"Black Water" has plenty of negative user reviews, which I don't fully understand. Everything you need to know, including the flaws, is basically on the box. An aging Jean-Claude Van Damme is going to hit and/or shoot a bunch of cardboard villains on a cheap-looking submarine set, turn away if you're not into that. Then again, who is not into that? The writers do thicken the plot with a couple of twists, but these are so transparant that you just roll your eyes whenever they do one of their 'reveals'.
Dolph Lundgren is also on the box, but they must have had him for a single day. He pretty much sits out the first two acts, and I do mean that literally. He's conveniently stuck in a prison, occasionally reacting (without lines) to the action because otherwise we would forget he's there. Even in the final act, he doesn't really do all that much. Is Lundgren really a huge selling point at this stage in his career? It's nice to see these guys reunite after the success of "Universal Soldier", but Lundgren could be cut from this movie with very little consequences.
"Black Water" doesn't go much further than "Die Hard" on a submarine, but that's fine. It moves at a good pace, Van Damme still looks fit for his age and they do what they can with an obviously very limited budget. I've got to respect Van Damme for keeping a serious work ethic here. His movies have been going straight to DVD for more than a decade, but they've never become downright unwatchable like most of Steven Seagal's recent output. Fading stars from the 90s are often lured into 'geezer teasers', where they do the bare minimum and rely heavily on body doubles and ADR to 'finish' the 'movie'. Nicolas Cage, John Travolta and (unfortunately) Bruce Willis are noteworthy offenders here, churning out multiple movies each year that crash and die on some streaming service. Van Damme is clearly not like that, he still wants to make quality entertainment against all odds.
"Black Water" is not the best movie ever. Hell, it's not even the best movie named "Black Water". With that said, I enjoyed it for what it was.
Dolph Lundgren is also on the box, but they must have had him for a single day. He pretty much sits out the first two acts, and I do mean that literally. He's conveniently stuck in a prison, occasionally reacting (without lines) to the action because otherwise we would forget he's there. Even in the final act, he doesn't really do all that much. Is Lundgren really a huge selling point at this stage in his career? It's nice to see these guys reunite after the success of "Universal Soldier", but Lundgren could be cut from this movie with very little consequences.
"Black Water" doesn't go much further than "Die Hard" on a submarine, but that's fine. It moves at a good pace, Van Damme still looks fit for his age and they do what they can with an obviously very limited budget. I've got to respect Van Damme for keeping a serious work ethic here. His movies have been going straight to DVD for more than a decade, but they've never become downright unwatchable like most of Steven Seagal's recent output. Fading stars from the 90s are often lured into 'geezer teasers', where they do the bare minimum and rely heavily on body doubles and ADR to 'finish' the 'movie'. Nicolas Cage, John Travolta and (unfortunately) Bruce Willis are noteworthy offenders here, churning out multiple movies each year that crash and die on some streaming service. Van Damme is clearly not like that, he still wants to make quality entertainment against all odds.
"Black Water" is not the best movie ever. Hell, it's not even the best movie named "Black Water". With that said, I enjoyed it for what it was.