enemies closer movie review

Enemies Closer

If “Enemies Closer” had been made 20 years ago, it would have quickly vanished from theaters, replayed endlessly on HBO, and inspired the next generation of critics to call it a neglected gem, not because it’s especially good, but because it stars an aging action star, has a couple of perverse elements, and is directed by a filmmaker with a cult following:  Peter Hyams . The former cinematographer emerged in the 1980s and ’90s with a string of action and sci-fi pictures that were visually sumptuous but dramatically just OK: “Outland,” “ Running Scared ,” “2010,” “ Timecop ,” “ Sudden Death .” Those last two starred Jean-Claude Van Damme , whose work as the villain in “Enemies Closer” is the only reason to see this film—unless you’re also a devotee of Hyams’ son John, who edited the picture and has carved out his own notable career as an action stylist (his last two “ Universal Soldier ” sequels merged imaginatively choreographed butt kicking with arthouse strangeness). 

Van Damme plays Xander, a French-Canadian drug dealer who sneaks a bunch of narco-thugs dressed as Canadian Mounties across the border. They’re here to reclaim a heroin shipment that sank to the bottom of a lake along with the plane that carried it. Xander bears no relation to any real-world drug dealer. He’s a sadistic wraith in the vein of Martin Scorsese’s Max Cady and Heath Ledger’s Joker. He lectures his men about veganism and global footprints. His wavy orange slicked-back hair suggests Christopher Walken impersonating a troll doll. He knocks on the front door of a Drug Enforcement Agency border station with the nonchalance of Bugs Bunny asking to borrow a cup of sugar from Elmer Fudd and proceeds to kill everyone in the place. He’s not above using guns but prefers not to, because barehanded murder is more of a challenge. (There’s a marvelous early moment in which an especially tough DEA agent seems to be holding his own against Xander, and one of Xander’s colleagues offers to help, only to be waved away.) 

Van Damme’s English is less intelligible than usual, and his line readings are sluggish in places. Improbably enough, this adds to the performance, perhaps because it sets the star apart from all the other actors who’ve opted to deliver their lines comprehensibly and with passion. At times his work here suggests the action star version of a late-period Marlon Brando performance, wherein the performer’s evident inability to give a damn got folded into the character, making him seem more special than he might have otherwise.

There’s a parallel story involving good guys who are at each other’s throats, then have to team up and fight Xander’s gang. One is the park ranger Henry ( Tom Everett Scott), a former Navy diver who’s haunted by his experience in Afghanistan. The other is Clay ( Orlando Jones ), a former soldier and ex-con who’s come to Henry’s remote island to avenge the death of his brother, who served under Henry during the war. Like everyone else who isn’t named Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott and Jones behave as if they’re in a modest shoot ’em up that isn’t winking at the audience. They play their roles earnestly and with flashes of wit (the best of these is Scott’s imagined conversation with a rude old man who rebuffed his attempt to be neighborly). Their straightforward approach contrasts intriguingly with Van Damme’s exhausted decadence and makes them seem confident and strong. Whether they’re acting against him or fighting against him, they never seem overmatched.

Neither the elder Hyams’ direction nor the younger Hyams’ editing rise to the level of their best work. The cutting in the fight scenes is more choppy than clever, and aside from a few elegantly composed wide shots and a somewhat daring (for an action film) use of darkness, the action is too plainly shot, at times veering close to the boringly anonymous “coverage” style of moviemaking that both father and son rightly decry. But there are at least two setpieces that are keepers, and even when the film’s energy flags, Van Damme boosts it again by breaking a neck, muttering about sustainable resources, or just sitting there thinking about whatever it is that Xander thinks about. “Timecop,” maybe. 

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Jean-Claude Van Damme as Xander
• Orlando Jones as Francois
• Kristopher Van Varenberg as Francois
• Tom Everett Scott as Henry
• Linzey Cocker as Kayla
• Peter Hyams

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Enemies Closer Reviews

Breezy, enjoyable fun that's not to be taken too seriously. Predictable, yes, but it's worth a watch just to see Van Damme's crazed hairdo.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 12, 2018

If you don't expect anything groundbreaking or dramatically dynamic, you'll probably have just as much fun watching Enemies Closer as Van Damme, playing a total fruitcake of a villain, clearly did making it.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Mar 11, 2014

Van Damme makes for a highly entertaining villain in this briskly paced B-movie.

Full Review | Jan 29, 2014

Outrageous, unintentionally funny, cartoonish, dumb and consistently entertaining---in other words: the ultimate B-movie that's best watched at midnight with a group of friends while intoxicated.

Full Review | Original Score: 7.21/10 | Jan 28, 2014

Too bad no one else in Enemies Closer can match Van Damme's oddball charisma.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 24, 2014

An agreeable way to kill 80 minutes.

Full Review | Jan 24, 2014

Van Damme's English is less intelligible than usual, and his line readings are sluggish in places. Improbably enough, this adds to the performance ...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 24, 2014

Mr. Hyams keeps things moving briskly, building to an ending with a pretty good plot twist.

Full Review | Jan 23, 2014

Suffers from wincingly bad dialogue delivered as if by jocks in a high-school play and action choreographed as if for a gymnasium stage.

A reasonably engaging B-movie, benefiting from Van Damme's nutty performance and Hyams's dedication to cinematic economy. Surprises are few, outside of the eye-roll count, which is unexpectedly low.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Jan 23, 2014

Enemies Closer belongs to a category of old-school action movies usually associated with the direct-to-video market: lean, brisk, and distinguished by a clean visual style and an emphasis on practical stuntwork over effects.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Jan 23, 2014

A silly yet sturdily crafted time-filler ...

Full Review | Jan 22, 2014

Enemies Closer is the first collaboration between Peter Hyams and Jean-Claude Van Damme since 1995's Sudden Death. The reunion feels long overdue.

Full Review | Jan 21, 2014

JCVD may not say it best, but he does say it aptly, when his manically cartoonish baddie caps one murder with the assertion that "shit happens."

Full Review | Original Score: .5/4 | Jan 19, 2014

Film Review: ‘Enemies Closer’

JCVD is back in a better-than-average action time-filler. Only '90s nostalgists need apply.

