Pound of Flesh (2015)

Pound of Flesh is a 2015 Canadian action thriller film directed by Ernie Barbarash, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Charlotte Peters, and Darren Shahlavi. It is the third collaboration between Van Damme and Barbarash (following Assassination Games in 2011 and Six Bullets in 2012).

Plot.

Deacon, a former black-ops agent, is in Manila, Philippines awaiting an operation to donate his kidney to his dying niece. He awakens the day before the procedure to find he is a victim of organ theft. Stitched up and furious, Deacon descends from his opulent hotel in search of his stolen kidney and carves a blood-soaked path through the darkest corners of the city – brothels, fight clubs, back-alley black markets, and elite billionaire estates. The clock is ticking for his niece and with each step he loses blood; Deacon, his brother, and his former underworld connections will journey through society’s seedy underbelly, proving to anyone who crosses their path, nothing means more to a man than his flesh and blood.

End of a Gun (2016) Biography, Plot, Trailer

Filming.

Principal photography and production ended on May 24, 2014. On January 14, 2015, Shahlavi died in his sleep at the age of 42. The film’s end credits start with an In memoriam to him.

Critical response

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 17%, based on 12 reviews, and an average rating of 3.7/10. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 41 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating “mixed or average reviews”.

Cast

Jean-Claude Van Damme as Agent Deacon Lyle
Charlotte Peters as Anna Riley
Darren Shahlavi as Drake
Aki Aleong as Kung
John Ralston as George Lyle
Jason Tobin as Liam
Philippe Joly as Zoltan
Brahim Achabbakhe as Nardo
Andrew Ng as Father Fong
Mike Leeder as Boris
Ryan ‘Ranga’ Pyne as Yevgeny
Marsha Yuan as Bette
Terese Cilluffo as Connie
Adele Baughan as Isabella Lyle
TFBOYS as Boy Band
David P Booth as Simon Rants Sr.
James Houghton as Simon Rants Jr.