-Poster

Final Score: ​

I don’t care what critics think, Double Impact is early 90s gold with Van Damme just coming into his action peak. The muscles from Brussels is firing on all cylinders, and the cheese is so thick that you can scrape it onto a piece of toast and have a grilled cheese sandwich at pretty much every juncture. Van Damme is hilariously bipolar as both Chad and Alex (literally splitting his personality in half for the role), and Bolo Yeung is delightful as his typical silent killer self. The MVD disc looks and sounds solid, with a much-needed boost over my old MGM disc, which has always been a bit subpar (I missed out on the MVD Blu-ray from a few years ago). Although now my curiosity is piqued, as 88 Films is also releasing it on 4K, although I don’t think it’s getting a North American release, so I may have to import it to check it out. Again, I know this is more of a personal recommendation vs. a logical one, but Double Impact is loads of 90s fun, and a solid 4/5 rating from this biased reviewer.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Geoffrey Lewis, Corinna Everson, Alonna Shaw, Philip Chan, Alan Scarfe, Bolo Yeung
Directed by: Sheldon Lettich
Written by: Sheldon Lettich, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steve Meerson
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 HEVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, English LPCM 2.0
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Studio: MVD
Rated: R
Runtime: 109 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: February 17th, 2026

Recommendation: Fun Watch