By Scott Foundas

Scott Foundas

• Film Review: ‘Black Mass’ 9 years ago
• Film Review: ‘The Runner’ 9 years ago
• Film Review: ‘Straight Outta Compton’ 9 years ago

Jean-Claude Van Damme hams it up cheerfully in a rare villainous turn in “Enemies Closer,” an unremarkable but entirely serviceable action quickie that reunites the Muscles from Brussels with analog action specialist Peter Hyams, who directed Van Damme in two of his better big-studio starring vehicles: “Timecop” (1994) and “Sudden Death” (1995). Save for a considerably lower budget, “Enemies” might well have rolled off the same assembly line, making for a silly yet sturdily crafted time-filler, lacking the shrewd, self-aware qualities of Van Damme’s recent “JCVD” and “Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning” (directed by Hyams’ son, John), but still well above most of the star’s latter-day direct-to-video efforts. Sure to generate less buzz than Van Damme’s recent Volvo commercial, the pic goes out via Lionsgate in limited theatrical and VOD release this Friday.

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Sporting a Beethoven-esque mane of poofy, reddish-brown hair, speaking many of his lines in his native French, and prancing about with a fey spring in his step, Van Damme appears to be having a grand old time as Xander, a ruthless French-Canadian drug dealer who, when not dispensing mercilessly with his foes, preaches the virtues of vegan living and stopping to smell the roses (or, as the case may be, the wild strawberries). In the pic’s opening moments, a small, single-engine plane is seen crashing into a lake along the U.S.-Canada border (actually Bulgaria), and it’s the cargo on this plane — 50 pounds of uncut heroin — that Xander seeks to retrieve by any means necessary.

Popular on Variety

But wait, there’s more! Though it already has enough plot for most action movies, the script by Eric and James Bromberg introduces an entire parallel storyline concerning Henry (Tom Everett Scott), an ex-Navy diver traumatized by the carnage he witnessed in Afghanistan, now working as a U.S. park ranger — in, of course, the very same park where Xander’s heroin lies at the bottom of the lake. But long before Henry becomes a pawn in Xander’s scheme, he gets held at gunpoint by Clay (Orlando Jones), the brother of a soldier who died on Henry’s watch, who’s now come to seek his revenge. What, do you think, are the chances these two will eventually join forces against a common threat?

Of course, Van Damme’s movies have never been big on inner logic: As long as the limbs keep flying with (literal) breakneck speed, it doesn’t much matter how we get there. And while “Enemies Closer” may not offer a single setpiece as memorable as “Sudden Death’s” mano-a-mano kitchen duel between Van Damme and the Pittsburgh Penguins’ costumed mascot, its 53-year-old star still proves surprisingly agile and quick on — and with — his feet. Despite having helmed lots of subpar material over the years, Hyams (“Outland,” “The Star Chamber”) was always adept at crafting a solid action sequence, and proves he can still do so here, with a relieved minimum of swooshing pans and rapid-fire cutting. Van Damme, who began his bigscreen career playing a baddie (in 1984’s cult karate drama “No Retreat No Surrender”), but has done so only a couple of times since (including recently, in “The Expendables 2”), should consider flirting with his dark side more often; it clearly becomes him.

Cast against comic type, Jones (also credited as a producer) acquits himself reasonably well, while English actress Linzey Cocker seems rather adrift as the requisite damsel-in-distress-cum-femme-fatale. Hyams, who as usual also served as his own cinematographer, gives the production a crisp, sleek, professional sheen, especially in the night exterior scenes.

Reviewed online, Los Angeles, Jan. 15, 2014. MPAA Rating: R. Running time. 84 MIN.

• Production: A Lionsgate release of an After Dark Films presentation of an After Dark Films and Signature Entertainment production. Produced by Moshe Diamant, Courtney Solomon, Orlando Jones. Co-producers, Lauren Ito, Lucy Mukerjee, Christopher Milburn. Executive producers, Bobby Ranghelov, Stepahnie Caleb.
• Crew: Directed by Peter Hyams. Screenplay, Eric Bromberg, James Bromberg. Camera (color), Peter Hyams; editor, Jon Hyams; music, Tony Morales; production designer, Phillip Harrison; art director, Valentina Mladenova; set decorator, Krasimir Pashkulev; costume designer, Irina Kotcheva; sound, Emil Evtimov; supervising sound editor, Michael Baird; re-recording mixer, Jason Dotts; visual effects supervisors, Viktor Trichkov, DJ Shea; visual effects producer, Tarn Fox; stunt coordinator, Borislav Iliev; associate producers, Arnaud Lannic, Emmanuel Girod, Wayne Marc Godfrey, Robert Jones, Stacy Frankel; assistant director, Franklin Vallette; casting, Mariana Stanisheva.
• With: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Tom Everett Scott, Orlando Jones, Linzey Cocker, Christopher Robbie, Zahari Baharov, Dimo Alexiev, Kris Van Damme. 

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Enemies closer: film review.

A park ranger joins forces with a mortal enemy to battle a murderous drug smuggler in Peter Hyams' action thriller.

By THR Staff

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Enemies Closer Film Still - H 2014

While his days as a big screen action hero seem to have passed, Jean-Claude Van Damme makes a damn fine villain, as illustrated in the new thriller Enemies Closer . While this reunion with director Peter Hyams will hardly match the commercial impact of such previous collaborations as Timecop and Sudden Death , it’s the sort of efficient B-movie that would have made a fine bottom half of a double-bill in years past but is now relegated to a minimal theatrical release and VOD.  

Sporting an unflattering mop of red hair, the 53-year-old Van Damme is still a highly impressive physical specimen, even if he doesn’t get to show it off here with nearly the same impact as his recent Volvo television commercial. The “Muscles from Brussels” plays Xander, a drug smuggler desperate to retrieve a huge stash of heroin that went down with a small plane in a lake off an island near the U.S.-Canadian border.

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Patrolling the island in solitary fashion is park ranger Henry ( Tom Everett Scott ), whose affable demeanor doesn’t suggest the trauma he went through years earlier as a Navy SEAL. Even as Xander shows up with his gang of henchmen, Henry has to deal with a problem of his own in the form of Clay ( Orlando Jones , who also co-produced), an ex-con intent on getting revenge for the death of his younger brother who was serving under Henry’s command.  

