Death Warrant – JCVD’s B-movie of his B-movies


Jean Claude Van Damme made a lot of action B-movies in the eighties and nineties.  Most of them could hardly be described as ‘high art,’ however that’s not to say they weren’t enourmously entertaining if you were looking for some ‘old school action.’ I never watched ‘Death Warrant’ back in the day and now I can kind of see why it passed me by.

This time round the 'Muscles From Brussels' plays a cop who decides to go under cover in a violent prison in order to... er, I kind of missed the exact whys and hows.  In fact, one of the more major flaws in the film was how quickly the opening act went by.  There was very little set up as to the various characters' motivations and before I knew it, JCVD was in prison and defending himself against all sorts of angry thugs.

Once locked up you can expect all the usual Van Damme tropes, i.e. the fight scenes mainly - which are all good and any fan should feel suitably fulfilled with what they get here.  However - and this is a weird gripe for a B-movie - what seemed to let it down overall was the editing.  It was as if the film-makers had made a two hour movie and then been forced to cut it down so much that one scene jumped to the next so quickly that sometimes it was even unclear as to who was in shot, let alone why they were there and what was happening to them.

One example of this is the - obligatory - love interest.  Hers and Van Damme's relationship isn't really built up and then suddenly they become a couple.  Another factor was the villain, who we briefly see at the opening on the film and then he disappears almost right up until the end.  Although - saving grace - the final fight scene is good (and when I say 'good' I mean 'beautifully over-the-top and unrealistic').


Overall, 'Death Warrant' isn't a bad film.  If you're a die-hard JCVD fan you should enjoy it and there's certainly enough cheese in here to give you a laugh.  However, if you're looking for a better Van Damme film then you could always try 'Kickboxer, Bloodsport' or 'Universal Soldier.' Maybe I rated this outing a little lower than the others he produced in that era because I never saw it then, so films like 'Double Impact' are now viewed with nostalgia for me and so get elevated over this one.


6/10 Should probably keep you awake if Freddy Krueger was haunting your nights