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We plunge straight into a ferocious chase sequence in which Van Damme gets
off to a cracking start by demolishing a balcony in the south of France. He
then grabs one of those horrible French delivery scooters replete with
oodles of that bountiful fruit you always see in France which then flies
everywhere. A chase ensues in which many French people run screaming in
terror. Various tables and chairs from French cafes take a tumble. More
French citizens dash this way and that in a state of blind panic. A little
later a French apartment block goes up in flames. Van Damme sees a women
trapped in a burning room. Is it Juliet Binoche? Sadly no, and Van Damme
saves her anyway. There is smoke everywhere. More French people run howling
in a horrible state of distress. My God, is this the best film ever made?
No, that's 'Fight Club'. This is the second best film ever made. AND
Natasha
Henstridge is in it..

this movie is very beautiful movie. I used to love it.

This appears to have been Ringo Lam's experiment to see if he could an
American-style B-movie. In one interview, Lam said he had wanted to
explore the theme of double identity a little deeper, but it just
didn't get done. In the New York sequence, we do get a hint that Alain
has become a voyeur watching his own brother's life, but it doesn't
really amount to much.

So the film remains a B-movie; and unfortunately, AS a B-movie, it has
some uncomfortable flaws. I don't mean the stereotypes or the formulaic
action scenes, those are what B-movies are all about; I mean a plot
that, while laid out for us in explicit expository dialog (too much so,
really) yet it still feels confusing. I think this is primarily due to
a complete absence of any narrative push or pull. One instance: for a
cop to go undercover with the Russian mob, with no back-up, no plan, no
exit strategy, just because he feels a little weird about finding a
dead twin brother he never knew he had - makes absolutely no sense at
all.

In fact, none of the supporting characters, including the lead female,
do anything that makes much sense; so a nonsensical cop goes undercover
to meet nonsensical characters, of course they're going to develop a
nonsensical plot.

It must be noted that this film evidences absolutely NO research into
the workings of the Police, the FBI or the Russian mob. This film has
less such research behind it than The Boondock Saints, which never
pretends to be other than pure fantasy. But director Lam certainly
knows better than this! Wild Search, City on Fire, the Prison on Fire
films - all his Chinese language films are rich with details of the
workings of Hong Kong's criminal justice system.

I suppose Lam simply wanted to show that he could make an "American"
B-movie; but this isn't enough to make audiences want to see the film.

The positives are that is is very well performed by all the actors; the
action scenes are fast and brutally realistic; and Van Damme, in one of
his better, more restrained performances, does manage to generate
empathy for his character. So it is certainly watchable - as a B-movie.

But I wish Lam had been allowed to make the film he originally
intended, one with an engaging theme that would have driven the plot to
make it feel compelling.

As it is, we have some interesting action set-pieces - but that's all..