Customer Reviews

Legionnaire [VHS]

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Van Damme has a few movies under his belt, but they are a mixed bunch, that's for sure. Legionnaire, however, is one of Van Damme's better movies. Van Damme plays a Frenchman who joins the Foreign Legion after a tangled love affair goes wrong. We get some action before Van Damme joins the Legion, by way of boxing matches and then we are provided with some quality military action set in the desert. I must confess to enjoying this movie. Van Damme didn't overact and he actually suited the role. His supporting cast also did a nice job. The locations were quite inspiring. The script was very cliche in parts, but was acceptable. The highlight for me was the ambush and climatic battle scene in the latter stages of the movie. They were very well done. Overall, a well done action movie set around an uncommon theme and location. Recommended.

Legionnaire is a flashback to the old Foreign Legion films starring Gary Cooper like Beau Geste or Gunga Din. The movie tells the story of a boxer who betrays a French mob boss when he goes back on a deal. He is then forced to join the Foreign Legion when he has nowhere else to turn too. The film follows the training of the new company and then there battles against the Rif tribesmen. This film is very different from most of Jean-Claude Van Damme movies, but it is very good. He doesn't fight throughout the movie instead actually talking although there are plenty of action scenes.

Surprisingly, Van Damme is very good as Alain DuChamps, the boxer forced into the Legion. He is very believable in the role. The supporting cast for this movie stands out as above average compared to other Van Damme action movies. Nicholas Farrell is excellent as Macentosh, the ex-soldier with a weakness for gambling. Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje plays Alain's friend, Luther, a man fed up with his past and how he's been treated. He is excellent in the supporting role to Van Damme and Farrell. Also starring are Steven Berkoff and Jim Carter. This is an excellent movie with grand landscapes in the African landscape, well put together action scenes, and believable characters. This movie deserved better than its straight to video release. The DVD offers widescreen presentation, a theatrical trailer and teaser, rare photographs of the Foreign Legion in action, and several behind the scenes documentaries and interviews with the cast and crew. There is plenty here for Van Damme fans and also action fans. Check this movie out!

I grew up watching "Beau Geste" (which is a film which deserves to be on DVD)and all other films about the French Foreign Legion fall or rise to that film's greatness. That being so, "Legionnaire" stands as a solid drama of the men who join the legion to forget their past lives and to rebuild new ones--if they survive. The film is well-crafted and the wide-screen format is perfect in bringing the viewer the feel of the desert--its vastness, its heat, and its beauty. The film's action scenes are sensational and the final battles are both memorable and brutal. Jean-Claude Van Damme proves he is more than just a good body or fighting machine--he does some fine acting in this film. One wishes that it could be seen on the large screen--it deserves it.

I think the television listing description I read on this movie was misleading - actually no, it was wrong. According to what my TiVo said the story followed a 1920s playboy who returns from a stint in the Foreign Legion to reclaim his former lover (a mobster's girl). Obviously the person who wrote this has never seen this movie. For starters he wasn't so much a playboy as he was a boxer and for second he never returns to France to reclaim his former lover. In fact we learn through the progress of the film that the woman in question has emigrated to the United States.
Okay, enough gripes about how inaccurate tv listings can be - what did I think about the movie in question. It's actually okay as far as Jean Claude VanDamme movies go, except he really doesn't do much in the way of martial arts as he has in previous films. Instead he relies more on a rifle to shoot charging North African tribesmen or fists to straighten out fellow Foreign Legionnaire's who get their kicks out of bullying their weaker colleagues.
Jean Claude plays a boxer who, after reneging on a promise to throw a fight, escapes into the French Foreign Legion to flee the clutches of a murderous mobster. There he is flung headfirst into the North Africa war between the local nomadic tribesmen and the occupying French forces.
What was really a treat was the presence of Steven Berkoff. It's been awhile since I have seen him in a movie. He was a very high profile in the early to mid 1980s in movies such as `Beverly Hills Cop,' `Octopussy' and `Rambo: First Blood Part II' but then seemed to disappear from view. Here he plays the Foreign Legion commander who must lick the raw recruits into shape - and he dominates every scene in which he appears.
The action scenes are also well staged and you feel the danger in which the troops are thrust into, the movie makers also do a good job of conveying the confusion and chaos that comes from close quarters fighting.
If you enjoyed other Jean Claude movies then chances are this one will also hit the spot. It's not quite as good as `Sudden Death' (my favorite Jean Claude picture) but it's an entertaining ride.