The two men quickly form a reluctant alliance — hence the title — as they team up to battle the psychotically crazed Xander, a vegan who thoughtfully worries about his gang’s carbon footprint even while they’re mercilessly dispatching anyone who gets in their way.

Clearly relishing his role, Van Damme once again shows off his flair for deadpan comedy, casually tossing off witticisms — “He’s the one who needs help, he just doesn’t know it,” he says to one of his cohorts attempting to lend a hand during a brutal fight — and snapping necks with the elan of a chiropractor.

The plot, which also involves a lone elderly resident ( Christopher Robbie ) of the island (“Kiss my geriatric ass,” he taunts one of Xander’s goons) and a comely hiker ( Linzey Cocker ) who takes a shine to Henry, is more convoluted than it needs to be, and the baby-faced Scott is never quite convincing in macho mode. But director Hyams, who also served as the director of photography, keeps things moving briskly with his usual solid professionalism. The numerous fight sequences are well choreographed and cleanly shot, displaying an exciting visual cohesiveness too often lacking in most of today’s frenetically edited action films.

Production companies: Lionsgate, After Dark Films, Signature Entertainment

Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Tom Everett Scott, Linzey Cocker, Christopher Robbie, Orlando Jones

Director/director of photography: Peter Hyams

Screenwriters: Eric Bromberg, James Bromberg

Producers: Moshe Diamant, Courtney Solomon, Orlando Jones

Executive producers: Bobby Ranghelov, Stephanie Caleb

Editor: John Hyams

Production designer: Phillip Harrison

Costume designer: Irina Kotcheva

Composer: Tony Morales

Rated R, 85 min.

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By Neil Genzlinger

• Jan. 23, 2014

Opens on Friday.

Directed by Peter Hyams

1 hour 25 minutes

With a manic performance by Jean-Claude Van Damme and an improbable but intriguing plot variation, “Enemies Closer” is an improvement over most hunt-or-be-hunted fare. A small improvement, but still.

Mr. Van Damme gleefully portrays the ruthless leader of a group of drug runners who set out to retrieve a shipment lost when a plane goes down on an island near the border between the United States and Canada. Tom Everett Scott is Henry, the American park ranger they go up against.

But here’s the twist: Henry has taken the solitary job of ranger at a park with few visitors to escape demons from his time in the military. And on the very day that Mr. Van Damme’s thug squad turns up, Henry finds himself also confronting one of those demons. It’s Clay (Orlando Jones of “Sleepy Hollow” ), the brother of a fellow soldier who died during a mission led by Henry. Clay blames Henry and intends to kill him, but once the drug boys start shooting at them, they realize that they have to band together if they want to survive.

Yes, it’s a ridiculous coincidence, and yes, Mr. Scott is a rather bland hero, but Mr. Van Damme seems to be having a great time. The director, Peter Hyams (who directed Mr. Van Damme in “Timecop” and other films), keeps things moving briskly, building to an ending with a pretty good plot twist.

“Enemies Closer” is rated R (Under 17 requires an accompanying parent or adult guardian) for gruesome deaths and cursing.

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Enemies Closer (2013)

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After a major shipment of drugs goes missing on the US-Canadian border, forest ranger and former Navy SEAL Henry is plunged into survival mode when the drug cartel forces him to help retrieve the downed package. Trapped in the wilderness with no communication to the outside world, Henry finds himself face to face with Clay, a man with a personal vendetta against Henry who has returned for retribution. Now, the two mortal enemies must make a choice: put aside their past and work together, or die alone at the hands of the drug runners, a ruthless gang who will stop at nothing to retrieve their lost cargo.

