Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Dorathen Better Late Then Never

Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Prismark10 I had fun spotting actors who have appeared in Eastenders, the Casualty franchise or the Doctor Who franchise. Which means that although this film is set in New Orleans, it was filmed somewhere in central or eastern Europe.Jean Claude Van Damme is a rogue cop Anthony Stowe, a heroin addict, his personal life in the sewer, his wife is pregnant by another man and other cops do not like him.Stowe is hung up in nailing a villain called Callaghan (Stephen Rea) but Callaghan was his former partner who went dirty. When one of his goons shoots Stowe in the face, he miraculously survives but goes in a coma.When Stowe emerges from his coma, he decides to become a better person, he rights some wrongs such as when he betrayed another officer and rekindles his relationship with his wife.Until Death is a serviceable film, it never amounts to be more than a time filler. You have fun seeing Brit actors attempting to do hard boiled American accents. It lacks a lot of action because it wants to focus on the story. This is a shorthand way of saying that the action star is too old for for doing the fight scenes. Stephen Rea turns up for a glorified cameo for the pay cheque.

Leofwine_draca Like a good few of the films that Van Damme's been making of late, UNTIL DEATH is an attempt to do something different. It isn't even an action film really, although there are two or three decent action scenes thrown in to please the fans. No, UNTIL DEATH is a human drama, an exploration of the human psyche and Van Damme is the character at the centre of it all. For the first time in his career, he plays a really murky character, neither out-and-out good (as in 90% of his roles) or out-and-out bad (like the killer he played in REPLICANT). No, his character is a narcotics cop who just happens to be hooked on heroin himself, and he's just as unpleasant as you'd imagine.Then, around halfway through, his life catches up with him and he's put in a coma. When he comes out of it six months later, he's a changed man and we start seeing the real, genuine side of his character without all the rubbish. What makes all this more than watchable is the actor himself. I keep saying this, but Van Damme has really grown over the years and he puts his heart into his performance here. I can't fault his acting, and indeed he's the best actor in the production. He certainly puts the likes of a slumming Stephen Rea and the awful Selina Giles to shame.In any case, the story is engaging, moves in quite a lot of different directions, and Simon Fellows does an okay job behind the camera. This one was shot in Bulgaria, but you wouldn't know it, as it has a slick, glossy Hollywood look. Once again, there are a couple of guys out of the UK TV series EASTENDERS hanging around, Gary Beadle and Stephen Lord, and they're both pretty good in their parts. This can be quite a depressing film in parts and if you're looking for excitement you'll find none, because it isn't about that. Instead it's an intense, dark human drama and Van Damme alone holds it all together.

Paul Andrews Until Death is set in New Orleans where narcotics cop detective Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is involved in a bust to capture drug lord Gabriel Cllahan (Stephen Rea) but it goes wrong & two cops are killed in the process as Callahan gets away. Addicted to drugs & generally happy to break the law whenever he feels like it Stowe continues his pursuit of Callahan but ends up getting shot in the head & going into a coma. Six months later & Stowe awakes to find another man has moved in with his wife & Callahan still at large, after an attempt is made on his life Stowe decides to continue his search for Callahan but his pregnant wife is kidnapped as Callahan wants to end the feud between the two once & for all which suits Stowe just fine...This American, English, Bulgarian & German co-production was directed by Simon Fellows who also directed JCVD in the equally awful Second in Command (2006) & is quite simply a terrible film that goes for drama rather than action. Available in two versions there is the US cut which was 'supervised' by JCVD himself & the European cut supervised by director Fellows & since I live in the UK it's safe to say I say the European cut which actually runs about five minutes longer & has a more downbeat ending. For a start Until Death makes the fatal mistake of being as boring as hell, seriously this thing is so slow moving it's untrue & it long outstays it's welcome. The action scenes are really poor & unimaginative, there are three shoot-outs & that's it with no trademark JCVD fights or punch-ups at all or at least none that I can remember. The character's are poor, JCVD is mean & horrible before the come but all sweetness & light after? Eh? How did that happen? Considering his wife is having another mans baby JCVD forgives her easily & all the secondary character's barely figure with the main villain Callahan getting about two minutes of screen time until the end when there's supposedly some big twist about who he is but ultimately it means nothing. Some JCVD DTV efforts haven't been too bad & he's still capable of turning in a decent flick but this is just rubbish that most of his fans hoping to see some action will be disappointed with.The action in Until Death is some of the most lethargic, uninspired & downright boring I have seen in a while with a couple of shoot-outs for the first hour & a half & nothing else. Seriously that's it. The final shoot-out is as dull as dishwater & feels like it goes forever, a couple of BMW's crash but nothing that exciting & it all boils down to yet more shooting at each other from a distance. Boring. There's one amusing bit though when he threatens to take a prostitute in unless she has sex with him & he does her bent over a pool table & once finished she looks at him & says 'your not human', if that happened to me I don't know whether I would be offended or pleased!With a supposed budget of about $15,000,000 a lot of Until Death was actually shot in Bulgaria. It looks competent enough but there's no real style or flair here at all. The acting is poor & the way JCVD goes from bad cop to good must have something to do with his sideburns since he has some at the start but when he recovers from his coma they are gone.Until Death is one of those dull lifeless by the numbers JCVD piece of rubbish that he really shouldn't be making, it's the type of film that even if you watch it on telly for free you feel disappointed & quite frankly cheated. One of JCVD's worst.

jhs39 I watched this on DVD today and was stunned to see that it's a nearly scene for scene remake of one of my favorite Hong Kong films, the 1995 crime melodrama Loving You (ok, bad title) directed by Johnny To that starred Lau Ching Wan and Carman Lee. I don't understand why the original Hong Kong flick is mentioned nowhere in the credits but nearly every single scene and plot element and much of the dialog comes directly from the Hong Kong film. Until Death wasn't bad, but the problem is that Jean-Claude Van Damme isn't half the actor that Lau Ching Wan, the star of the original is and director Stephen Fellows is no Johnny To. The love story between the recuperating police officer and his pregnant wife is handled much more effectively in the original. I highly recommend that anyone who enjoyed Until Death (and can tolerate watching movies with English subtitles) seek out the original version, which was released last year on DVD in Hong Kong and can purchased from places like Ebay. It's a much better movie.