In truth, I thought the end was here for Van Damme--his last few films were uninspired, humourless, shameless retreads of better films by worse actors. But Legionnaire redeems his oeuvre by ignoring him throughout much of the film, giving the best lines and most of the drama to a group of relatively unknown but excellent character actors. The editing is flawless, and let's face it; no director ever went broke by ripping off Lawrence of Arabia. I love Van Damme films, and I'm telling everybody to rent it because it's not a true Van Damme picture.

Definitely a good movie, Legionnaire, brings to the screen the story of a French boxer, who refuses to take part in a rigged match resulting in his joining the Foreign Legion.
It is the 1920's. France's North African colonies are experiencing Arab national revolutions and the French Foreign Legion is looking for new recruits in Europe as they sense their hold is weakening.
The movie is action packed, the special effects are great, the acting is excellent and the cast are wonderful.
Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Berkoff, Nicholas Farrell, and the rest of the cast have truly outdone themselves with their performances, which are outstanding to say the least! All the actors, without exceptions, give it their 100% and it really shows (the chemistry is AMAZING)! Consequently, they have done a superb job of providing an entertaining film that can be watched over and over again.
There is a wonderful feel of History; the clash between the French and Arabs is as fascinating as the interaction between the different nationalities found within the Legion, and both are presented very well in the film.
History, Battles, Intrigue, Duty, and Honor are all about.
The setting, the plot, the dialogues, the costumes, and the music are all wonderful!
The film combines romance, drama, action and adventure making it a movie definitely worth watching and one to seriously consider adding to your movie collection!

. . . it was not intended to be.

I like movies about the French Foreign Legion. I like this movie.

All of the stock-characters and stereotypes are here, and the plot is as old as . . . well . . . as old as movies about the Legion!

Van Damme is, of course, the recruit seeking escape in the Legion from enemies on civvy-street. It is that preliminary background that rather drags ("Yes, yes, he's on the run . . . get on with it!"). The training stage in Africa is not particularly well done, either. But once the "bleus" get marching to that far-away, isolated fort-- and the Rifs-- the action picks up.

A number of reviewers do not like this film because it is not a martial arts film. That's their prerogative. But this was not billed as a "Van Damme martial arts film," so I think their criticism unfair.

Van Damme actually does some acting, here, and he is more at home in a besieged fort or boxing ring than in a night-club or romancing the "female interest" character. It's not high-art, but it's entertaining, so pass the wine ration and quit your grumbling!

The Jean Claude Van Damme Review Matrix (JCVD-RM)

1. Who is he? A 1920s French boxer named Alain Lefevre, a womanizing champion boxer who refuses to take a dive, and has his eyes/history for a mobster's girlfriend
2. Which family member/friend must be avenged? A long-time friend and boxing promoter gets 86'd after a crooked fight.
3. Does he take his shirt off? And pants in an all male shower, in a rare bare-butt scene for JCVD
4. Does he have sex with a C-List actress? No, but there is that shower...
5. Is there a tournament? No tournament at all, this is a different movie for Van Damme
6. Is training needed for this tournament? Aaaarmy training sir!
7. Does he do the splits in training or in the tournament? No splits are necessary when you have a rifle
8. Does he punch someone in the balls? Sadly, JCVD is breaking all of his movie rules in this one.
9. Does he do a series of flying or 360 kicks? Unbelievably, he doesn't kick at all. I guess being a boxer makes kicking forbidden.
10. Is his enemy unbeatable? A bunch of Berber warriors on horses are hardly worthy of JCVD's awe-inspiring will to win.
11. Does he overcome an injury or other hindrance? Throughout this movie there is more than one person who poses a roadblock for JCVD. The love of his life is lost to him early on. While in the French Foreign Legion he has to team up with a squirrelly Frenchman named Rosetti who can't march more than a day without falling out, a surly black American who breaks every rule, and a posh Brit with a drinking problem who was dishonorably discharged from the British military.
12. Does he win? This might be the first movie since No Retreat No Surrender in which JCVD is not the unequivocal winner and hero of the movie.