Peter Hyams

Eric Bromberg

James Bromberg

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Jean-Claude Van Damme

Tom Everett Scott

Orlando Jones

Linzey Cocker

Kris Van Damme

Zahari Baharov

Dimo Alexiev

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Original Language English

Budget $5,000,000.00

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Enemies Closer

• Deep within a forest on the U.S.-Canadian border, two sworn enemies must work together to escape a ruthless drug cartel hell-bent on retrieving a drug shipment which went missing there.
• Forest ranger and Ex-Navy SEAL Henry is forced by the drug cartel to help retrieve a major shipment of drugs which went missing on the US-Canadian border. While in the woods, he runs into a man who has a vendetta against him, but both men must struggle to escape the forest and defeat the cartel, while at odds and at knife's edge with each other. — Anon
• After a major shipment of drugs goes missing on the US-Canadian border, forest ranger and former Navy SEAL Henry (Jean Claude Van Damme) is plunged into survival mode when the drug cartel forces him to help retrieve the downed package. Trapped in the wilderness with no communication to the outside world, Henry finds himself face to face with Clay, a man with a personal vendetta against Henry who has returned for retribution. Now, the two mortal enemies must make a choice: put aside their past and work together, or die alone at the hands of the drug runners, a ruthless gang who will stop at nothing to retrieve their lost cargo. — IM Global
• In the NE United States, near the border with Canada, a small plane flies low over a lake, suddenly goes straight up, the engine stalls, and the plane nosedives and crashes and sinks. At the nearby King's Island is a one-man Forest Ranger station and tourist visitation center. Forest ranger Henry Taylor (Tom Everett Scott) is the one-man. He continually reminds visitors that there's no cell phone reception on the island and the rules include all visitors must leave by dark, leave no trash, and there is to be no drinking while on the island. As Henry works during that day, he is being observed by a man through a pair of rangefinder binoculars. Henry is one of only two people who live on the island. The other is an old man named Sanderson (Christopher Robbie). Henry goes to check on Sanderson now and again, but his visits and concern are unwelcome. At a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) station in Baring, Maine, the officers on duty were in the process of trying to determine what happened to the small plane that went down. The correctly surmised that a small plane with it's transponder turned off and flying too low for radar was probably up to no good. The officer in charge decided that the agents would need to patrol the waterways to intercept whomever might be coming for or taking away whatever cargo was on the plane. There's a knock on the door of the ICE station. A handful of mounted Canadian Mounties had arrived to offer help in finding the small plane, its occupants and cargo. The ICE agents refuse the offer, telling the mounties that the paperwork required wasn't worth it. Xander (Jean-Claude Van Damme) then enters the room, speaking both French and English and not looking much like a Mountie, given that he's wearing odd looking shoes. He closes the door and the ICE agents demand to know what he thinks he's doing. Xander wonders if they think he doesn't look like a real mountie. One agent confrims the doubt. Xander looks down at his shoes then explains that he doesn't wear leather, because he's a Vegan. He then suddenly attacks and kills or disables all the agents at the station, without use of a gun, because he hates guns. The other faux mounties come into the station, one of them announcing that they only have 4 hours before the next shift of agents show up. Henry comes across a backpack sitting on a trail. He calls out and a woman answers. Her leg is trapped inside a hole below some downed logs. He helps her to his cabin. Her name is Kayla (Linzey Cocker). Two other ICE agents, who had been out on an errand, arrive and find the slaughtered agents at the station. They notice the GPS signal flashing on the screen, coming from the downed plane. They decide to go find out what's going on. Kayla flirts with Henry. There's a mutual attraction. Henry offers to take her across the water, back to her cabin. She doesn't want to leave her canoe behind, so he escorts her down to her canoe. She gives him her name, phone and address and invites him to come across the lake for dinner that night at 9 p.m. He agrees. Xander and his four men go down to the dock, where they see a man, drinking and obviously very drunk. They kill him so they can take possession of his pontoon boat. They dump the man's body in a nearby dumpster. Henry is changing his clothes at his cabin when there's a knock at the door. It's the man who'd been observing him with binoculars throughout the day. The man claimed that he'd beached his boat across the island and noticed the light on at Henry's cabin, so he came there hoping to find help. However, the man was not acting like someone who was tired, worried, or in need of help. For one thing, he slammed the kitchen door behind him as Henry was getting him some water. He also helped himself to an apple and was asking personal questions of Henry. He told Henry that he was unemployed. Henry noticed an odd tattoo on the man's forearm, and right after he told the guy that he was going out for the night, then approached the door, Henry suddenly pulled a knife he had on him and pointed it at the man. The man just as suddenly produced a pistol and pointed it at Henry. The two ICE agents found the body of the murdered boat owner in the dumpster. Henry learns that the man in his cabin is named Clay (Orlando Jones). Clay's younger brother, Decker, was in the Special Forces, under Henry's command in Afghanistan. Decker had been killed in a firefight in Afghanistan, and Clay heard that Decker had been abandoned by his CO. Clay explained that he had made sure to raise his little brother to be the opposite of him and their father, to excel at everything so he could get out and make a better life for himself. Clay wanted revenge for his brother's dying, and he was blaming Henry. Henry said the command sent them in on bad intelligence, that it wasn't anyone's fault. As CO, he couldn't risk losing more men by sending them after Decker, who'd gotten separated from the unit. The phone rang. It was Kayla, leaving a message that she was running late. Clay shoots the phone. Henry decides he'd better try to help himself, so he attacks Clay. Clay is very good at hand-to-hand and knocks Henry out. Xander and his henchmen are on the pontoon, planning for a diver will go down and retrieve the heroine that is on the plane. Clay drags Henry out across a field and hands him a pistol. He wants him to shoot himself. If he won't, Clay intends to shoot him. Henry explains that a few years ago, he would have shot himself, gladly, but not now. He's come to realize that it wasn't his fault that Decker had died. Just as Clay is about to shoot Henry, bright lights shine on them. It's Xander and his men on the pontoon boat, wondering who they are and what they are doing. Xander and his men claim to be ICE, but Henry knows better. He rushes forward and pushes Clay to the ground, then runs. Xander's men shoot at them. Clay shoots back hits the diver in the chest. The two ICE agents are out on the water in their boat and they hear the gunfire and head that way. Clay starts chasing after Henry through the trees. When Xander determines that his diver won't survive, he first throws a brief fit, then smothers the man using his hands. Xander knows that Henry is an ex-military diver, so he decides they must go find him and have him retrieve the heroine. They will just kill Clay. Two of Xander's men get to Henry's cabin. No one's home. They find a boat at the dock. Xander tells them over a two-way radio to sink the boat. Henry goes to where he keeps a kayak, but he's