Scene of the Week: Double Impact
The Jean Claude Van Damme/ Bolo Yeung connection has given us one of the best rivalries in action movie history. The two men clearly saw that they had great chemistry and I would have been happy if they had collaborated with one another one every movie but I’m thankful for the ones that we got. Today’s Scene of the Week comes from the 1991 hit Double Impact. It’s a film that I have loved from the day I first saw it. The added benefit of watching this fight scene today is that we not only get the aforementioned Bolo/Van Damme fight but we also get a Van Damme/ Peter Malota fight scene as well. Double Impact had so many great villains that by the end they were dying off hand over fist.
One of my favorite things about the JCVD/Bolo fight is that as soon as it begins VD immediately reaches for his pistol. That seems to be the best way to stop Bolo Yeung, even though we’re not quite sure that a few bullets to the chest would do the trick. His next plan, after learning that he has dropped his sidearm, is to use his awesome kicking power to stop a massive oil drum which was flung at him by Bolo. Not only is this the dumbest thing he could have done (clearly side-stepping it was the correct answer) but it also took his greatest asset from him just as the fight was starting.
No actor has ever been as menacing as Bolo Yeung while simultaneously blowing boogers all over the set. That dude had to have already been in his fifties while making Double Impact and he still had the type of physique that would make women in Venice Beach drench themselves. It’s not Bolo’s best fight scene, hell, it’s not even his best fight scene with Van Damme, but the scene has a really cool theatrical feel to it and it ends with Van Damme jumping away from a massive explosion. It’s pure early 90’s action!
