6 Bullets
Tags: suspenseful, neo noir, murder, boring, violence, flashback, revenge

Plot synopsis:
The core concept of 100 Bullets is based on the question of people willing to act on the desire of violent revenge if given the means, opportunity, and a reasonable chance to succeed. Many of the first issues involve the mysterious Agent Graves approaching someone who has been a victim of a terrible wrong. Graves gives them the opportunity to take revenge by providing a handgun, 100 bullets, and documentation about the primary target responsible for their woes. He informs the candidate the bullets are completely untraceable by any law enforcement investigation, and as soon as they are found at any crime scene, investigations will immediately cease.
Although all the revenge murders enabled by Agent Graves are presented as justifiable, the candidates are neither rewarded nor punished for accepting the offer other than their own personal satisfaction. Several people decline, but others who accept find varied success or failure. The attaché and Graves' "games" are later revealed to be only a minor part of a much broader story.
Agent Graves is the leader of a group known as The Minutemen, a group of seven men (plus one "Agent") who serve as the enforcers and police of a clandestine organization known as The Trust. The Trust was originally formed by the heads of 13 powerful European families who controlled much of the Old World's combined wealth and industry. The Trust made an offer to the kings of Europe by which they would leave the continent and their considerable influence and holdings, in exchange for complete autonomy in the still unclaimed portion of the New World. When England ignored this proposition and colonized the Roanoke Island late in the 16th century, the Minutemen were formed. The original Minutemen, seven vicious killers, eradicated the colony and all of its inhabitants, leaving behind only the cryptic message "Croatoan" as a warning, reclaiming the land for the Trust. Since this time, the Minutemen's charge has been to protect the 13 Houses of the Trust, serving as their force against outside threats and more frequently as police of the internal conflicts between the Trust families themselves. The groups' interactions are often facilitated by a person holding the title "Warlord" for the Trust, who serves as the Houses' liaison to the Minutemen.
Sometime in the late 20th century, the Minutemen were betrayed by the Trust and disbanded after Agent Graves refused to reenact "The Greatest Crime in the History of Mankind" (a re-expansion of the borders of the Trust). The Minutemen retaliated with the assassination of a hooded figure in Atlantic City, and they were then sent into hiding. Most of the Minutemen of that time were "deactivated" by Graves. These former Minutemen had their memories repressed for their own protection and were returned to "normal" lives. These events occurred prior (presumably some years) to the beginning of 100 Bullets.
As the story plays out, many of those who are offered the chance for vengeance by Graves are revealed to have been people wronged by the Trust or its agents, and six are revealed to have been Minutemen at the time of the events of Atlantic City. With his planning, some luck, and the importance of his "game", Agent Graves seeks to reactivate several of his Minutemen and recruit potential new members during the course of the series. With the occasional aid of the Trust's current Warlord, the charismatic and secretive Mr. Shepherd, Graves sets into motion a complicated and deadly plot of revenge against the Trust, which divides into factions, with younger members plotting against the older ones.
The series culminates in the downfall of the Trust and its agents, eventually revealing that the attaché and its contents are a metaphor for the limitless power of the Trust.

Review: This is a Jean-Claude Van Damme action flick.I've seen a number of his similar films over the years and feel that they have all been better than average.
Meaning that if you like action movies, Van Damme delivers with ones that you will probably watch again sometime.Like Assassination Games (2011), this one features his son and daughter (his daughter also produces).
Jean-Claude Van Damme shines as Samson Gual, an ex-mercenary haunted by tragic accidents of his past job who seeks to redeem himself when he's approached by a MMA fighter who seeks Gual's help in getting his fourteen year old daughter back after she's abducted by sex traffickers.While a bit hokey in places and some of the acting by the bit players leaving much to be desired, all the major characters do a very adequate job and the action scenes are very good.
Another Van Damme movie shot in a East European country with the same director of Assassination Games (AG), a good and standard action movie with a cheap look and some solid but basic action.And that is exactly what you get with Six Bullets but even more.
Joe Flanigan, who is basically the next big name in this movie, is great as Van Damme's co-star.
Ernie Barbarash is developing as a solid director and seems to get the some good movies out off Van Damme, who seems to step of his basic moves and shows some new stuff.