intercepted by another Xander's men who shoots a hole in the kayak and captures Henry. Clay shows up and slides a shell into the chamber of his shotgun, distracting Xander's man. Henry knocks the man out, but when he bends over to pick up the man's gun, Clay shoots the gun, ruining it. Henry persuades Clay that even if they remain enemies, they should work together to get through whatever's going on with Xander and his men. Henry has presumed that Xander and his men are mercenaries involved in the drug trade. Henry leads Clay to Sanderson's cabin to see if there's a phone. They now have a walkie talkie and can hear Xander and his men speaking on theirs, but when Xander realizes one of his men may be down, he orders the rest of them to speak only in French. The two ICE policemen are now on land, looking for whomever might be in the woods. Xander ambushes and kills them both with a sharp branch. He then sees a wild strawberry and goes over and eats it, just one of the numerous instances indicating he's either bi-polar or otherwise messed up. Xander calls to Clay and Henry on the walkie-talkie. Henry tells Clay not to answer. Xander encourages them to call whenever they are ready to talk, that he's "in the book". Clay and Henry continue on to Sanderson's cabin. Henry climbs in through a window of the dark cabin, followed by Clay. He hits Clay when he's coming through and grabs the gun. He tells Clay to go call the police. The phone is dead. Sanderson then turns on a light. He's holding a rifle and orders Henry to lay his shotgun down. Henry and Clay quickly try to explain to Sanderson what's going on. Sanderson explains to them that he had the phone shut off a couple years prior, but kept the phone because it looked nice. Xander calls them again on the walkie-talkie, wanting Henry to come out and he'd leave the other two alone. Sanderson tells Henry and Clay that he's willing to fight. He turns on a panel of bright exterior lights and fires off a warning round. Xander sends a man around back, then orders his other two men to fire their machine pistols at the cabin. Sanderson tosses Henry a knife, the only other weapon he had available. He orders Henry and Clay to go out the back and get away while he distracted the men outside. Henry refused to leave Sanderson behind. Sanderson then goes out the front door, raises his gun and is immediately shot. Henry starts to go out after him, but Clay tackles and stops him. Henry comments to Clay how it's sometimes necessary to stop others from going into harm's way when it doesn't make sense. Henry and Clay go out the back door, where Henry immediately sees one of Xander's men and uses the last shotgun shell to shoot the man in the shoulder. They then get away. Sanderson is wounded, and spunky to the end. He tells one of Xander's men to kiss his geriatric ass. Xander has his two men stand Sanderson up, then tells Sanderson a story about the pet goose he had as a child. He said his grandmother fed the goose to the family for dinner one night and how he killed her for that. That's also how Xander became a vegan. He then stabs Sanderson in the heart. Clay admits to Henry that he didn't really have a boat. The man who dropped him off at the island was due back the next morning to take him out. Henry wants Clay to hide until morning, while he distracts Xander and his men away from him. Henry has only a knife, length of rope, fishing line, and some matches. He builds a bonfire, which Xander's man, who was back on the pontoon boat, sees. He calls Xander for instructions. Xander tells the guy to beach the boat and help find Henry. Xander calls on the walkie and tells Henry he knows he has a son and will find and kill him if he doesn't come help him. Clay runs back to the unconscious man that Henry had cold-cocked earlier, checking him for more weapons apparently. The man wakes up and grabs Clay. They fight and Clay knocks the guy out with a rock. The man in the boat joins Xander's other two henchmen by the bonfire and start searching for Henry and Clay. One of them runs up against some taut fishing line, which trips a stick, to which Henry's knife was tied and it stabs the man in the throat. A second man falls into a booby trap, running a sharp stick through his lower leg. Henry goes hand-to-hand with the boatman, who gets the better of Henry and is choking him out when Clay arrives and runs a knife through the boatman's neck from behind. Clay and Henry shake hands, deciding to trust one another from then on. They go over and pull the wounded man from the booby trap and tie him to a small tree, then proceed to interrogate him. The man is belligerent and uncooperative. Clay threatens to put out the man's eye if he doesn't tell them what's going on. He tells them about the plane, the heroine, the plan to have Henry dive on the wreck, and how Xander is the only one of them left. Before they leave, Clay knocks the man out. Clay and Henry run to the pontoon. Xander sees them and calls on the walkie-talkie. He offers Henry half a million dollars for 10 minutes work. Henry declines. Xander then puts Kayla on the walkie. She had come back to Henry's place and was taken captive by Xander. Xander threatens to kill her if Henry doesn't come help him. Clay wants to take the boat and get away. Henry reminds him that would be abandoning Kayla, and she's someone who should be helped. Henry drops Clay off before he takes the boat and returns to his cabin. He has one of the thugs machine pistols with him and gets the drop on Xander, but then Xander puts a knife to Kayla's throat. It's a standoff, when the thug they'd left tied to a tree shows up and gets the drop on Henry. Xander and Henry then board the pontoon, leaving the thug and Kayla behind to wait. Clay shows up and sneaks up on the thug and swings at him with a boat paddle. They fight on the pier, falling into the water. Clay takes him out, then goes to untie Kayla. Clay wants her to go for the police, but when he turns away from her, she pulls a gun on him. It turns out that she works with Xander. Clay escapes from Kayla by diving off the pier and swimming away as she shoots at him, but misses. She goes looking for him, but then sees a police boat approaching. She calls Xander on the walkie-talkie for instructions and he tells her to take care of the police. Two policemen approach the dock, saying they had reports of loud noises coming from the island. Clay comes running from hiding, shouting at the cops to shoot Kayla. She instead pulls out her pistol and shoots them. Clay then attacks and knocks Kayla out. Henry dives and retrieves the heroine. He comes back up and tosses the bag onto the boat, then climbs on board and produces a gun he found on the plane. He orders Xander to drive the boat back to the dock. When they arrive back at the dock, Henry sees the dead policemen, then sees Clay holding Kayla prisoner. Kayla starts shouting for Henry to help her. Henry is momentarily confused and hesitates too long. Xander knocks the gun from his hands and they fight, while Kayla disarms Henry and they also fight. The four switch opponents in mid-fight and Henry knocks Kayla down. Just as Xander is about to break Clay's neck, Henry calls out to him, grabs the bag of heroine and runs. Xander drops Clay and takes off after Henry, but first he stops long enough to break Kayla's neck, for screwing up. Xander than pursues Henry up a tree and they fight and fall down to the ground, branch by branch. Xander thinks he has knocked Henry out and takes the heroine and runs to the pontoon. As he's taking off, he sees Henry run and jump into the boat. They fight some more and Xander accidentally punches a hole in the gas tank as he swings the anchor at Henry, but misses. Xander knocks Henry over board, but not before Henry grabs a flare, which he uses to ignite the trailing plume of gasoline coming from the hole in the tank, exploding the boat and Xander with it. Xander had a big grin on his face as he realized he was about to die. Henry swims back to the shore where Clay helps him, saying "Not a fuckin' word." Henry replies, "My lips are sealed."

