Ah, the days of innocence, when movie producers actually thought that cloning a B-movie actor could result in a B+ movie.
Who am I to argue? I liked this flick. Of course, I've seen every Jean-Claude Van Damme movie multiple times, so maybe you don't want to take my word for it.
The year: 1991. Double the excitement! Double the mirrors! Double the Van Damme!
That's right, Double Impact has JCVD playing two roles at the same time — twin brothers who want to avenge their parents' deaths. Of course, they're both experts in karate and escaping from deadly situations.
The backstory is even more ridiculous. The two little Jeans (Alex and Chad) were born in Hong Kong to a wealthy European couple, but then Papa and Momma were gunned down by evil badguys. A friend carried the tykes to safety — an orphanage run by French nuns, no less.
Eventually the brothers were split up for their safety. JCVD1 stayed in Hong Kong, greased back his hair and became moody. JCVD2 moved to the United States, started wearing pastel-colored clothes and is now "teaching" aerobics to horny women.
But ... plot device! Family friend shows up in L.A. to tell JCVD2 it's time for revenge. They fly to Asia and meet up with JCVD1, who's worried that Mr. Identical Twin will steal his girlfriend. (Later in the movie a drunk JCVD1 subjects us to a bizarre imagined sex scene between JCVD2 and JCVD1's honey.)
While they're not making fun of each others' clothes, the two Jean-Claudes wreak havoc on the Hong Kong underworld, as the bad guys take forever to figure out how JCVD can be in two places at once. Once the main villain solves the mystery, he gets to utter what may be the most famous line from a Jean-Clade Van Damme movie: "There's ... two of them!" Meanwhile, there's lots of gunfights. These are notable for the shooters' spectacularly bad aim and infinite clips.
Eventually, the two JCVDs put aside their differences. They each find an evil villain to gloriously kill in the climactic scene. One of the villains is Bolo Yeung, who's always willing to let Van Damme beat him up.
Sheldon Lettich directed this turd. He also split the screenplay duties with Jean-Clade himself. (For one of them, I bet it was more "dictation" than "writing.")
Jean-Claude's stats
Unnecessary splits: This movie has what I feel is Jean Claude's skankiest split. In the beginning of the movie, we see JCVD2 teaching his aerobics class. Surrounding him are about 20 women wearing pink leotards and licking their lips. (Note that the chicks aren't exercising at all.) JCVD2 says "This is a split!" and does one. The women all moan. We're going down in flames!
Size of mullet: Neither of Jean-Claude's alter egos have the mullet going on. I'm a little surprised, to be honest.
Lengths gone to explain JCVD's Belgian accent: Well, I suppose when you've got orphaned twins in Hong Kong, where else will you drop them off other than a French nunnery?
Sources: I've seen this movie too many times. IMDB helped a bit, too.