Officer Jake Riley (Rooker) has been on the trail of a sadistic serial killer (Van Damme), who prays on the mothers of young children, for three years without making any progress.  On the day of his retirement he is no closer to cracking the case so decides to bow out with grace, leaving this madman on the streets.  However, he is suddenly offered a chance to enter a secret government project which has created a clone of the serial killer using some DNA left near one of the victims.  Working with the replicant, Riley must try to get inside the head of the cold blooded murderer, hoping that his new assistant can put together some of the pieces that surround each of the crime scenes and lead him to his one true nemesis.

Jean Claude Van Damme seems to be under the impression that it will take two things to rejuvenate his cult action status; the first is that he must play two roles in the film and the second is that it should be helmed by a Hong Kong director.  After just missing the boat with John Woo's growing international success (with the underrated 'Hard Target'), Van Damme has shifted throughout the other major Jade Screen maestros to try to create a masterpiece that will boost the careers of all involved but, to be brutally honest, he hasn't really done a film worth watching since his collaboration with Woo. Let's face it, he will never be the next Jackie Chan but Van Damme has qualities of his own and excelled in the action era where the bigger the star's muscles, the better.  However, in this time of the thinking man's hero, Van Damme has been left on  the sidelines, showing that even if the director can make him look good then dire scripting or poor casting (did anyone say Dennis Rodman?) can let the overall production down.

Having said all this, in 'Replicant' he seems to have found a mix that is more appealing than anything he has done for quite some time.  It's not action based and moves away from the formulaic scripting that plagued his previous flops (i.e. - "must contain jumping spin kick, the splits and Mr. Van Damme's ass") and moves into thriller territory where Van Damme has little dialogue but gets to toy with dual roles that are complete opposites.  Maybe it's an ego thing or perhaps it's because 'Double Impact' (where he played twins) was such a success that he enjoys playing two roles but he pulls it off fairly well here because both personalities aren't meant to be completely different so the similarities in his acting are excusable.  Michael Rooker, whose Hong Kong connection boils down to an appearance alongside Chow Yun Fat, also gets a big slice of the script and is convincing as the stereotypical, criminally obsessed police officer even if he doesn't appear to alter his acting in any conceivable way.

Surprisingly, considering it was the star's real claim to fame, there is very little toe-to-toe action involved in this film as the main leaning is towards the suspense elements of the story.  The martial artistry that does appear is still quite nice to look at and it isn't meant to be flashy or intricately choreographed but it does the job satisfactorily.  Van Damme also rarely attempts to move away from his traditional repertoire of kicks, giving the director the task of making the face-offs more exciting than they actually are and you can always rely on Ringo Lam to achieve this.  In actual fact, the real action award goes to Lam's usual high standard of car stunts; in particular, the impressive ambulance chase sequence that engulfs the finale of the film.

This is a fun and occasionally original film that certainly does nothing to damage Van Damme's image.  Real kung fu fight fans will be disappointed by the lack of punch ups but there is enough to please the casual viewer and Lam's stylish directing really enhances the dark and brooding atmosphere.  Love him or hate him, it appears the "muscles from Brussels" can still churn out an entertaining movie.