It’s time for some action with martial arts legend Jean-Claude Van Damme (Bloodsport, Kickboxer) as he takes on a deadly gang of Triad gangsters with explosive results in the action-packed, hard-hitting Wake of Death which has had a blu-ray release courtesy of Kaleidoscope Entertainment.
Ex-mob enforcer Ben Archer (Van Damme) is ready to give up his life of crime and settle down to family life. But when his wife, Cynthia, attempts to help a Chinese refugee girl and brings her into their home, a new war is inadvertently triggered.
Discovering his wife brutally murdered and their son missing without a trace, Ben joins forces with his old underworld friends once again, embarking on a bloody vendetta to punish the Chinese Triad gang that is responsible.
Wake of Death was originally released back in 2004 and with Van-Damme in the lead role of the film you would expect it to be an all-out action movie, he may not be high-kicking and leg splitting as much as he did back in the movies like TimeCop, but for fans of the martial arts legend, this is a movie that they will want in their blu-ray collection.
The film is a bit of a slow start to it with it playing much more of a character building of Van Damme’s character with the love of his wife, son and his home life, but with the Chinese Triad moving into the storyline we know that something is going to go wrong and that Archer will be stepping it to the plate to kick some proverbial backside, eventually.
It’s almost 30 minutes before we get to the moment that triggers the revenge factor with a rather brutal and bloody attack on Archer’s family and his gun battle before finding his slaine family, I was hoping at this point that this is where the Wake of Death would start to kick in with some Van Damme ass whippings, you know the sort, the sort we had back in the early days with the likes of Hard Target.
Sadly, for me, I really found the film a little too slow for my liking, maybe I still like those earlier Van Damme movies, Wake of Death just seemed to drag along with lots of slow motion scenes and I did find the sexual scenes with the Triads a little too much. This is certainly not one of the best Van Damme movies, but then again it’s not the worst of them, if you are a fan of Van Damme then you’ll probably enjoy the film more than I did.
Wake of Death stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, Simon Yam (Ip Man) and Philip Tan (Showdown in Little Tokyo), it’s been released in a limited run of only 3,000 copies.
WAKE OF DEATH BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES
- Limited run – 3,000 copies
- Exclusive A3 Poster
- Original Making Of Featurette
- HD 1080 Colour
- 5.1 DTS-HD MA Soundtrack
Kaleidoscope Entertainment presents Wake of Death on Special Edition Blu-ray, DVD and Digital now.
The 2004 Van Damme Movie Gets a Special Edition
Movie title: Wake of Death (Special Edition)
Movie description: After his wife is brutally murdered, club enforcer Ben Archer wages war against the Chinese triads.
Date published: April 5, 2021
Country: UK
Duration: 1h 31min
Director(s): Philippe Martinez
Actor(s): Jean-Claude Van Damme, Simon Yam, Philip Tan
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Summary
Wake of Death is certainly not one of the best JCVD movies, but it’s one for the fans to add to their Blu-ray collection.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
