Bullet Points: In Hell (2003)
From the earliest days of BPA, we have always been what I would describe as “Van Damme guys”. Most of the writers here grew up with JCVD and can make a lengthy list of our favorite Van Damme films. It was with some shock when I did a search on our very site and learned that there are still movies out there starring our favorite Belgian that we hadn’t yet covered. Unforgivable….
Synopsis: A man must survive a prison where hardened criminals battle to the death for the wardens’ entertainment.
- Do the Crime: Kyle LeBlanc (JCVD) is working on a building project in Russia. He’s an engineer or something, and he works so much that his wife is bummed out. He makes the decision to take her to the beach but before he can get home a random dude goes in and kills her. Kyle essentially catches the dude red-handed and chases in through the streets and onto a bus. It’s a very un-Van Damme-like scene and I guess it’s a nice taste of what’s to come. Van Damme doesn’t use his usual style of ass-whoopin’ and I, for one, was sorely missing it. Instead, Van Damme just waits till after the guy’s trial and shoots his ass dead in the courtroom.
- Prison Sucks: If you didn’t already know, Russian prisons aren’t great. Kyle LeBlanc finds that out quickly as his little buddy gets ass raped and he gets his ass kicked. Better kicked than fucked, if you ask me! LeBlanc isn’t trying to be anyone’s bitch, though, so he fights back and ends up getting thrown in “the hole” a time or two.
- Fight to Survive: We see LeBlanc slowly lose himself over the first half of the film. His love is dead and now he’s stuck in one off the worst places on Earth. Fighting to survive is one thing but what exactly is there to survive for? He soon becomes a savage. A Wolverine-looking dude who fights for the warden and wins him all sorts of cash and good Russian vodka.
- A Different Animal: Kyle’s “friends” in the prison notice his change. He’s become something different here. Even his new cellmate played by LT sees that he’s a disaster. LT has a whole separate backstory that we don’t need to hear but can pretty much assume. In the end, LeBlanc loses his wild look and goes with the slickback hair and the douche goatee look.
- A New Threat: Those damned Russian mobsters that Van Damme has been kicking the shit out of for the duration of the film finally bring in a dude whose one big mother. He has no intention of playing nice and his only role appears to be to take down LeBlanc. All this time, the warden of the prison is getting rich betting on these fights and turning men into beasts. At the same time, though, LeBlanc is finally starting to understand what he’s becoming and wanting to be the man that his wife fell in love with.
- From the Ashes: Most prison movies just have a bunch of dudes in prison trying to survive or fighting against one another. This one has all of those while still being located in Russia where, apparently, it’s very corrupt. Being an action film, we still need our big blow-off fight and you already know that the warden is going to get what is coming to him. There aren’t many surprises in the final minutes of In Hell but that doesn’t make them any less satisfying.
The Verdict: I can’t say that I’ve ever seen In Hell all the way through before this watch. I had certainly seen parts of it at different times over the past 20 years but I’m pretty sure I’ve never sat and taken it all in. It’s definitely a different kind of film for Van Damme. One that I would say is closer to JCVD than it is to movies like Death Warrant or Hard Target. I think that director Ringo Lam has a really good chemistry with Van Damme and knows how to push him in different ways on screen. This is their third film together and while this one might not be a popular pick for many fans, I think it’s a solid addition to the filmography of a man who has done it all. If it’s been a while for you, or you’re like me and have failed to watch it completely, I would recommend this to any Van Damme guy.
