Legionnaire (1998)

the audience applauded

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Legionnaire is an entertaining film about a French boxer Alain Lefevre (Jean-Claude Van Damme) who tries to escape from his troubles with some Mafiosos by joining the French Legion and fighting for French colonialists in Morocco. Van Damme has never been good with challenging roles, which is why it was a good idea to saddle him with the relatively safe and likable character of Alain with little margin for error. The filmmakers also did something else that was smart: they surrounded Van Damme with interesting characters (played by rather good actors), which automatically raises the interest-level for this film. Steven Berkoff is clearly having a lot of fun with the villainous character Sergeant Steinkampf and we have just as much fun watching him. An under-appreciated talent, Adewale Akinnuoye-Aghbaie, does a really decent job playing Luther who decides to join the French Legion to escape the racism of the South along with a bogus murder charge. Then there is Nicholas Farrell who delivers a wonderfully well conceived performance as the British recruit Mackintosh, a man with a compulsive gambling habit, who is renowned for his witticisms, and even capable of speaking a few Arabic phrases (which are most useful in a brothel). The Arabic phrases are completely unnecessary, but much appreciated all the same. Finally Ana Sofrenovic makes for a beautiful love interest, Katrina, who we would like to see reunited with Alain and broken free of the clutches of the evil mob boss. As a result of all these factors in addition to some great cinematography and some pretty good action and survival in the desert scenes, Legionnaire hums along quite entertainingly right until the end.7/10

Saw this on USA Network one afternoon while home sick with the flu. I was actually surprised. It wasn't half bad and it had an unusually brave ending. It's not an action flick, per-se. You'll see no flying kicks to the face from across the room. No, instead, this is a war film produced and co-written by Van Dam himself. The film takes place in the 1920's, with decent production, set design, wardrobe, etc. While the movie avoids many action cliché's it manages to stumble into some war cliché's. With a little more money, time, and some more script revisions to amp up the movie's already gritty undertones, this could have been a classic. Unfortunately, it *Just* misses the mark. 7 out of 10. Still, I enjoyed it for what it was. I would recommend it for a rental.

From the moment you look at the cover and back you think to yourself, well it's Van Damme, probably not going to be that great but whatever i'll watch it. And then wow. What a movie. From the very beginning of the film it has a historical feel with the intro, and then musical score kicks in (which is awesome by the way) and you knew you were in for a treat. Van Damme's character has depth but what makes the movie unique is that Van Damme may be the main actor but doesn't need to go over the top to achieve this. He didn't play the "bad ass guy" from Universal Soldier or the "world's greatest fighter" from bloodsport. He played a hero with flaws, which made him so much more real. Secondly, the supporting cast was great, all with their own back stories to how they ended up in the legion. It was different to see how each character came from a different part of the world, had their own struggles, yet found a way to look past those differences to survive. Again just by Van Damme listening to their stories and getting to know them personally made his character shine. Overall this is a great flick that many people overlook just because Van Damme is in it. If it had been Orlando bloom, Brad Pitt etc. as the lead actor everyone would have rated this movie higher. Don't judge this movie by it's cover.

It's 1924; in Marseilles, France and boxer Alain Lefevre goes on to win a fight that he was supposed to take a dive in. He had it all planned out that he would win and then leave with his old girlfriend (who's now with the mobster) to head to America. However things go terribly wrong, and this leads to Alain joining the Foreign Legion to mould a new identity to escape from those mobsters. Although this second chance is going to be a hell of an ordeal. What good can come from a straight-to-video, Jean-Claude Van Damme action film? Well, you know won't be expecting a masterpiece or even a great movie. So it gotta crash and burn. But wait a minute. "Legionnaire" actually breaks that trend, to be one of Van Damme's better movies of recent years. Hey, it's probably my favourite of his and that's saying a lot when compared to "Time Cop", "Universal Cop" and "Nowhere to Run". I don't know why I enjoyed this film so much, but even with my second outing, it delivered the minor goods in a simple, flourishing formula. There's no escaping the old-hat concept creaking in the set-up. It might be a change of scenery. Although, it's no different from a ordinary war film with an assortment of token characters setting up a loyal partnership to pull together when it gets tough going. There's no pretensions to its clichéd material and while, its contrived and heavily laced with them. It seems to get away this dramatic edge and its survival of the fittest message is passionately orchestrated. Most of these men are burdened souls, escaping from life or trying to prove something. This is why these comrades hold a strong emotional rapport with each other, as they know when they signed up there was no release clause to fall back on. The gleefully, corn-riddled script provides plenty of overstrained melodrama and electrically campy banter. The camera-work is swiftly executed and an elegant music score that could turn fiery in an instance are resourcefully worked in. The performances aren't anything special, but surprisingly competent and workable. Vann Damme is *cough* … solid, yes that's true. He's portrayal is quite convincing and subdued in his blistering like attitude. There's good turns by Nicholas Farrell, who chimes in as an optimistically, witty British man, Mackintosh and Daniel Caltagirone as the fickle Guido. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje is an excellent character-actor and he does wonders with a plain stereotypical character, Luther. They were quite a likable bunch that we got to know. Steven Berkoff is compulsively good as the hot-wired Sgt. Steinkampf.When watching Van Damme flicks we know there's must be some kick-ass martial arts when he's wiping the floor of the bad dudes. Oh no, that hardly happens here at all. There are a couple of moments, but they are short lived. It plays for a meaningful war film, where its main focus is the high-octane battle scenes than just one-on-one combat. Sometimes the action does play second fiddle to the inner-goings of the men, but the loud, relentless war scenes were well organised and made for a more believable rough 'n' tumble foray. This just proved how much the French army were out of their league when facing the skilfully quick and deadly Arabs on their turf. Here he's no potent individual, but relies on his comrades to look over his back. Few surprises occur and knee-jerk jolts find there way into the warfare. When it came to the final minutes it seemed to lose a bit of creditability, to what has happen before it. An ambitious detour to the formula for Van Damme, but it mostly worked out and delivers undemanding entertainment.