MVD Releases a Retro-Covered Collector's Edition of DOUBLE IMPACT on Blu-ray, Makes You Feel the Impact and Love It!
When I was 10, my friend Anna and I mowed my front and back lawn, as well as raked the leaves so my mom would buy me a VHS copy of Double Impact. I still remember that day like it was yesterday because we worked hard for that VHS. It was mine, and I watched it religiously. Twice the Van Dammage? Sign me up. JCVD was my cinematic superhero as a kid, and I’ve never looked back.
Double Impact is the quintessential white-knuckle action movie and has it all — JCVD facing off with his greatest onscreen villain, Bolo Yeung; JCVD’s signature 360 roundhouse kick; JCVD’s Chad and Alex being polar opposites but sharing one amazing trait: kicking ass; slow-motion shootouts; JCVD 360 rolling on the ground while shooting every bad guy in sight; and a comparison of Donald Trump to one of the film’s nastiest villains — everything you need for a great Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. Double Impact is a special movie because it was co-written by Van Damme and directed by Sheldon Lettich, who co-wrote Bloodsport (which shot JCVD to international fame), and teamed back up with him for Lionheart (and later on, The Order).
Decades later, MVD is releasing an uber-cool retro Blu-ray collector’s edition release of the film. The restoration makes you feel the original print’s impact — full screen (1.85:1 aspect ratio) that’s clean up but does feel like a great 90s action movie that it is. The audio presented in Surround English 2.0 (LPCM) makes sure you hear every kick, punch, bone-snap, and bullet fly by.
As a part of their Rewind Collection, the slipcover looks like an old, beat-up VHS cover with all the stickers you would see at a mom and pop VHS store. Making this way is what makes collecting slipcovers fun — especially if you lived during the VHS-era.
These days, extra features are getting scarce, especially for major studio releases. Boutiques like MVD and Criterion are packing their releases with an avalanche of great extra features. Included for MVD’s Double Impact Collector’s Edition release are the following features:
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation of the main feature in 1.85:1 aspect ratio
English Surround DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0
English, Spanish, French Subtitles
The Making of Double Impact: Part 1 (HD, 53 mins)
The Making of Double Impact: Part 2 (59 mins) [A two part feature length retrospective documentary about the making of the film featuring interviews with star and co-writer Jean-Claude Van Damme, director and co-writer Sheldon Lettich, producer Ashok Amritraj, co-star Cory Everson-Donia, co-star and fight coordinator Peter Malota and ''Chad'' and ''Alex'' photo doubles Jeff Rector & Jerry Rector]
Double Impact: Deleted / Extended Scenes (SD, 54 mins
Double Impact: Anatomy of a Scene (with Director Sheldon Lettich) (HD, 8 mins)
Original Theatrical Trailer (SD)
Collectible Mini-Poster
There are a lot of movies you can spend your money on — MVD’s retro collector’s edition of Double Impact is one of them. The final shot of double impact sums up how I feel about this release.
