shroyertour

Back in the day, a movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme was an action flick with lots of martial arts. He was the good guy in it. And it actually starred Van Damme.

More recently, Van Damme has made some movies with him as a flawed protagonist, and then several more as the main bad guy.

This movie is a decent Drama/Suspense film, with Van Damme as a secondary character, and a tries-to-be-good bad guy. He is just above the "character actor" role, probably in my mind only because he is JCVD.

The bad guys here go looking for the guy who barely escaped and still has the money, after some hold-up years ago where everyone else goes to prison to stew and fester about their revenge. There are enough variations on this basic idea to keep the viewer interested. Lennie James does a good job as the town Sheriff, easy going, hard to ruffle, and who you somehow know you just don't want to mess with. There is actually a little action here and there, but it is realistic (no martial arts) and serves mostly to add to the suspense.

With no JCVD, this would be a movie worth a watch. An interesting plot, with good acting, and nice cinematography. Seeing JCVD do his "actual acting" thing is also fairly enjoyable. He manages to entertain with his french (Belgian) accent and a simmering manner that seems to add depth even to a character that has little.

This Action-Comedy-Crime movie gave me something to do one recent afternoon, and I think it was worth the watch. I saw it before I read either of the current reviews, and thought that a middle-of-the-road review was more appropriate.

John Cusack and Thomas Jane do a good job with their characters and make the somewhat unbelievable plot more believable. Any action flick needs something to ground it, and the character development, particularly with Jane's character, does this. The female characters seem a bit stereotypical and one sided, but this actually seems to work to keep the focus on the male leads.

The action is by no means over the top, and it contains enough mild humor to qualify as a comedy. No guffaws here; just a few chuckles.

I found this a pleasant and entertaining movie, one worth watching, although I doubt I'll ever watch it again.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie because of who is playing a main character. And I don't mean I'm looking for any of the "usual suspects." I mean I want to watch an actor I see in movies, but who often seems to have some secondary role. Dominic Purcell's name caught my eye in this one.

TV roles are all well and good, but it is often refreshing to see such an actor play the lead or a main role (Bryan Cranston in Cold Comes the Night is another example). Here, Purcell plays a part with little need for drama, and little opportunity to demonstrate acting talent. To be fair, that was his character here, but the movie was still an enjoyable semi-action flick. The plot is tied into the 1962 Cuban Missle Crisis, but only tangentially. The Sci-Fi aspect overwhelms any real historical theme. And the plot-twist has so many clues dropped that it seems like a made-for-TV movie.

Regardless, the movie held my attention and Purcell's adequate performance was well supported by Michael Ironside and Adam Beach (who must unfortunately play the native American with an alcohol history stereotype).

As an aside, the movie might have been better if Purcell's character had developed more of a romantic interest in Camille Sullivan's character, or if the characters of the super soldiers (especially No. 1) had been fleshed out some more. eg. "bad ass wakes up after 50 years and his mission seems a little stale in a completely changed world." As it is, they come off as new Rap music fans who want to have sex with the first woman they lay eyes on.

No academy award winner here, or even high action, but still a fair watch for a story requiring little mental effort.