
A Hong Kong fashion designer (Jean Claude Van Damme, if you can believe that billing) who had previously been involved in knock offs of major label merchandise, such as "Pumma" running shoes, attempts to go straight with the help of his new partner (Rob Schneider), who is secretly an undercover CIA agent involved in an investigation of the black market. Their main product, jeans, is involved in the knock offs, which brings a representative (Lela Rochon) of the American compan... (Full plot summary below)
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A Hong Kong fashion designer (Jean Claude Van Damme, if you can believe that billing) who had previously been involved in knock offs of major label merchandise, such as "Pumma" running shoes, attempts to go straight with the help of his new partner (Rob Schneider), who is secretly an undercover CIA agent involved in an investigation of the black market. Their main product, jeans, is involved in the knock offs, which brings a representative (Lela Rochon) of the American company to investigate. Paul Sorvino also appears as the head of the CIA operation in Hong Kong. However, just as Schneider is not as he initially seems, everyone in the film switches roles by film's end.
Leave your thoughts about Knock Off.
| Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasIt's fast, light and funny and not top-heavy with special effects and epic-scale destruction. |
| Chicago ReaderLisa AlspectorThough the jokey lines seem out of place, the somber tone of this 1998 action movie makes the political subtext -- nearly obscured by the expected double crosses, extravagant destruction, and incongruous-buddies shtick -- more sincere and less grandiose than usual. |
| VarietyJoe LeydonWorking from a formulaic script by Steven E. De Souza, Hark employs a variety of visual stratagems to keep the action fast and flashy. |
| Apollo GuideCheryl DeWolfeAction-packed, cheesy, and not worthy of the Academy's attention, but, for those so inclined, it is worth the rental price. |
| The A.V. ClubNathan RabinEssentially 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. |
| Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumVan Damme and his cronies (including Lela Rochon, Paul Sorvino, and, for no immediately graspable reason, Rob Schneider as Van Damme's rabbity sidekick) race, speed, shoot, chop, and zip through scenes of such festive mayhem, plot is a clunky afterthought, like a lopsided fake Prada label on a cheap nylon knapsack. |
| Kalamazoo GazetteJames SanfordMuch of Steven E. De Souza's script sounds like it was run through one of those erratic language translation programs... 'If he knew it was a nanobomb, he wouldn't be carrying it around like a cough drop' is one of the more memorable lines of dialogue. |
| Montreal Film JournalKevin N. LaforestAlternately the best and the worst action movie ever made, and it ends up being one big uneven mess. |
| The New York TimesLawrence Van GelderKnock Off runs breathlessly over land and water in familiar comic book fashion, offering more action than sense and next to nothing in the way of suspense, humor or romance. |
| Austin ChronicleRussell SmithIn essence, the whole Knock Off experience can be summed up neatly in four words: loud, stupid, blurry, frenetic. |