6 Bullets

Finally ! Van Damme seems to be getting his act together and putting out a better product. This is one of the best "straight to video" movies he has done, kind of on par with Desert Heat and Legionaire, and dare I say almost good enough that it could have had a theatrical release. 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. Could have used a bit more hand to hand fight scenes, but what we are given is filmed well. Definitely worth a view if you are a Van Damme fan, something that couldn't be said for most of his movies made in the 2000s. Let's hope he can maintain this momentum and have a bit of career resurgence like Stallone.

Unlike the pathetic Steven Seagal, JCVD's recently movies all turned out to be quite good, and this 6 Bullets is no exception. I have no problem to give this movie a 6/10 rating, could even give it a higher one, if these flaws were not so obviously serious:

1) Usually, a guy so well-experienced like JCVD played, the first thing when he infiltrated the enemy compound was to neutralize the CCTV system. But the guy simply overlooked it to accommodate the scenario. 2) The 14-year girl's finger was cut off, but she didn't seem to pay too much attention to her finger wound. Usually, when we carelessly cut our finger, even it's a tiny hairline cut, the wound would drive us crazy, the throbbing pain would be non-stop even the bleeding stopped. We'd keep raise our arm and keep our wounded hand or finger upward and high enough to reduce the throbbing pain. But this director and the young actress just overlooked this important detail, making the movie suddenly became quite fake. 3) There seemed to have no refrigeration in the butcher shop, front and back. If the weather temperature was not sub zero, then what the hack?

But none of the above-mentioned flaws would devalue this movie's watchable value. It's actually pretty good, as most of the reviewers said.

To my surprise, this is playing on Google Play for only 3.99 so I rushed to watch it...twice for that matter. I rather enjoyed it. I'd rank it pretty much on the same level as AG. Both movies were on the cusp of making the leap from being "good" to being "damn good". The script in AG is a bit stronger but JC does a much better job in 6B. He is in fantastic shape and doesn't sleepwalk at all through his performance. He looks and performs the best he has in years. The action is pretty well done and there is a good amount of it. Like AG, Ernie gives us a really cool opening intro to the movie! For the most part, 6B is shot really well, considering the budget. Acting wise, I thought everyone was above average for a DTV...with the exception of Bianca(JC's real daughter). Even though she isn't in it that much, I thought her line delivery was just awful. Kris(JC's real son), however, is better than usual. He still has a lot to learn but he didn't stink up the place like usual. Flannigan was good and I liked seeing him in something other than Stargate. Neal Acree turned out another good music score, although, a lot of it may be a little too piano heavy which kind of kills the tone in a few scenes. It sometimes added a "made for TV" vibe. Overall though, this is another good step for Ernie and definitely one of JC's best DTV's. I'll probably watch it one more time before it expires. 3.25/5

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). No, his kids won't win any acting awards either, but they turn in credible performances for their characters. For his part, Van Damme acts better than I have ever seen him act before as a troubled ex-mercenary who has built a reputation finding and returning kidnapped children. He also seems to have built one for leaving a lot of bodies behind, including innocents. Unlike most of his other movies where he does no wrong, this one has him a lot more fallible and even negligent. His realizations have him showing lingering regret that really spices up this plot.

While this film is vaguely similar to Taken (2009), there are more differences than similarities. It also shows what amoral lengths the family of a kidnapped child might be willing to go to to get their kid back.

This is a good action flick with some thought provoking moments about consequences and choices. I recommend it.

This is without a doubt one of the better Van Damme movies in the entire course of his career. Why? 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. However, during one such a mission, something goes horribly awry and two innocent young girls end up dead. Haunted by the apparitions of these dead girls, Gaul ends up seeking solitude and salvation at the mercy of alcohol while trying to make a living as a butcher. A young American girl is kidnapped from her hotel and the parents seek out Gaul for help. But can Gaul redeem himself of the past and step up to the task at hand? The storyline in "6 Bullets" was really interesting and captivating, as human trafficking is, sadly, every day events in parts of the world. 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. There was a fair amount of drama in the movie, spiced up with martial arts, of course, and also gun fights. 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. In the opening sequence, how did Gaul manage to plant all that explosive in the cars parked outside the building when there was all that much security personnel around? And also when he wanted a phone number traced, it started with 555, which is a number associated with Hollywood movies, so we must assume that it is an alleged American fake-movie phone number, so why was it showing up on an Eastern Europe phone? And finally, why would most people in Eastern Europe opt to speak English first whenever addressing strangers? Wouldn't it make more sense to speak in their native language? Anyway, these touches are just small flaws that don't really have much impact on the movie. I just happened to notice this and wonder about it.

"6 Bullets" is a great addition to movie collection for fans of Van Damme. And it is also good entertainment, even if you are not particular a fan of him.