The Shepherd

This is the best direct-to-DVD effort from Van Damme that I have seen yet. Van Damme plays a border patrol agent who is out to stop heroin smugglers trying to cross into the United States. The action in this movie is great and the fight scenes rank with Van Damme's best. Costar Scott Adkins shows why he should be the next big star in the martial arts genre. For further evidence check out "Undisputed 2". Adkins is so good in fact that before I watched "The Shepherd", I thought that Van Damme might not look very believable in defeating him on screen. Van Damme holds his own though and although he isn't quite as athletic as Adkins is, he can still kick with the best of them. All of the fight scenes in this film are very well done and the gun battles are above average for this type of film as well. The only negative thing I can say about this movie is that the story is a little underdeveloped. I think Van Damme's character's motives should have been presented earlier in the movie, especially in regard to why he carries around a rabbit. The reason he does is very cool but you don't find out until the very end. There are a couple of other things that are never really explained either but this is a Van Damme movie so you know where the priority lies in making this kind of movie and it ain't character development. Overall though, this is a solid action movie that I recommend. So run for the Damme border!

anybody that would come on here and check this page on "the shepherd: border patrol" is no doubt a van damme fan like me.....I have seen all of his movies (i own all of them) and love allot of them. I was so excited the other night when i got the link to "the shepherd" and was hoping for the best.... but unfortunately this one is weak...actually its budge! The action scenes are OK ... van damme does kick a chair at a guy in a restaurant and it looks wicked... but the gun fights are lame and so are the characters... it a very dark film... dark as in no budget for shooting at night kinda dark..lol I was hoping for a DTV movie like "wake of death".. which was frikin wicked for a direct to video..... But don't worry its still better than "second in command".. but how can it not be lol........ ( I have nutting against DTV movies ... (i love cheesy action movies) anyways they should have just called it border patrol.... because that is what the movie is about..(Why is it called "the Shepard?").. plus it sounds much better as a van damme movie title..(he has some hilarious titles) I really tried to find things about this movie that I liked but its below average unfortunately........... the town thats supposed to be some Texas town .. is jokes.. its a ghost town........ most likely in some country across the world.. and van damme might say a total of 50 WORDS in the entire movie........SERIOUSLY!!

And van damme's pet rabbit... and all of the flash back stuff is wack!! so is his partner........ the female boss was o.k what can i say about this movie...... its pretty bad.. it had no budget ( it looks cheap) ......... I thought it was gonna be a wicked movie man was i disappointed........................ I am as big a fan as anyone.

Well it is a good movie. However, you have to admit that Van Dame's movies haven't been so great lately. On the other hand if you are a hardcore van Dame fan you should watch this as there is a huge improvement with fighting scenes. Also What i really liked is the music beautiful music. am sure this will kill time if you are action fan. As for Isaac Florentine the director of Undisputed 2, i don't think he did a good job as he did with Undisputed.I cant wait when one day Van Dame's movies hit the cinemas before the DVD. Maybe, one day:).

In the end it worth the watch if you got no other action movies to watch, this could make your hour and half fun.

the director was great. I think the screenplay was horrid. It's just that there were so many loop holes and unexplained things, and a lot of the stuff didn't really make sense. The direction was good for an action movie.

It seems that Van Damme is finally getting some good direction with his films.

You can expect to have a pretty good time. Eh you might be kinda bored with the dialog but the action makes up for it. scott adkins was excellent. can't wait to see more of him. great action.

This movie should have been put into a wider release than how it is. It would have made a few bits more money.

This film is good in it's genre and that genre is naturally action with a little/average budget. Looks like Van Damme delivers greatly better performances when he has a good director guiding him. There is your basic bar brawl, alley scene and mostly a lot of gun fighting. Some basic drama, but nothing too deep. Isaac Florentine directs an OK action flick if you ignore the weak plot and the holes in it. But the person who steals the show is:

Scott Adkins. How come this guy isn't a massive Arnold Schwarzenegger caliber action star that I don't know. Director Isaac Florentine has made a movie with Scott Adkins before called Special Forces (2003) which has some unbelievable martial arts talent that will satisfy the most demanding kungfu enthusiastic. Another amazing Scott Adkins feature is Undisputed 2. Check this guy out and make a noise, this guy needs to get super action star status and he needs to get it now!

What else can I say about the movie? It's Van Damme stepping up a notch from some of his most recent work. No Oscars here for sure, but you already knew that. But never the less it has a nice little town feel and I could find worse ways to spend my time. So I'm giving this a solid 7 out of 10 in it's genre.