Product: Legionnaire [VHS]
Rating: 5.0
Outside JCVD's box, but well within roundhouse range
The Jean Claude Van Damme Review Matrix (JCVD-RM)1. Who is he? A 1920s French boxer named Alain Lefevre, a womanizing champion boxer who refuses to take a dive, and has his eyes/history for a mobster's girlfriend2. Which family member/friend must be avenged? A long-time friend and boxing promoter gets 86'd after a crooked fight.3. Does he take his shirt off? And pants in an all male shower, in a rare bare-butt scene for JCVD4. Does he have sex with a C-List actress? No, but there is that shower...5. Is there a tournament? No tournament at all, this is a different movie for Van Damme6. Is training needed for this tournament? Aaaarmy training sir!7. Does he do the splits in training or in the tournament? No splits are necessary when you have a rifle8. Does he punch someone in the balls? Sadly, JCVD is breaking all of his movie rules in this one.9. Does he do a series of flying or 360 kicks? Unbelievably, he doesn't kick at all. I guess being a boxer makes kicking forbidden.10. Is his enemy unbeatable? A bunch of Berber warriors on horses are hardly worthy of JCVD's awe-inspiring will to win.11. Does he overcome an injury or other hindrance? Throughout this movie there is more than one person who poses a roadblock for JCVD. The love of his life is lost to him early on. While in the French Foreign Legion he has to team up with a squirrelly Frenchman named Rosetti who can't march more than a day without falling out, a surly black American who breaks every rule, and a posh Brit with a drinking problem who was dishonorably discharged from the British military.12. Does he win? This might be the first movie since No Retreat No Surrender in which JCVD is not the unequivocal winner and hero of the movie.Straying quite a bit from his norm, Van Damme takes on a role and a script that strays from most of his standard practices. Very little fighting immediately makes it foreign territory for him, but the fact that this plays out like a Lawrence of Arabia (maybe even Beau Geste) than Lionheart - another movie in which he plays a character on the run who joins the French Foreign Legion and gets stationed in northern Africa.Production values and cinematography in this film truly reflect the 35 million dollar budget. Stunning desert landscapes and multiple juxtapositions of the sun create foreboding dimensions which visually explain Lefevre's hopeless and weathered outlook on life. Other aspects of the time period are perfect, with the music and costumes providing authenticity. Even the supporting cast is superb, most notably Steven Berkoff as hard-nosed Sgt. Steinkampf.Essentially this is about men running away from lives, seeking new future, finding camaraderie and danger in the French Foreign Legion, and fighting until the last breath for survival. This movie is extremely underrated, and I highly recommend it.