Product: Legionnaire [VHS]
Rating: 3.0
Actually, it's not that bad
I think the television listing description I read on this movie was misleading - actually no, it was wrong. According to what my TiVo said the story followed a 1920s playboy who returns from a stint in the Foreign Legion to reclaim his former lover (a mobster's girl). Obviously the person who wrote this has never seen this movie. For starters he wasn't so much a playboy as he was a boxer and for second he never returns to France to reclaim his former lover. In fact we learn through the progress of the film that the woman in question has emigrated to the United States.Okay, enough gripes about how inaccurate tv listings can be - what did I think about the movie in question. It's actually okay as far as Jean Claude VanDamme movies go, except he really doesn't do much in the way of martial arts as he has in previous films. Instead he relies more on a rifle to shoot charging North African tribesmen or fists to straighten out fellow Foreign Legionnaire's who get their kicks out of bullying their weaker colleagues.Jean Claude plays a boxer who, after reneging on a promise to throw a fight, escapes into the French Foreign Legion to flee the clutches of a murderous mobster. There he is flung headfirst into the North Africa war between the local nomadic tribesmen and the occupying French forces.What was really a treat was the presence of Steven Berkoff. It's been awhile since I have seen him in a movie. He was a very high profile in the early to mid 1980s in movies such as `Beverly Hills Cop,' `Octopussy' and `Rambo: First Blood Part II' but then seemed to disappear from view. Here he plays the Foreign Legion commander who must lick the raw recruits into shape - and he dominates every scene in which he appears.The action scenes are also well staged and you feel the danger in which the troops are thrust into, the movie makers also do a good job of conveying the confusion and chaos that comes from close quarters fighting.If you enjoyed other Jean Claude movies then chances are this one will also hit the spot. It's not quite as good as `Sudden Death' (my favorite Jean Claude picture) but it's an entertaining ride.