Jean-Claude Van Damme (“Death Warrant”, “The Quest”) stars in “In Hell”. This is a violent and pretty disturbing prison flick and it takes itself much more seriously than a lot of Van Damme movies. It’s not amazing or anything but I did respect it for its brutality.

Kyle LeBlanc (Van Damme) is America working in Russia. When his wife is raped and murdered, the corrupt court lets the man responsible go free. Kyle lashes out and kills the man and is sent to a tough Russian prison. He is forced to fight with the other prisoners and slowly loses his sense of identity.

We know Van Damme is not a great actor but here, the script helps his performance a lot. Van Damme wisely decides not to use any fancy martial arts moves as he uses a more realistic style of fighting here. It reminded me of what Jackie Chan did in “Shinjuku Incident”. There are a lot of other characters are we don’t really get a lot of time with them. I wish the warden got more time to shine. There is also a large black inmate that starts to almost narrate the last half of the movie. I think they were trying to do a “Shawshank Redemption” type of thing but it just didn’t really work.

“In Hell” has very realistic fight sequences and it also has depictions of intimidation, torture and rape. The movie doesn’t start off all that well but the middle act is really entertaining. The movie was directed by Ringo Lam, who also worked with Van Damme on “Replicant” (another underrated Van Damme movie). If you like prison movies or you want to see Van Damme do something that is more serious then this is worth checking out. Just make sure kids don’t see this one because it’s not a fun and goofy action flick.