The Shepard (Van Dammage!!!)

[Alex]

I'm not going to attempt to review this in any kind of serious manner, too much nostalgia and intoxication involved in the viewing to give some kind of objective opinion. I'll just say that if you want to see good old Jean Claude in a loud dumb cheap OTT actionfest, this is well worth your time. Beyond that, i'll just give you some bullet points for details

Here's what's good:

- Van Damme can still kick pretty high. The age shows, but not to the point where it detracts from the asswhooping

- Isaac Florentine and JJ Perry are getting really good at creating exciting, dynamic fight sequences. The choreography is simple but effective, and considering the fact that Van Damme was never one for any kind of complicated sparring it fits really well. They did a bit better with Undisputed 2, but in all fairness Michael Jai White is a far more versatile screen fighter than JCVD ever was.

- Scott Adkins is a kicking beast. He gets only a bit of time to do his thing, but for me his parts were the most memorable. I'd love to see this guy get involved in something made in HK, not because I don't have confidence in JJ Perry's choreography, but because I'd love to see him take on somebody like Donnie in an all out leg duel.

- In addition to creating good fights, Florentine shows a lot of premise as a director in that rediculous OTT 80's style way. Check out the sequence build around an armed/armoured coach bus full of nuns - this is some pretty inspired thinking. Also, he is well aware of his audience and why they're watching this in the first place, so maximizes the JCVD fetishizing. Long takes of Van Dammage in slow motion rule the day.

Here's the bad:

- The plot is idiotic bordering on non-existent. I wasn't expecting anything good, but some basic coherence wouldn't have hurt. The dialogue is hilariously bad, which actually may deserve a spot with the positives because something so funny can't be bad regardless of intention.

- As good as Florentine is with fights and concepts for set pieces, he's not really that great with actual gunfighting. Some parts do a bit better than others, however overall it lacks in dynamic, grace and momentum. Since shoot outs make up a decent chunk of the action here, it's a fairly big detractor from the overall quality of the movie.

All I can say in the end is that I was very entertained throughout, I am looking forward to anything Florentine and/or Adkins are involved in the future, and it inspired me to look into some of JCVD's other dtv output.

[Righteous Master]

I have always liked JCVD. Sure he is no master, but his films are usually pretty entertaining. I just recently finished watching the Quest with JCVD. Saw this one in the theatre years ago, but wanted to see it again. I feel that this is one of his better films.

[Yakuza954]

This wasn't as good as I thought it was it going to be. Scott Adkins looks good as usual, but doesn't get enough to do. Van Damme's fighting scenes were pretty unimpressive. I think it's to the point where he should abandon martial arts in his movies altogether.

[gorhama]

I agree while Van Damme has aged he isn't in the same fighting shape. That being said he put forth a great effort for this role and the movie is a great action movie.

Scott Adkins steals the show and offers a great kicking display..that few his size can match!!!

Van Damme looks great and can still mix it up and I'm glad the choregrapher keed him grounded, he still can kick when needed too.

Of course since it's DTV some of the acting, the plot and other things are not the best...but hey isn't that also some of the charm??

All in all one of Van Dammes best DTV movies and I for one hope for more.

[Bravery]

I enjoyed the movie, decent sory-- man (Van Damme)joins the Border Patrol to take on drug smugglers and no one understands why--dun dun dun.

Fight scenes where okay, in Van Damme's first on screen fight he takes a bar of jobbers who seem to think he is weak because he walks around with a rabbit, who would think that other than jobbers;). The fights for me where brought down because of the slowed down parts of those scenes but were still enjoyable.

I think this was his best of the straight to home releases and it stayed away from being cheesy. I do feel I over payed but, the 20$ selling price is always over priced on these straight to's.

[Morgoth Bauglir]

Uh oh, it looks like we got a nasty spam leak. Hopefully it gets clogged soon.

[AlbertV]

I am posting a review of the film on my Asian Impact Cinema site today, but I enjoyed it. I think Scott Adkins is definitely one of the best new superkickers today. As much as I was hoping for a kicking showdown between JCVD and Adkins, I felt like in a way, even though he played the bad guy, Adkins was being "passed the torch" per se by JCVD. In fact, Adkins idolized JCVD as it was Bloodsport that influenced Adkins to take up martial arts.

I think Adkins should return to HK someday for a movie. He was in EXTREME CHALLENGE, THE ACCIDENTAL SPY, and THE MEDALLION, all Hong Kong films. However, it was his films here where he really got to strut his stuff.