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Where to watch

Enemies closer.

Directed by Peter Hyams

Keep your friends close

After a major shipment of drugs goes missing on the US-Canadian border, forest ranger and former Navy SEAL Henry is plunged into survival mode when the drug cartel forces him to help retrieve the downed package. Trapped in the wilderness with no communication to the outside world, Henry finds himself face to face with Clay, a man with a personal vendetta against Henry who has returned for retribution. Now, the two mortal enemies must make a choice: put aside their past and work together, or die alone at the hands of the drug runners, a ruthless gang who will stop at nothing to retrieve their lost cargo.

Jean-Claude Van Damme Tom Everett Scott Orlando Jones Linzey Cocker Kris Van Damme Zahari Baharov Dimo Alexiev Vlado Mihailov Teodor Tzolov Hristo Mitzkov Jonas Talkington

Director Director

Peter Hyams

Producers Producers

Moshe Diamant Bobby Ranghelov Courtney Solomon

Writers Writers

James Bromberg Eric Bromberg

Casting Casting

Sue Jones Mariana Stansheva

Editor Editor

Cinematography cinematography, executive producer exec. producer.

Joel Silver

Lighting Lighting

Pavel Mitov

Camera Operators Camera Operators

Lorenzo Senatore Kiril Valchanov

Production Design Production Design

Philip Harrison

Art Direction Art Direction

Valentina Mladenova

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Krasi Pashkulev

Special Effects Special Effects

Zarko Karatanchev

Visual Effects Visual Effects

Tarn Fox Yevgen Skorobogatko Jean Daniel Zacharias

Stunts Stunts

Borislav Iliev Stanimir Stamatov

Composer Composer

Tony Morales

Sound Sound

Michael Baird Jason Dotts Brent Findley Geordy Sincavage

Costume Design Costume Design

Irina Kotcheva

Makeup Makeup

Anna Andreeva Daniela Avramova Maria Stankovich Gino Zamprioli

After Dark Films Bomar OOD Payton Productions Boulston Productions Limited Signature Entertainment

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English French

Releases by Date

04 dec 2013, 24 dec 2013, 29 dec 2013, 21 jul 2014, 28 sep 2014, releases by country.

• Theatrical 16
• Digital R18+
• Theatrical 15
• Theatrical R

85 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★ 8

Action! - The Unlikely Rumble: Hill v Hyams

And our marathon has come to a close, and against all chances, Hyams managed to take the crown with the film featuring the star of what is so far his final feature. Nonetheless, his final picture of his career is not the greatest, and in many respects feels like a relapse.

Interestingly, his best picture in the new century sees the filmmaker not only return to collaborating with Jean Claude Van Damme, but much of it is reminiscent of his work in the 1990s, with JCVD hammering things up in a way that isn't as entertaining as it might be, but is still fairly amusing. The dynamic between Jones and Scott isn't…

Review by matt lynch ★★★

best mismatched-buddies-fight-mercenaries-in-a-national-park movie since BROKEN ARROW. kind of the DTV sequel i didn't know i wanted.

Review by {Todd} ★★ 3

**See where this movie falls in my JCVD Rankings List*** boxd.it/1ufiY

Holy hell you are not a true JCVD fan if you have not seen this stupid as fuck film. Orlando Jones and Tom Everitt Scott are cashing checks and phoning it in on the way down while JCVD is fucking sleighing it as a flamboyant, douchey eco-terrorist drug-dealing CANADIAN! I feel like JCVD just got to do whatever he wanted on this film and any time he is not on screen you are only wanting him to be on screen again. The problem with making JCVD the villain, is that it is really hard to root against JCVD....especially for Tom Everitt Scott.

Font on the credits...basic.

Watch the movie…

Review by Filipe Furtado

This don’t add too much but it’s a very solid no frills genre exercise. There is a curious tension between the goofy elements (Tom Everett Scott, action hero!), especially Van Damme hamming it up gloriously as the bad guy (he seems to be molding his performance on Travolta’s mid 90’s John Woo bad guys only he is a couple of notes higher if such a thing is possible) and Peter Hyams’ very workman like direction that treats the absurdities fairly straight and keep it a pretty tight fast moving 80 minutes. The film one huge limitation is setting way too much action at night which limits the effective with solid action choreography and staging. On the plus side, it is smart enough to avoid any feeling of nostalgia or excessive self-awareness that could weight it down it moves in does it job and disappear which is much preferable than other films that try to emulate early action films.

Review by cryptofgloom ★★★½

"Hey, you people inside, I hate guns! They are very bad for the environment!"

Damme plays in a villain role as an environmentally conscious anti-gun vegan with mad scientist hair and a bottomless pocket full of one liners and it's great.

A park ranger becomes stranded on the island he patrols with a man that wants to kill him and a gang of ruthless drug running mercenaries on the hunt for him. Goes as you'd expect, the two end up banding together against the brutes and violence pursues. The action is exhilarating and it's packed with a hefty whopping of punches, fire power and Rambo style tactics while the everyone goes toe to toe with each other in bloody beat…

Review by AndrewC ★★½

Beyond giving Jean-Claude Van Damme the chance to ham it up in a ridiculous villain role, Enemies Closer is a pretty cheap-looking bare-bones DTV actioner that is sort of fun, but not much more. The budget here is clearly dirt-cheap but a veteran director like Peter Hyams mostly makes it work by keeping the cast tiny, the movie set almost completely at night, and the runtime mercifully very short. The action is therefore the entire focus of the movie (besides the bits with Van Damme chewing the scenery) and it's generally solid even though I can hardly buy Tom Everett Scott as an action hero. Other than that, Enemies Closer isn't all that good but is mostly alright for the type of movie it is and hardly ranks as one of Van Damme's worst.

JCVD Films Ranked

Review by Jay D 's Watching ★★½

"It's all one big circle, you know, and, ah, I don't have the time."

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Review by Raphael Georg Klopper ★★★

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Review by Florin Scanlon ★★½

"When I was a little boy at my grandmama's place she had a lovely goose. I named her Edith, as for the French singer Edith Piaf. I truly loved that goose. Everybody thought it was funny; and one night when we were at dinner my grandmama said to me 'Edith tastes good, no?'. I ran from that table, I puked up, I cried like a child. Ever since I became a vegan. I'm telling you, I had to kill her." - Xander

Van Damme plays a vegan.

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Review by Joe ★★★½

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Review by Robert Franco 1

the story is mid, the action isn’t very exciting, and it’s pretty much your standard DTV action movie. but man… evil JCVD fucking rocks!

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Enemies closer blu-ray review.

Enemies Closer (2014)

Genre(s): Thriller, Action Lionsgate | R – 84 min. – $24.99 | March 11, 2014

THE MOVIE – 2.5/5

Along with RoboCop and Endless Love , the 1980s is not only making a comeback with remakes but also in the script arena and demonstrated in the action-thriller Enemies Closer , a direct-to-video flick that makes you cringe seeing Van Damme aging not so gracefully and also reminding you Orlando Jones is still around after a period in the early 2000s where he was co-starring in a numerous amount of movies as Hollywood thought they found their new Chris Tucker (who himself has been MIA outside of Silver Linings Playbook ). Anyway, add in Tom Everett Scott and you’ve got one heck of a film going and honestly, acknowledging its numerous faults, this isn’t that bad of a flick.

The story opens on a plane crashing into a lake which is kind of symbolic for this movie followed by the title card. Henry (TOM EVERETT SCOTT) is a forest ranger spending his days leading tours and being a buzzkill to others who want to hike and drink alcohol. There’s more to Henry as we discover later, though he’s a jovial soul helping others including checking in on the only other inhabitant in the forest of a cranky hermit.