Well because it is not the average generic movie that he usually makes, where he is sort of a lone underdog hero who is fighting an uphill battle against overwhelming odds, and with some miraculous force he manages to singlehandedly emerge victorious at the end, even after having received a beating that would normally drop dead a prize-winning bull."6 Bullets" is a great story-driven movie, in which Van Damme plays Samson Gaul, a mercenary who is working in Eastern Europe to infiltrate human trafficking rings and rescue underage boys and girls, and bring them home to be reunited with their families after these horrible ordeals.
So with that in mind, then this story really takes on a personal approach and becomes more than just mindless martial arts entertainment.Plus, the storyline is really helped along by some powerful performances, not only by Van Damme, who really stepped into character and showed a great acting side, but also by Joe Flanigan (playing Andrew Fayden).The movie was nicely shot, the dialogue was good and it moved at a great pace.
This is really one of the better Van Damme movies that I have seen in a long, long time, and it is good to see that he is back in the game.There were just a couple of things in the movie that I didn't really understand.
I just happened to notice this and wonder about it."6 Bullets" is a great addition to movie collection for fans of Van Damme.
The plot borrows heavily from "Taken" and a few other movies but is pulled off well and JCVD is in good physical shape for this film, despite his haggard face.
Hot off the heels of his great villainous turn in the Expendables 2, Jean Claude Van Damme delivers another straight to video action film 6 Bullets.
The supporting cast including Stargate: Atlantis star Joe Flanigan and both Van Damme's son and daughter all do a decent job with what they are working with.
The foreign setting really helps this movie both visually and size to give it a bigger feel than it may have had being shot here in the US.While this wasn't a great movie, it still delivers enough of a kick to entertain the hard core Van Damme fans out there.
Over time Van Damme, much like the other action stars of E2 has seemed to really embrace his age and seems to have enhanced his performances a bit more.
What most impressed me about this film is the work of Jean-Claude Van Damme shows that there really is a great prejudice of the major studios with him, because the guy every movie shows that he has talent, who can act, which is a great actor, but people are prejudiced in his early films, he was not so good performance in the question, but if surpassed by their performance in fights and action scenes.
Van Damme over time just came to improve their way of working, which is showing a great actor for drama in his last film role that usually always has a dramatic story behind.
6 Bullets is an action movie with drama and suspense fantastic, not shot anything he said, I just think it's time to return to Hollywood enchergar this myth and hero of martial arts and action movies, and my prayers and hopes Van Damme is to return to the top of the world.
As a JCVD fan I've been encouraged by his some of his later work in the film 'JCVD', 'Universal Soldier: Regeneration' and 'The Expendables 2'.He's old, sure, but he's kept in shape and his acting has improved a lot over the years, he's actually quite good!
But this film is one of the cheapest pieces of crap I've seen and well beneath the actor JCVD has become in his twilight years.It's poorly written, poorly shot, poorly edited and poorly acted by everyone else in the thing!It feels like it was directed by a teen on HD camcorder.
For a guy who's improved so much, it would be nice if he was given better projects than 6 Bullets, a dreadfully slow, poorly edited and acted straight to DVD release who's 115 minutes feels more like 3 hours.6 Bullets actually begins with promise, with Van Damme in a fantastically choreographed fight scene which proves to be one of the last you'll see from him in the film.
It wouldn't be too bad if Flanigan was in the movie briefly to allow Van Damme to come in and kick some ass, but that isn't it.
Flanigan and his character's wife practically take over the movie, making you forget at parts that Van Damme is even in it, with each segment including Flanigan being gut-wrenchingly grueling.Everything 6 Bullets really has to offer is in it's opening scene.
If Liam Neeson can have a big hit with Taken then why not jump on the bandwagon.6 Bullets has Jean Claude Van Damme playing a mercenary Samson Gaul infiltrates Eastern European human trafficking rings and rescue boys and girls from the sex trade.At the beginning of the movie we see him rescue a young boy but Gaul failed to take into account the collateral damage of his actions which left two young girls dead.Haunted by this he ends up drinking and working as a butcher.The plot kicks off when a teenage American girl is kidnapped from her hotel in Romania and the parents turn to Gaul for help.
Van Damme is assisted by Joe Flanigan who plays the dad and who in the movie plays a major MMA star, therefore he can share the action scenes with Van Damme.Of course its basically a low budget Taken rip off without much verve or characterisation that the original Taken had.
First I will start with the positives, Van Damme gives a solid acting performance and shows he is still a master of fight scenes, he also looks in the best shape he has been in for a while.
