Duels

Having seen the trailer, I gave this film a shot. In the beginning, I wasn't disappointed. The first few scenes were quite good, obviously imitating the cool atmosphere of films by Tarantino and Rodriguez. This lasted only for the first 10 minutes though.

The rest of the film dragged on to include family drama, ridiculous array of stand-offs and completely illogical character decisions. The actors could have probably managed a more believable performance, since the cast was decent, but they had nothing to work with. The initially cool and skilled outlaws break down into randomly psychotic, calm, honourable, greedy, sadistic or thoughtful, at the drop of a hat, from one scene to another.

I cannot recommend this film. It is a forgettable mess, which after the first few scenes, didn't even seem to try to be anything else.

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.

JCVD is top billed but really not utilitied in this rather disappointing film. The premise was okay, but the story had to force its way through a slightly unexplained opening. At no point did you feel gripped or engaged, as the setting and characters were uninspired. JCVD, who I imagine is the sole draw to this film for most people, played his part well, but really had no opportunity to make an impact on the overall quality.

This is not a Jean Claude van Damme vehicle (putting this out, because I can imagine that some countries might try to sell it that way). He's taking back seat with a more chilled out character and lets others go crazy. Lennie James whom I really noticed in "Hung" (nice small role in that TV show) is taking center stage.

The story is pretty bog standard, but it works for a small budget movie. It tries keeping the story flowing and doesn't take any prisoners (a bit of a western analogy can be made). The flashbacks are there to help us and move the story forward. Some character relationships are a bit too complicated and might not work entirely. Still nice effort and the tension it builds is decent enough

I bought this film only because it was a mix up between western and crime movie, and also because there was JCVD in a supporting character. Besides this, as we say in french, this feature doesn't break three legs to a duck. Nothing exceptional in this forgettable movie. I did appreciate the wink to THE WILD BUNCH; the sheriff's name is Pike Bishop. I watched Sam Peckinpah's masterpiece at least a dozen times in my life, and Pike Bishop sounds quite familiar to my ears.

It's a new wave crime film, in the line of Quentin Tarantino's world, as we watch since the early nineties now.

An acceptable time waster, no more, just for rent, and certainly not for buying.