For the past five years or so, the films of Jean-Claude Van Damme have served as a sort of American training ground for such legendary Hong Kong filmmakers as John Woo (Hard Target), Ringo Lam (Maximum Risk), and Tsui Hark (Double Team). Hard Target is considered by most to be Van Damme's best film, but his films with Hark and Lam were incoherent, unsuccessful attempts to bring the visceral excitement of Hong Kong cinema to the unremarkable world of the Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle. Double Team, Van Damme's last film with Hark, was a fairly standard, albeit batshit-crazy, action movie, redeemed only by a handful of compelling visual touches. Knock Off is the martial artist's second film with Hark. While Double Team was a Van Damme movie that just happened to be directed by the Steven Spielberg of Hong Kong, Knock Off is, thankfully, a Tsui Hark movie that just happens to star Van Damme. From its Hong Kong setting to its rapid cutting to its hyperactive camera work, Knock Off is a recognizably Hong Kong film, and it benefits from Hark's sensible decision to treat Van Damme as just another element of a crowded mise en scene. Knock Off is essentially just an above-average Hong Kong action movie, but as such, it's still far better than just about anything else Van Damme has done. It's not likely that Knock Off will help the actor win over the Merchant-Ivory contingent, and Steven E. De Souza's script is predictably witless, but for the most part, Knock Off is top-notch escapist fare.