‘Knock Off’ Big Turnoff

Revered Hong Kong director Tsui Hark’s latest action film gets off to a dismal start and never recovers. Working again with box-office underachiever Jean-Claude Van Damme (they made last year’s “Double Team”), Hark also must contend with an incomprehensible, implausible script and an oddball cast that includes Rob Schneider, Lela Rochon and Paul Sorvino.

This mindless, joyless slug-kick-and-shoot fest won’t be around long and hasn’t got much of a future on video, though it could be a winner worldwide. The invasion of Hollywood by Hark and other Hong Kong filmmakers may have run out of gas (with the exception of Jackie Chan).

A better title for this one would be “Overkill.” From Van Damme’s sunnier, brighter personality to the incoherent mise en scene in most sequences, “Knock Off” never tries hard to be audience-friendly but keeps pouring on the explosions, chases, stunts and pathetic attempts at humor.

This last point is a major disappointment in light of Hark’s best films made in his prime. The buddy-buddy buffoonery between Van Damme and Schneider is flat. While there’s one almost sexy/funny scene between Schneider and Rochon, there’s no spark of originality or wit to the proceedings.

The title refers to cheap, Hong Kong-made copies of brand-name goods - from dolls to jeans - and Van Damme plays the King of the Knock Offs who has gone straight with shifty partner Schneider.

From a calamitous rickshaw race to a warehouse apocalypse to a huge exploding Buddha to the endless climax on a container ship, “Knock Off” is a series of set pieces with short, unsatisfying attempts at exposition. Hark has been reduced to knocking off his own brand of usually superchoreographed razzle-dazzle.

“Knock Off” Location: North Division, Spokane Valley Mall and Showboat cinemas Running time: 1:30 Rating: R