Double Impact Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Double Impact Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 18, 2019

MVD Visual’s MVD Rewind imprint continues to curate an interesting selection of niche titles, at least some of which have had previous releases on Blu-ray. Case in point: Metro Goldwyn Mayer released Double Impact on Blu-ray in 2012, in a release that garnered fairly respectable reactions from my colleague Brian Orndorf for its technical merits, even if that release sported next to no supplementary material. Double Impact was a Jean-Claude Van Damme actioner from 1991 that relied on a pretty rote gimmick: if one Van Damme was starting to attract considerable box office, what would two Van Dammes do for box office receipts? Double Impact doesn’t really offer anything unexpected, and it does suffer from some occasionally lackluster special effects, but it also has the good sense not to take itself too seriously, something that may help to elevate its shenanigans at least a little bit.

For those wanting a recap of Double Impact's plot dynamics, I refer you to Brian Orndorf's Double Impact Blu-ray review of the 2012 Metro Goldwyn Mayer Blu-ray release. Brian's review is also a good source for screenshot comparisons between the two versions. Those who like to "keep score" will notice my score for the film is just slightly lower than Brian's, in just the latest example of what I call "different reviewers, different opinions".

Double Impact Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Double Impact is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of MVD Rewind, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Brian didn't have a whale of a lot to take issue with vis a vis the 2012 Blu-ray release, but in good news for fans, my personal reaction to this disc is that it definitely improves things, with a better accounting of the palette and more consistent contrast, along with what to my eyes looked like a generally slightly darker overall appearance. Detai levels are very good to excellent throughout the presentation, and close-ups provide generally very commendable levels of fine detail. Brian mentioned "an overall boost in brightness" which he felt affected blacks, and I noticed little to none of that tendency in this presentation, though on the flip side there is still some passing crush in dark scenes. One thing this presentation couldn't ameliorate, for obvious reasons, is the almost laughable shoddiness of some of the "doubling" effects, something else that Brian mentioned in his review of the MGM version. Despite this being one of Van Damme's initial "big studio" offerings, it doesn't appear that there was sufficient money to pay for some of the split screen or (what I'm assuming were) traveling matte effects, and the results are at least at times slightly laughable. Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation, though spikes understandably in some of the optical effects.

Double Impact Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Double Impact features an LPCM 2.0 track that to my ears is generally interchangeable if arguably not exactly identical to the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track included on the MGM release. The stereo imaging isn't hugely wide a lot of the time, but things explode quite nicely in the action sequences, and sound effects reverberate with decent force throughout. Brian wasn't especially impressed with the low end on the MGM release, but I found this version's lower frequencies fairly reverberant, and fidelity was excellent across all frequencies. The dialogue (such as it is) is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout this problem free presentation.

Double Impact Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Making of Double Impact: Part One (1080p; 52:47) is the first of two nice, fan savvy, pieces documenting the production of this piece. While edited a bit toward the ADHD side of things, this has a glut of really excellent, and at times rather funny, interviews, including with Jean-Claude Van Damme.


• The Making of Double Impact: Part Two (1080p; 58:45) is simply more of the same, and arguably really didn't need to be split into a second separate feature. Filled with more interviews (including some that offer little tidbit like how cinematographer Richard Kline got involved), this also has copious clips from the film.


• Deleted/Extended Scenes (1080p; 53:57) are ostensibly high definition, but look upscaled from some at times pretty rough looking video, and have timecode captions as well.


• Anatomy of a Scene (1080p; 7:59) features Sheldon Ledditch discussing what he calls "a travelogue action scene" that was shot in Hong Kong.


• Behind the Scenes Featurette (480i; 6:58) is a fun archival EPK with some good candid footage.


• B Roll Selections (480i; 8:03)


• Film Clips (480i; 4:51)


• Cast and Crew Interview Clips (480i; 6:21)


• MVD Rewind Promo (720p; 00:21) features a certain Belgian expert in performing the splits hawking the line.


• Trailers includes Double Impact (1080p; 1:39) along with trailers for other MVD Rewind releases.

Additionally the release comes housed in a slipcover, and the keepcase also includes a folded mini poster.

Double Impact Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There's an undeniable popcorn munching, arguably brain dead, quality to Double Impact, and for those in the mood for such fare, this film provides pretty much everything you could want, along with offering pretty much everything you'd expect. The action sequences are often fun and even funny, and they're matched by the perhaps inadvertent hilarity of Van Damme stretching his "acting" muscles as two supposedly different characters. The first MGM Blu-ray release of this film offered decent technical merits, but next to no supplements. MVD Rewind has done fans of this outing a major favor by providing a release with solid technical merits and some really appealing supplements. Recommended.