Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

Enemies Closer Blu-ray Movie Review

Surprisingly Van Damme good.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 8, 2014

Is the so-called Muscles from Brussels enjoying a career resurgence? Jean-Claude Van Damme’s kind of painful to watch Volvo commercial went viral and became a rather funny internet meme, and now within days of each other two Van Damme films which oddly are located on islands are coming out on Blu-ray. Welcome to the Jungle was an ostensible comedy that didn’t have much of an impact theatrically and was frankly met with some fairly withering reviews, but wonder of wonders Enemies Closer hews—well, closer to the more traditional Van Damme action genre, reuniting the martial artist with director Peter Hyams (Timecop, Sudden Death) for what turns out to be a surprisingly fun thriller with Van Damme not just chewing the scenery as arch-villain Xander, but devouring it whole (carefully, though, as Xander is a committed environmentalist). Enemies Closer sets up some admittedly pretty hoary tropes, including an impossibly heroic main character, an initial threat who turns out to be an ally, and a bunch of cartoonish villains, all of them trekking through an isolated island that of course has no cell phone service, but against considerable odds, the film is actually quite bracing and it genuinely lives up to its tag line “Van Damme as you’ve never seen him!”. Enemies Closer starts with a neat little prelude showing a small airplane like a Piper sputtering and plunging into a body of water, at which point it segues to an obviously straight and narrow park ranger named Henry (Tom Everett Scott) doing the good guy thing with a variety of park visitors like warning some kids to ditch their beer but allowing them to keep their supposedly hidden flask, helping a young woman named Kayla (Linzey Cocker) who has fallen and injured herself on a hiking trail, and giving the typical spiel to sightseers about various local attractions while also letting the text addicted youths know that there’s no cell service on the island park. By the time he supposedly gets off work and checks in on the island’s only other resident, a crusty hermit named Sanderson (Christopher Robbie), it’s obvious that Henry isn’t just a good guy—he’s a really good guy. But there’s something dangerous lurking in the woods. As we’ve seen Henry go about his daily rounds, it becomes apparent that he’s being watched—stalked almost—by a secretive guy named Clay (Orlando Jones). What’s going on?

Before those answers are forthcoming, the film segues yet again to a border patrol office on the U.S. – Canadian border manned by American agents. They are tracking the crash of that plane seen in the brief opening shot, and it turns out it was deliberately flying low, under radar, without a transponder, leading the agents to believe it was a drug running operation. Suddenly the door knocks and as unlikely as it seems, there are a bunch of Canadian Mounties offering to help, saying they have trawling equipment and other paraphernalia which will help locate the downed aircraft, which everyone assumes is at the bottom of some mammoth body of water. The U.S. agents aren’t about to hand over jurisdiction to these Dudley Do-Rights, but it soon turns out (to no great surprise) that these are actually Dudley Do-Wrongs, a bunch of villains trying to get the drugs they’ve been illicitly sneaking into North America. Their chief is the aforementioned Xander, a raging environmentalist who refuses to use guns, is a vegan, and who tends to not take kindly to being made fun of. Soon the U.S. agents are dispatched in a rather visceral action scene, and finally the first set of domino pieces are in play for the film. Xander and his crew ditch their Mountie uniforms and head off toward Henry’s island in search of the downed aircraft.

At this point the film assembles the final pieces of a rather convoluted jigsaw. Henry has found Clay, who claims to be lost, and invites him back to his island home, at which point Henry soon becomes aware that Clay has other things on his mind other than merely finding his way back to his supposedly lost boat. Without divulging too much of the back story, it turns out that Clay has a connection to Henry’s past, which also explains why Henry is such a good guy and why he’s decided to live in isolation for the past several years. Clay is out to give Henry some comeuppance which Clay is wrongheaded in thinking Henry deserves, and as the two square off, Xander and the bad guys arrive. Suddenly, Henry and Clay are forced to collaborate in order to survive.

While a lot of the foregoing sounds rather rote (and I wouldn’t argue too vociferously that it is), screenwriters Eric and James Bromberg and director Hyams keep things moving briskly enough that there’s never that much to complain about. Once the survivalist mode kicks in, the film has a number of neat action sequences, and there’s at least one genuine surprise (at least to this inveterate “twist” guesser) involving a previously seen character, who Henry had thought was safely off the island.

While Scott is a stolid and frankly slightly bland hero, Van Damme is just a flat out hoot in this role. He is made up to look almost like the mid-sixties iteration of The Joker from Batman fame, with a weird blonde fright wig (or maybe that’s his real hair). Xander’s environmentalism is a running gag through the film. He refuses to wear leather, self- identifies as a vegan, and as all sorts of mayhem is breaking out on the island around him, Xander pauses every few minutes to identify various flora and fauna he is marauding through. (Van Damme’s son Kris, who bears an almost frightening resemblance to his Dad, is on hand as one of Xander’s henchmen.)

There are a couple of glaring lapses in logic in Enemies Mine, including a felicitous discovery on the part of Henry that would have required some serious psychic ability on the part of Xander, and there’s no denying that the film is not exactly an O’Neill-esque examination of character. But the action scenes are fast and furious and the film has a kind of joie de vivre that is quite refreshing, especially since it’s been so sadly lacking in most big budget action flicks of the past several years.

Enemies Closer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Enemies Closer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. Aside from the opening few minutes, which take place in gradually diminishing daylight, the bulk of this film plays out overnight, as the various characters tool about on and around the island park. Shadow detail is occasionally less than totally satisfying, but generally contrast is strong and some of the blue tinged nighttime lensing looks pretty spectacular (screenshots 2 and 16). The briefer opening sequence is color graded to a kind of sandy brown-yellow ambience, and Hyams frames several scenes with backlighting, giving an effulgent glow that adds just a hint of softness. Close-ups still reveal great fine detail, however (see screenshots 1 and 6 for good examples).

Enemies Closer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Enemies Closer's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 is a lot of fun, starting from the first moment when in a pre- credits sequence we first get the calming lap of waters splayed through the side channels which is suddenly interrupted by an actually alarming burst of LFE as the little plane zooms in over the camera and then crashes into the water. The action sequences have great surround activity, with a variety of excellent foley effects. Dialogue is very cleanly presented and the track offers no issues of any kind.

Enemies Closer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Closer Look: Making Enemies Closer (1080p; 7:31) is pretty standard EPK stuff, but does include some enjoyable interviews and some quick looks at some of the fight choreography.


• Audio Commentary with Director Peter Hyams. Hyams is an engaging companion through the film, delivering some interesting anecdotes (he's quite eloquent about establishing a safe set for his actors so that they feel able to stretch their performances) and the rigors of the location shoot.

Enemies Closer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Anyone who loved Van Damme's previous outings with Hyams should get a kick (so to speak) out of this admittedly goofy but also insanely fun outing. Van Damme is completely over the top here, and it's great to see him in such a hyperbolic role. The film has several notable lapses in logic, but it's never boring. Recommended.