ENEMIES CLOSER (2013)
Van Damme Goes Villainous
Throughout his career, Jean-Claude Van Damme has had several directors that he clearly feels comfortable working with. He’s worked with directors like John Hyams, Ernie Barbarish, Ringo Lam, and Sheldon Lettich multiple times. But for pure box-office success no director matched with the star like John’s father: Peter Hyams. Hyams and Van Damme teamed up on two of the actor’s biggest mainstream successes and two films that remain some of his most popular: TIMECOP (1994) and SUDDEN DEATH (1995). I mean they were two of the very first movies written about this month on this very site. Unfortunately, as the calendar flipped on the millennium, both Hyams and Van Damme found their careers on a downward slide. Van Damme found himself relegated to direct-to-video films after some significant box office failures and personal struggles, Hyams had box office success with THE RELIC (1997) and END OF DAYS (1999), but critical respect eluded him. The box office would also not be there when Hyams directed the notorious bomb SOUND OF THUNDER (2005). The tortured production history of that film is outside of this article, but suffice to say Hyams ended up in director jail.
No good partnership stays down forever though, and Van Damme and Hyams found their way back together again. First Peter acted as cinematographer on his son John’s film, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION (2009), which brought Van Damme back as the reanimated soldier Luc Deveraux. And then 2013 saw Hyams Sr. back in the director’s chair for ENEMIES CLOSER, with Van Damme starring as the villain, something he rarely did in his career.
ENEMIES CLOSER also stars Tom Everett Scott and Orlando Jones as the everyman heroes who must take on a gang of drug runners led by the sadistic vegan Xander (Van Damme). Yes, the fact that Xander is vegan is mentioned several times. Scott plays Henry, an ex-soldier living and working as a park ranger on a small island. Henry is dealing with personal issues from his time in the service, particularly a mission that cost him some men under his command. His problems get worse when Clay, the brother of one of Henry’s deceased men, finds Henry and intends to kill him. That gets put on hold when Xander and his men arrive on the island to recover a shipment of heroin left on the island when the plane transporting it crashed. Henry and Clay have to work together to survive and stop Xander.
As you can tell, we’re dealing with some pretty standard direct-to-video stuff here and there’s not much to separate ENEMIES CLOSER from its DTV contemporaries. Except right smack in the middle of the movie is an absolutely delightfully unhinged performance from Van Damme. Nobody is going to confuse Van Damme’s work in this with JCVD (2008), but he is a joy to watch as he chews scenery as though it is his last meal.
Throughout his career Van Damme resisted playing villains. He started by playing the heavy in both NO RETREAT NO SURRENDER (1986) and BLACK EAGLE (1988) but once he properly broke through with BLOODSPORT (1988) he never looked back. Even when playing unsympathetic characters like his heroin-addicted dirty cop in UNTIL DEATH (2006), Van Damme ensured his characters always came out on top. But that changed when he got the call to play the main villain in Sylvester Stallone’s ode to all things action, THE EXPENDABLES 2 (2012). Playing the aptly named Jean Vilain, Van Damme shows a wicked glee playing a terrorist leader and apparent disciple of Satan. Van Damme manages to steal the movie out from a who’s who of action stars, including Stallone, Jason Statham, and Dolph Lundgren. Van Damme made it pretty clear that his role in THE EXPENDABLES 2 was going to be a one-off. As hesitant as he was to play a villain, the opportunity to be in an EXPENDABLES movie was too much to resist. But that was supposed to be it.
Van Damme was originally cast in the role of Henry for ENEMIES CLOSER. The film was to be an even more standard DTV action joint than it ultimately became; probably not bad, but ultimately nothing notable in Van Damme’s storied career. Peter Hyams had different ideas however. Hyams convinced Van Damme to play Xander instead, which Van Damme only agreed to after significant rewrites to flesh out and build up the character. While this decision makes the narrative of ENEMIES CLOSER a bit wonky as we spend as much time with Xander as we do our ostensible heroes, it was the best decision Hyams and Van Damme could have made.
Van Damme takes what he did as Vilain and cranks it up even more to play Xander. A psychopathic drug runner and radical vegan, Xander wants his drugs and no forest ranger is going to stand in the way. Van Damme hams it up with glee as he educates hapless victims on the effects of eating meat on the environment before dispatching them. As part of the rewrite of the character, Van Damme crafted a monologue about the slaughter of his childhood goose, Edith, that is as humorous as it is horrifying. Van Damme also came up with the idea that Xander should have fluffy dyed orange hair. He may not have initially wanted to play the villain, but once he committed...he committed with every fiber. The blandly likable Scott and the game but miscast Jones never stood a chance.
ENEMIES CLOSER is certainly not one of the top tier Van Damme movies, but as a rare chance to see him go full villainous ham, it cannot be missed. The same year Van Damme flirted with another villain role as the leader of a gang of robbers in SWELTER, but he’s a thief with a code so it doesn’t really count. Van Damme has not played a villain in a film since, and that is our loss as fans. Hopefully, someone will inspire Van Damme to play a bad guy again (maybe he can try to one-up Raul Julia as Bison in the ham department in the inevitable STREET FIGHTER remake), but until then we at least have the joys of THE EXPENDABLES 2 and, especially, ENEMIES CLOSER.