I am not a big fan of Jean Claude and thought he had his hey day 20 years ago and found most of his later stuff a bit corny as though it was coming straight off a production line but I am now having to rethink this.The action in this film is not your usual fake, unconvincing kicks and roundhouses but more in the style of Taken with Liam Neeson and is very well choreographed and not your usual sanitised violence.I have always liked Joe Flanigan from Stargate Atlantis - he has always been a favorite actor and he was well cast in this.There were some really cool ideas like the pen with the hypodermic - never seen that one before.This was a rather good action movie; much much better than expected.
It has bad, cliché acting and the usual "cheap plot in a foreign country with no English-speaking actor anywhere in sight" feel to it.We all know Jean-Claude, and we love him and keep going to his movies.
He is one of the few Martial arts actors who can actually act and not just fight people.In some ways the story is a bit like the Liam Neeson film Taken.
The villains are suitably evil and I did find myself routing for the girl, along with the frustration of shouting at the screen when she did something silly.But if you like good action films and just want a few hours entertainment I would recommend this movie..
Way to go Jean Claude Van Damme; who was one of the Executive Producers of this awesome movie.
In recent years, Van Damme has shown his interest in Central Europe: Assassination Games 2011 was shot in Romania, this movie in Moldova; they are both relatively poor countries having problems with corruption and human trafficking, on which basis it is credible to create high-minded thrillers.
Van Damme in Taken - rescuing a missing girl solid direct-to-video action flick.
This is a good solid direct-to-video flick one of Van Damme solid action thriller films.
Jean-Claude Van Damme is in "Taken" film, he is rescuing a missing girl.
This is a different type of Van Damme not his best direct to video movie, like were Replicant, In Hell, The Order but the movie it self was a good action movie.
I like this film mainly for Jean-Claude Van Damme who plays Samson Gaul, an ex-mercenary hired by parents for finding missing children.Samson Gaul is hired by mixed martial arts fighter whose daughter was been kidnapped.
My favorite film about human trafficking is Skin Trade (2014) with Dolph Lundgren which is a MILES way better action movie mixed with martial arts than both movies Six Bullets and Out of Reach.
Bianca Van Varenberg - Van Damme's daughter also plays her role in this movie as Amalia one of the girl's kidnapers.Fighting is minimal, apart from the opening act, but it's quite good to see a sadistic Van Damme in which he kills 4 guys with knife.
It is the only decent movie of the three films that Van Damme did with director Ernie Barbarash.
Six Bullets is the only good decent action thriller movie of those three films.
I though it was especially weird how Jean-Claude Van Damme occasionally disappeared out of the movie, while he clearly was supposed to be the one main 'good' guy.
As 'old' as Jean-Claude Van Damme looked at times in this movie, he still shows he's perfectly capable of handling action and of playing a convincing and charismatic enough action-hero type of role.
If you don't expect great cinema, this is fine for a late Van Damme action movie.
Best of Jean-Claude Van Damme action-packed film in years!.
Six Bullets (2012) is definitely one of the best Van Damme action movies that went direct to video.
Six Bullets rapidly became one of my favorite Jean-Claude Van Damme movies; it tells the story of Samson Gaul, an ex-mercenary known for finding missing children who is hired by a mixed martial arts fighter whose daughter has been kidnapped.
Plot: An ex-mercenary Samson Gaul (Jean-Claude Van Damme) known for finding missing children is hired by a mixed martial arts fighter Andrew Fayden (Joe Flanigan) whose daughter has been kidnapped.Jean-Claude gives a great performance as Samson and there are some nice Father/Son moments between him and Kris Van Damme.
Some good direction, acting was good enough,(still I think that actors did a good job, specially Van Damme) and when it was there, action was also well directed.
This movie made me thinking that Six Bullets could be considered as Van Damme's version of the Punisher.While not as good as Taken, I'd rather watch this than Taken 3.
Ernie Barbarash did a good job directing this movie, at least the film was so much better than Assassination Games and Pound of Flesh, I like Pound of Flash, but I just love 6 bullets much more.
Six Bullets is a 2012 American action film directed by Ernie Barbarash, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, Joe Flanigan, Anna-Louise Plowman, and Charlotte Beaumont.
