Cover: Legionnaire Rating: 0
13 Jan 2010

Details

Director:Peter MacDonald
Writer:Sheldon Lettich, Rebecca Morrison
Producer:Peter MacDonald, Edward R. Pressman
Theatrical:1999
Rated:R
Studio:Studio Home Entertainment
Genre:War, Adventure, Action
Duration:1 hr 38 mins
Languages:English
Subtitles:English, Spanish
Sound:Dolby Surround [English]
Aspect Ratio:Fullscreen (4:3, Letterboxed)
Picture Format:Widescreen
Discs:1
Region:Region 1
Release:Jan 1998

Summary

Exiled to a video-only release when its distributor balked after the flop of Jean-Claude Van Damme's previous film <I>Knock Off</I>, this lavish adventure deserved a chance at theatrical success. Action icon Van Damme recasts himself as a tragic romantic hero in this entertaining old-fashioned adventure with a modern sensibility. "The Muscles from Brussels" is no Brando, but he acquits himself nicely as a cocky boxer who double-crosses a Marseilles mobster and joins the French Foreign Legion when his half-baked plan backfires with tragic consequences. Surrounded by a better than usual cast (including Steven Berkoff as a Teutonic drill sergeant, Jim Carter as the ruthless ganglord, and Nicholas Farrell as a gentleman soldier with a taste for gambling and a dark past), Van Damme's dour performance sometimes gets lost in the colorful characters around him. But that's okay--there's adventure enough to go around and he's willing to share it. The Marseilles scenes evoke a quaint movie past with their smoky bars and shadowy streets, but the film is reborn as an ambitious, stoic platoon drama in the sands of French Morocco. <I>Legionnaire</I> alludes to classic films from <I>Beau Geste</I> to <I>Casablanca</I> to <I>Lawrence of Arabia</I>, but ultimately marches its own macho course, reveling in testosterone-driven heroics and bonding-under-fire while acknowledging the irony of its colonial mission ("We're the intruders," realizes one soldier). It's a calculated risk for Van Damme (who also cowrote and coproduced), but if <I>Legionnaire</I> never quite grasps the epic scope it's reaching for, it remains one of his best films, a handsome, exciting, and surprisingly grim desert adventure. <I>--Sean Axmaker</I>

Credits

Jean-Claude Van Damme ... Alain Lefevre
Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje ... Luther
Steven Berkoff ... Sgt. Steinkampf
Nicholas Farrell ... Mackintosh
Jim Carter ... Lucien Galgani
Ana Sofrenovic ... Katrina