Meanwhile, we are then taken to an ICE offices covering the Canadian border where apparently the U.S. sends their dullest and dumbest to work. When they track the downed plane seen in the opening, they know drugs must be involved as it was traveling at a low altitude. When they get a knock at the door these numb nuts are surprised to find the Canadian Mounties outside offering to help in the search, though sharp audience members will be keen that these Mounties very well may be phonies, only confirmed when their leader, Xander (JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME), enters and is allowed to close the door behind him. After being rudely denied again the offer for help, Xander quickly dismantles the idiots one by one.

Side note about Van Damme, don’t be drinking when he appears because you’ll likely spit it out your nose at how ridiculous he looks with hair screaming at him to just go bald already; you’re not fooling anyone!

But I digress, Henry rescues a young woman (LINZEY COCKER) after her leg is trapped under a rock and there appears to be a spark between the two of them and they agree to have dinner later that night. However, not everything will go as planned as Henry is being stalked by a man named Clay (ORLANDO JONES) who, when he confronts Henry, we find out is the brother of a fellow special forces soldier serving under Henry’s old unit and who was killed in the line of duty; now Clay blames Henry for his brother’s death and wants to exact revenge.

These two stories collide of course when, as Clay takes Henry out to kill him, come in contact with Xander’s crew on a boat and when Henry and Clay are fired upon, Clay returns the favor killing Xander’s much needed diver who was to go in and retrieve the drugs from the submerged plane. Well, not leaving anything to chance, Xander seems to know a lot about Henry and knows his military skills which included deep diving and now the race is on to track him down. In order to survive, Henry and Clay decide it best to join forces in order to elude the pursuiters and survive the night.

I can put Enemies Closer in one simple sentence: it’s not a very good movie, plain and simple. That being said, whenever Van Damme is onscreen, it’s a whole hell lot of fun seeing the man basically go all out with his outlandish performance, not to mention ridiculous hair style, and by god, I loved every bit of it. When we go outside of his scenes, it does get bogged down a bit although I will give credit to both Tom Everett Scott and even Orlando Jones for turning in respectable performances especially considering the script, by Eric and James Bromberg (both making their debuts as feature scriptwriters), is at best half baked but good enough I suppose to keep one’s attention through the short 75-minute running time.

Sufficiently directed by Peter Hyams ( Timecop , Sudden Death ), Enemies Closer might be worth a look some time down the road but for now, pass it on by as there are plenty of other choices in both the rental and retail market.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 2.0/5

This release comes with a matted slip cover . Inside the case is a code for the UltraViolet digital copy.

Audio Commentary – Director Peter Hyams provides a low key but relatively informative track talking about the project, working with Van Damme and other elements about the story and the actual filming.

A Closer Look: Making Enemies Closer (7:31; HD) is a standard behind-the-scenes featurette with on-set/on-location sound bites with the crew and main cast.

Previews – The Expendables 2 , Escape Plan , Dredd

VIDEO – 4.25/5

Lionsgate unleashes Enemies Closer onto Blu-ray presented with a 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio and a respectable, albeit not breathtaking, 1080p high-definition transfer. The detail levels are mostly good and the colors appear to be nicely balanced for the daylight scenes. The darker scenes also appear to be pretty good never showing up any artifacting or pixilation.

AUDIO – 4.0/5

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track isn’t as high-powered as I expected but its serviceable enough between the quieter dialogue scenes and when the action picks up, so does the track giving a decent oomph to an otherwise standard lossless track.

OVERALL – 3.0/5

Overall, Enemies Closer often times can be one of those so bad it’s good flicks but only when Van Damme and his striking hairdo is on camera and appearing to have been in a new restaurant. Other than that, the film is mostly forgettable that no doubt will find a home on USA Network. The Blu-ray offers limited bonus material but the audio and video transfers are apparently both good enough.

 The Movieman Published: 03/02/2014

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Enemies Closer Reviews

• 49   Metascore
• 1 hr 25 mins
• Drama, Suspense, Action & Adventure
• Watchlist Where to Watch

Two enemies team up to fight a drug cartel that's searching for a missing shipment on the US-Canada border.

"I take orders from the Octoboss."

Enemies Closer

Scott plays Henry, an ex-Navy SEAL trying to figure out his post-war life while working as the ranger of a state park that’s an isolated island with only one other person, an old man, living on it. This is a recipe for having to fight with a couple of bears over pic-a-nic baskets, but he lucks out and all he has to deal with is being in the way when a small plane smuggling “a load of some very naughty shit” crashes in the water nearby and a ruthless gang of killers come looking for it. I mean, it’s a pain in the ass, but it’s more within his skill set.

Early in the day Henry helps an injured hiker, Kayla (Linzey Cocker). They have a good flirtatious chemistry and as she canoes off the island she convinces this recluse to come meet her for dinner that night. So while some of this is going on there’s a “shit, I was gonna have that date” disappointment hanging over him. The script by Eric and James Bromberg is routine but effective, weaving in all the necessary dramatic variations on the simple standoff: the titleistical pairing of rivals, a confrontation with the old man on the island that turns into a western-style siege, Kayla coming to look for him, dealing with his trauma about what happened in the war and what he’s going to do with his life now, etc. And the bad guys have a good reason to keep this SEAL alive: he kills their diver, who was gonna pull the drugs out of the water for them.

Technically this is not a Van Damme vehicle, this is a Tom Everett Scott vehicle. He brings a really appealing rugged nice guy quality to the role that you wouldn’t get from most straight up action stars. But let’s call out the elephant in the room: we’d still rather see a guy who can do a flying kick. Having an actor like Scott as the lead instead of a martial artist means the fights (choreographer: Borislav Iliev, LONDON HAS FALLEN , EL GRINGO ) involve alot of stunt doubles punching and wrestling in silhouette. On the other hand, having Van Damme as the villain, Xander, balances things out, because he’s doing kicks and acrobatics that are not normally provided by a Rickman, a Boothe or a Bogosian type villain. More importantly, Van Damme’s unusual acting performance makes up for any action deficiencies, and turns a decent movie into a special one.

