Death Warrant

Death Warrant

Van Damme’s fifth feature film, Death Warrant was more of an attempt by Van Damme to make a dective movie more than an action flick, which did not turn out well. Death Warrant is about an Detective Louis Burke, Van Damme, an undercover officer for the Royal Canadian Police who goes all the way to LA to track down the serial killer Sandman, Patrick Kilpatrick, who claimed the life of his partner. Apparently Burke kills the Sandman in LA and for his efforts is offered an uncover assignment inside an LA prison where a number of inmates are being killed. As the investigation unfolds Burke discovers some of the guards are conspiring with some of the inmates and the prison doctor to harvest healthy body parts to be sold on the black market. The movie climaxes with the Sandman showing up at the same prison to kill Burke for his interference. This time Burke gets the job done, well at least it looks that way…

At this stage in his career Van Damme is trying to rely less on his fighting ability and more on acting meaningful action scenes. He is no longer fighting for the sake of keeping the movie rolling he is relying on story and his ability to portray an effective character within the story. This is not a recommended course of action; even though by going this direction we got to see some Robert Guillame - shout outs to Beson. Death Warrant has really three to four action scenes in the entire movie. The opening sequence is the first encounter between Burke and the Sandman, in which the Burke shoots the Sandman several times. The scene does not last long and there is little to no fight choreography. The second fight scene is a brief brawl in the prison lunch room that is nothing more than Van Damme doing his patented jumping round house kick. The next sequence and the first real fight scene of the movie is a two on one fight in which Van Damme fights on two inmates. The scene makes us of the scenery weapons, ala a mop handle and chain. This is the first scene with real choreography. It is not overly elaborate Van Damme makes use of his kicks and does very little punching he blocks his opponents advances and ends up beating the two with little trouble. He even tries to inject some comedy into the scene by smashing one of the inmates faces into a drier and turning on. He walks away as we hear the drier banging the inmate’s face. The final real action sequence is the last scene of the movie which is a farely elaborate chance sequence and then a brief fight between Burke and the Sandman. Ultimately the fight is disappointing because Kilpatirck is not a martial artist. The fight ends up being nothing more than Kilpatrick throwing Burke around and Burke kicking him a bunch of times, once into a furnace, from which The Sandman jumps from and extinguishes his own flames and then again he kicks his head into a long screw that pierces his skull. It made for some interesting visuals, but ultimately a very ineffective final scene, very much like the ending of Cyborg.