The film was released on direct-to-DVD in the United States on September 11, 2012.10/10 Grade: Bad Ass Seal Of Approval Studio: Motion Picture Corporation of America Rodin Entertainment Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Joe Flanigan, Anna-Louise Plowman, Charlotte Beaumont, Steve Nicolson, Kristopher Van Varenberg, Bianca Van Varenberg, Uriel Emil Pollack Director: Ernie Barbarash Producer: Brad Krevoy Screenplay: Chad Law Evan Law Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 55 Mins.
Although 6 BULLETS is nothing more than a star vehicle for B-movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme, one filmed in Eastern Europe to boot, it's actually pretty decent and much, much better than the similar fare churned out by Steven Seagal for the last fifteen or so years.This film has lots of flaws but somehow it remains sparkly fresh, inventive, and exciting.
But when Van Damme's on screen, this film really comes alive.The action scenes are hard-hitting and feature some great moves in the tradition of Asian fight choreography.
I could always take or leave Jean Claude Van Damme's action films, even in the eighties - he was always second fiddle to Schwarzenegger and Stallone.
JCVD plays an ex soldier or mercenary (they call him both, but it doesn't matter) who now works as a butcher, in between rescuing kidnapped children from the clutches of vile child-trafficking gangsters in Eastern Europe.So, when an American couple lose their fourteen-year-old daughter, who ya' gonna' call?
But that would be a little unfair, as Six Bullets does just enough to try and make it its own film in its own right.For a start, the American couple don't just sit back and let the Muscles from Brussels do all the work, they take up arms and give him a helping hand.There's not much here that's new, but it's done in a decent enough way to be worth a watch if you fancy seeing another action film.Solid and definitely Van Damme's best film in years (not including The Expendables 2).http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/.
Another Good Van Damme movie.
Another good Van Damme this was good to see Jean Claude Van Damme main character as a part time killer, part time butcher i thought this movie was good not the best van damme movie i seen i liked the action scenes were little bit better then Assassination Games (2011) witch i liked the story followed that (Jean Claude Van Damme)Samson Gaul was a Veteran mercenary retired from combat when his actions resulted in the deaths of helpless victims as in Collateral Damage soon later on he works in Butcher Shop i thought that was lame idea for movie.
Andrew go's out there find Samson Gaul still works at butcher shop drinking heavy i was like Disappointing what is character come on he just got kicked out from the Agents he retire because he killed 2 witness in a mission Van Damme doesn't do anything until hour of movie of action to help and team up to find there daughter Samson Changed his mind to help Andrew Daughter Becky.
this movie wasn't that bad i like idea of title of movie 6 bullets i had problem bit with Van Damme Character Drinking Heavy and Working at Butcher shop i know he retired because what he did was wrong, i thought the another characters were good.
Two Jean-Claude Van Damme movies in the same night might be a bit much, but it's actually one I have not seen.Living in Florida, I am well aware of the sex trade, and it is disturbing, to say the least.
Overall, there are a few action scenes that we have become accustomed with in a Van Damme film – He certainly displays better punching prowess compared his more recent DTV efforts, he takes out three guys Transporter style in the end mansion finale in a small hallway.
As usual John-Claude Van Damme is back in the action, but this time it involve children kidnapped for human trafficking and all the sick, sick thing involved.
Samson Gaul (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is the village butcher who moonlights as a mercenary.
His son (Kristopher Van Varenberg) who works at the US embassy, sends him clients.When Andrew Fayden(Joe Flanigan), an American cage fighter's daughter Becky (Charlotte Beaumont) is kidnapped, he calls on Samson who is reluctant to take the case.
Just lately, Van Dammes movies have been getting a lot better than they should be.
When a job causes the death of two children, he starts having doubts about his career choice.Went he daughter of an MMA fighter is kidnapped, he reluctantly helps, and then Van Damme is back in action.The only thing i found silly in this film, was the visions he was having about the two dead girls.
"Assassination Games" director Ernie Barbarash and scenarists Chad and Evan Law have concocted an above-average suspense thriller "6 Bullets" for martial arts action Jean Claude Van Damme that is a notch above his usual formulaic fodder.
The rest of the film entails much kicking, punching and shooting in the vein of most other JCVD action flicks, but something about the violence in '6 Bullets' came off to me as more seasoned, less shallow than any other Van Damme effort of the past.
Van Damme's Samson Gaul is perhaps the most complex character he's yet played, and that alone adds much substance to the overall effect of the movie.
This movie looks like (and is) a high quality action/suspense film that can be thoroughly enjoyed by those who don't even like martial arts and/or who have a negative preconceived notion of Van Damme.