The introduction of Xander alone surpasses some of the later DTV Van Damme movies in my opinion. A guy claiming to be a Canadian officer (Zahary Baharov, COMMAND PERFORMANCE ) shows up at an American police outpost on the U.S. side of the border, offering to assist them in finding the crashed plane. The Americans tell him he’s out of his jurisdiction, makes fun of him for riding a horse and tells him to “giddyup.”

So he goes outside to his squad and its leader, Xander, who sighs, tells them to block the exits, goes in and closes the door behind him.

“Hey, what the fuck, Frenchie?”

His first English lines in the movie are, “Do I look funny to you? Is it my shoes? You see, I don’t wear leather. I’m a vegan. It’s for the environment. I’m helping the planet.” He goes on to lecture these incredulous cops about the environmental consequences of the meat industry, making them laugh. It’s an uncomfortable, threatening intrusion that’s a little bit eggplant speech in TRUE ROMANCE , a little bit Chop Top touring the radio station in TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2 . He weirds them out, then single-handedly murders all of them. He bashes a guy with a phone, breaks a CD in half and slits a guy’s throat with it. Viva physical media. When his right hand man comes in to save him from the last guy, who has him in a chokehold, he says, “ He’s the one that needs help. He just doesn’t know it yet.” And he is correct.

What I have neglected to mention so far is that he does all this while disguised as a mountie and with a puffy, clownish hairdo. But he doesn’t mug, he doesn’t have that embarrassing trying-to-be-funny vibe you might expect. He just plays it like he’s kind of an odd, eccentric guy and can’t help being himself. He has a big heart for the planet and a cold rock for humans. At times it makes him very funny, but I also think he’s pretty scary. There’s a certain Anton Chighur in that opening, where he terrorizes them while looking ridiculous, inviting them to laugh at him so he can headbutt them while they’re distracted.

He does have punchlines, though, like when he says “I hate guns” right after organically leg-choking a guy to death.

Throughout the movie he keeps doing odd things. You watch as much to see what he’ll do next as to root for Henry to get away. Xander kills a guy in the woods, then pauses to pick a strawberry and talk to it. “I wasn’t aware you grew in this park.” He kills a guy for littering. He worries about guns being bad for the environment. He tells a sad story about his grandmother slaughtering a goose he loved. Occasionally he gets to do big, insane smiles worthy of Nic Cage as Castor Troy . He’s having so much fun, and it’s contagious.

Martial artists, like all athletes, have to face the deterioration of their bodies as they age. So it’s often said of action stars like, say, Jackie Chan, that they must make different types of movies as they get older and can no longer physically match what they did in their heyday. Western asskickers like Eastwood, Stallone and Schwarzenegger have found ways to address and take advantage of their age. But of the martial artists I don’t know a better example than Van Damme of one who has dealt with a slowing body by strengthening his acting. This Xander character shows brilliant comic chops that Van Damme really, really didn’t have when he was trying to quip back and forth with Dennis Rodman in DOUBLE TEAM . In the last less-than-a-decade, Van Damme has given some genuinely impressive performances. Often they are sad, this is the funniest one. I’m so glad he may have a chance to utilize these skills in the Amazon series Jean-Claude Van Johnson .

In a way this is a family affair. Van Damme’s son Kristopher Van Varenberg plays a small role, as is often the case these days. And Hyams’ son John (who of course directed Van Damme in UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: REGENERATION , UNIVERSAL SOLDIER: DAY OF RECKONING and DRAGON EYES , and who later directed Scott in Z-Nation ) is the editor for this one. Maybe that’s to repay his father for the cinematography on REGENERATION. I don’t know if it was his idea or not, but the opening is a particularly elegant piece of editing. Silent credits over black cut to a beautiful static shot of water under an overcast sky. A small plane swoops down over the water, arcs up, shooting vertically. We hear the engine puttering out until it dies, and then we watch it plummet and crash into the water. Still no music. Cut to title over black.

Beautiful. Little touches like that can make a b-movie sing.

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8 Responses to “Enemies Closer”

August 24th, 2016 at 11:00 am

Wasn´t it implied in the backstory that he loved that goose perhaps a little bit too much? It´s been awhile since I first saw it, but it struck me as weird at the time.

August 24th, 2016 at 11:35 am

Tom Everret Scott still really looks like young Tom Hanks to me.

JCVD is so much fun in this. It’s like his PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS. I still watch his death scene (SPOILER) at least twice a month.

August 24th, 2016 at 11:48 am

I liked this movie so much more than I expected to. Van Damme really has come so far as a performer in the last few years. He’s gone from action star to character actor with action chops and it really feels like he’s on the cusp of a whole new era in his career.

August 24th, 2016 at 1:16 pm

This movie was really enjoyable. I like how the plot seemed to mash up two different scripts into one. And it seemed like JCVD was having a blast. Who would have thought that of all the 80s action stars, he would improve the most with age?

August 24th, 2016 at 8:19 pm

Scott may not be a martial artist (same goes for Orlando Jones), but I thought the fight scenes were actually pretty good. They didn’t have the mind blowing ability of something Scott Adkins could do, but there were several moves that were impressive.

I really liked how they were shot, too. I love a good steady cam. I also thought the lighting was just right. It was dim enough that you couldn’t easily spot the stunt double, but not so dim you couldn’t tell what was going on. And the dimness made complete sense in the setting.

Van Damme was really stellar and that last scene of his was the cat’s meow (weird phrase inspired by Xander. I think he’d approve.). And how many movies have a fight scene in a tree? I mean, come on, that’s definitely striving for excellence.

August 25th, 2016 at 2:48 am

You can’t imagine how happy I was when I randomly found out that this movie was available for streaming. And yes, it’s the most entertaining DIE HARD IN A ___________ movie that I’ve seen in a long time. It would have worked without JCVD, but he and his joyful performance really makes this movie something special.

August 28th, 2016 at 8:28 am

I’m 11 minutes in and can tell this’ll be a cult classic for me.

October 13th, 2016 at 11:28 pm

Nice to see Jean-Claude here getting to play goofy and having a bit of fun after all the beaten-down sadsacks he’s been specializing in over the past few years. I don’t know if I could call this great acting as much as a series of great little vignettes, but it’s fun to watch. I wish the dialogue was a bit clearer though … I think there are some pretty funny lines that I either missed or missed the full impact of.

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