| Pound of Flesh | |
| Director: | Ernie Barbarash |
| Music: | Paul Michael Thomas |
| Cinematography: | Cliff Hokanson |
| Editing: | Asim Nuraney |
| Distributor: | Entertainment One |
| Runtime: | 104 minutes |
| Country: | Canada |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $7,500,000[1] |
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.[2] It is the third collaboration between Van Damme and Barbarash (following Assassination Games in 2011 and Six Bullets in 2012).
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 after 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.
Principal photography and production ended on May 24, 2014.[3]
On January 14, 2015, Shahlavi died in his sleep at the age of 42.[4] The film's end credits start with an In memoriam to him.
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.[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 41 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[6]