Le dernier mercenaire

I was waiting for this one for some time. As a long-time fan, I've had to deal with some pretty unwatchable films through JCVD's more recent career. God for him, that he was able to to this film for Netflix. The movie is not great. Very few Netflix productions are... but it entertains and it shows VD in a different light. It is a decent movie. Nothing to you'll still be talking about in ten years, but it is fun to watch. And wasn't it the whole point of the movie?

I'm happy for Van Damme that he finally managed to do a French comedy, but it's sadly rather average. And for those expecting an action-packed comedy change your expectations to a comedy film with a handful of action scenes.

The story setup was fun but quickly fades out and this leaves the side characters rather uninteresting and underdeveloped. The comedy, with exception of a few fun references and disguises, didn't amuse me but hey, it might amuse you ;). But of course, the main reason you'd watch this is for Van Damme and as per usual he delivers a solid performance with some fun action scenes (that sadly did get a little over-edited). It's all right for what it is but I think it's one of his lesser films and would recommend watching Jean-Claude Van Johnson (2016) instead.

5.5/10.

This film was way too long. The 110 runtime felt endless with too many long and unnecessary scenes. You could easily trim off 20 mins, and the slow pacing wouldn't feel as obvious, and you'd still get the gist of the story, and probably in a more enjoyable way.

Novice writer and director David Charhon's directing wasn't bad for a newb, but he certainly needed to tweak his screenplay. It was convoluted, and there were just too many plot and technical issues, and was also riddled with pretty much every cheesy cliche of this genre. The best part of this entire film were the last 15 min or so, where you'll find the most action and laughs. Everything prior is mainly useless filler.

The "comedy" was pretty stale, goofy and cliched - I may have laughed a few times, and the cartoonish cast didn't make the comedy any funnier, or the story any better. Most of their characters were annoying and some even cringeworthy. JCVD of course delivered, especially during the fight scenes, and he was even surprisingly hilarious.

Nevertheless, it's much better than the Bruce Willis and Steven Seagal garbage that's come out in the last few years. If you're a JCVD fan, this is a must see... his performance (and flexibility) is awesome.

Well done Jean Claude; in this age and still fit for such part.

There are a lot of reviews denigrating this film, but I suspect that a lot of of this is down to cultural differences. This is typical French humour and it's refreshing to see van Damme play to it, which I think he is pretty good at.

Jackie Chan employs a lot of humour (and stunt doubles) in his films and gets away with it - and I think van Damme manages the same.

All in all, an amusing film and very French.