Maximum Risk: Critic Reviews

From start to finish, Maximum Risk presents spectacular stunts choreographed and coordinated by Charles Picerni and some hair-raising, stomach-churning automotive chases attributed to Remy Julienne, the French master of the art.

There are so many car crashes in Maximum Risk that Van Damme ends up playing second fiddle to an ever-expanding salvage operation.

Action flicks should be fun, and this one is a bloody bore.

It's a visceral delight that refuses to be deterred by niceties of plot or character consistency and prefers sweat to emotion.

The chases are chaotic and cliched.

The generic nature of the plot and action sequences, not to mention the presence of Jean-Claude Van Damme, made everything seem all-too-familiar.

Lam not only handles the bravura action set pieces with ease but also a capable international cast as colorful and varied as the film's many locales.

The plot holds together pretty well, which is not always the case in Van Damme's movies, and does not require the concoction of labored explanations for his pronounced accent.

...the movie has some good moments of intrigue and adventure, and with a more charismatic hero it might have worked better.

The energetic action isn't quite enough to overcome an undernourished story. [Blu-Ray]

A standard Van Damme pic, competently assembled but with little of the manic edge found in director Lam's Hong Kong movies.

For sweet bloody thrills, this one beats the summer blockbuster competition hands-down.

Villains curl their upper lip and snarl in bad Russian accents, while Van Damme bungles four-word sentences.

Premium Van Damme...Henstridge is eye-poppingly appealing

Those who approach Maximum Risk with minimal expectations will, in the end, experience at least the occasional pleasant surprise.

Fights ensue. Van-Damme kicks a lot of ass. Explosions occur. The end.

Zesty chases and Van Damme's always exciting fights scenes fit well within a story that carries more intrigue than the average kick-and-crash extravaganzas.

The plot moves along so that a mandatory fight scene is sure to pop up every fifteen minutes to make sure the audience isn't snoozing, but Lam manages to botch at least half of these scenes with shaky camerawork and scrappy editing.

Devoid of any distinct personality that would set it apart from other action flicks.

So full of holes that exciting stunts can't cover them all.