Replicant (2001) 88 Films Blu-ray Review

Plot: A deranged serial killer is on the loose and only one man can catch him! Garrotte aka “The Torch” (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is being tracked by veteran police detective Jake Riley (Michael Rooker) to no avail. Each time Jake gets one step closer to Garotte, another victim surfaces.

Tormented by Garrotte’s insanity, Jakes quits the police force and joins a special agency in a top secret mission to eliminate Garotte. As part of Jakes’ new assignment, he is teamed with a Replicant (Jean-Claude Van Damme) cloned from Garrotte’s DNA.

In a race against time Jake must learn to trust the mind of the one person he has been trained to kill and control the thoughts of a madman he cannot stop.

Review: In my final (for now) review of Jean-Claude Van Damme’s movies from 88 Films I picked up the rather underappreciated Replicant from the late great action director Ringo Lam.

In Replicant Van Damme plays deranged serial killer Edward Garrotte AKA “The Torch” who brutally murders mothers due to his own abusing him as a child. To this day I think Garrotte may well be Van Damme’s best villain role as he is truly demonic with no redeeming qualities. This man is a wild dog that needs to be put down and detective Jake Riley (Michael Rooker) has spent several years trying to bring him to justice. Riley reaches retirement and all hope seems lost until he is contacted by a government agency saying they may have created a way to track down the killer. They have created a Replicant (or genetic double) of Garrotte who is his spitting image (with shorter hair) but also can read his mind; Jake uses this to his advantage to track down Garrotte and stop him once and for all.

Replicant once again has double the Van Dammage with JCVD playing dual roles but we’ve not seen him as the villain and hero of the same movie before. I think in terms of a performance Replicant might be one of his best as Garrotte and the Replicant are very different characters. The Replicant doesn’t really understand his purpose in the world looking at everything with a childlike naiveté while needing to be trained by Jake.

Michael Rooker is one of my favourite actors as he brings real intensity to every role and Jake is a genuine tough guy that feels realistic (even in a sci-fi setting) who is overly cruel towards the Replicant at first because all he sees is the face of a killer. Over time he begins to bond with him and he tries to help the Replicant understand what he is.

I love the look of Garrotte with his yellow sunglasses and long hair; he looks genuinely unsettling and he is easily JCVD’s meanest character to date; I remember the first time I saw this movie I thought it was surprisingly brutal in places and didn’t skimp on violence. After my most recent viewing it is still pretty disturbing in parts especially the opening scene. It’s well paced with some impressive fights, especially the final showdown. It is well edited so we can barely notice when it’s a body double in the fights but you can still tell as they don’t move quite like Van Damme does.

I have two Blu-rays of this movie; the original North American Blu-ray has 19 minutes of deleted scenes which shows more emphasis on Jake Riley’s obsession over Garrotte with some extended footage of Riley’s mother who is concerned about his current path. I can understand why it was cut as it would have killed the pacing but there are some nice character moments. It also contains an audio commentary from Jean-Claude Van Damme and Michael Rooker.

I also have the 88 Films Blu-ray (which I’m discussing today) and it has the below features.

SPECIAL FEATURES

• [Strictly Limited to 3000 Units] (no standard edition repress to follow)
• [Numbered Slipcase]
• [Premium Fold-out Poster]
• Booklet Notes : THE PROGENITOR: AN INTERVIEW WITH SCREENWRITER LAWRENCE RIGGINS & THE SHOOTER: A CHINWAG WITH CAMERA OPERATOR ROSS CLARKSON – Interviews Conducted and Edited by Matty Budrewicz & Dave Wain
• Audio Commentary by Film journalists Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain
• FEATURE LENGTH DOCUMENTARY: Transfixed by Light: A Conversation with Cinematographer Mike Southon
• [Archive] Jean-Claude Van Damme – Looking Back… Moving Forward Featurette
• Trailer
• Reversible Sleeve

TECHNICAL SPECS

• Region Code: B
• Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1 / 2.0
• Picture: HD 1080p 1.85:1
• Runtime: 100 mins approx
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English SDH

The Jean-Claude Van Damme – Looking Back… Moving Forward Featurette is a bit of a cop out as it’s an archive interview from the late 90’s I believe with the man himself talking about movies like Nowhere to Run; it’s enjoyable enough but I’ve seen it before and doesn’t really add anything new. The booklet featuring the interview with Replicant’s screenwriter Lawrence Riggins gives some nice insight as to what was added that wasn’t part of his initial script; he didn’t like the prostitute scene and frankly neither did I as it just felt sleazy but he also thought two other lines of dialogue were rather poor and they were “If I tell you I’ll have to kill you” and “Be afraid… be very afraid” (I also agree that they are lame).

The feature length documentary with Cinematographer Mike Southon is interesting and he goes into great detail about his craft.  The audio commentary from Matty Budrewicz and Dave Wain is hugely entertaining and one of the highlights of this package. It must be a distribution issue or something but personally, I think the North American Blu-ray is better as it has the aforementioned audio commentary with JCVD and Michael Rooker as well as the deleted scenes which are sadly missing here.

Overall, Replicant is a rather underappreciated piece from Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of his best acting roles as villain and hero but Michael Rooker also never disappoints. It’s too bad some of the North American special features didn’t make it to this 88 Films release but if you’re a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme and based in the UK then this is still worth picking up.