Straying quite a bit from his norm, Van Damme takes on a role and a script that strays from most of his standard practices. Very little fighting immediately makes it foreign territory for him, but the fact that this plays out like a Lawrence of Arabia (maybe even Beau Geste) than Lionheart - another movie in which he plays a character on the run who joins the French Foreign Legion and gets stationed in northern Africa.

Production values and cinematography in this film truly reflect the 35 million dollar budget. Stunning desert landscapes and multiple juxtapositions of the sun create foreboding dimensions which visually explain Lefevre's hopeless and weathered outlook on life. Other aspects of the time period are perfect, with the music and costumes providing authenticity. Even the supporting cast is superb, most notably Steven Berkoff as hard-nosed Sgt. Steinkampf.

Essentially this is about men running away from lives, seeking new future, finding camaraderie and danger in the French Foreign Legion, and fighting until the last breath for survival. This movie is extremely underrated, and I highly recommend it.

I think this is direct to TV, I certainly never heard of it in the theaters.

Jean Claude Van Damme stars as a boxer who is supposed to throw a fight. When he meets his old girlfriend who he stiffed at their wedding he decides to run away with her. This doesn't work out and he decides to run away to join the French Foreign Legion. He knows that it is going to be bad going in but has to do it. I wish they would have explained a little more of exactly why he joined but that is really the only major flaw in the movie. The interaction between the main charcters who Jean Claude meets is the shining point in the movie. Adewale Akinnouye-Agbaje's(Oz, Lost) southern accent was odd to hear. It didn't fully work for me but it is always great to see him on screen. Everybody is great and they stick by each other no matter what and everybody just does a brilliant acting job overall. Jean Claude's facial expressions looked stiff for the most part but he was the worst of the bunch and still did pretty good for himself.

While fighting battles with no of chance winning, some of Jean Claude's past catches up with him but the heart of the story is between the main characters and the story remains that way until the end which was a good choice.

I was completely surprised this wasn't your standard B-action flick. It is actually a very good movie with great sets and superb battle scenes. The cinematography in the desert is one of the finer points of the movie. No stylized action and the movie is all the better for it. We don't need to see Jean Claude doing super kicks and taking out everybody who has a gun with his bare 2 hands. We have seen that way too many times. You could tell it was right at this point in his career that he wanted to start doing better movies and he has put out about 4 good movies since this. Things are definitely looking up for the man who's first starring role was in Ng See Yuen's 'No Retreat, No Surrender'(AKA Karate Tiger). The movie gets a 3.5 from me but I can only pick a 3 or a 4. I don't know if I would watch it again since I am a hardcore action junkie but it was damn good movie.

This is a great DVD release from Sterling Entertainment. Picture is widecreened in a letterboxed format. Only 2-channel sound but still pretty good.

Special features include a 7 minute behind the scenes. It has an interview with one of the producers where he talks about Jean Claude. It also has an interview with the director and you get a little bit of a look behind the scenes.

There is a French Foreign Legion section and has a good interview with an historian. This is very good information wise and briefly tells how the Legion came to be and a bit about what happens after this movie. Best special feature on here. Also in this section is a very brief recent look at the FFL, text given on descriptions of weapons used, and a still gallery of filming the movie.

There is also a commentary with the writer of the movie.

The back of the DVD case also says that it has a commentary from a FFL expert and I was very disappointed not to find that on the disc.

Anyone who gave this movie a 1 star rating needs to go find a really high cliff to go jump off of. This is actually a pretty decent film, with some beautiful shots and cool desert scenery, and ok acting from Van Damme. Most of the supporting cast play their parts quite well too I believe (and seemingly good chemistry between the main characters). I mean yeah of course this isn't Lawrence of Arabia or Saving private ryan, but then again what else is? I can't tell you how many times I've watched this movie, it has some kind of pleasant addicting nature to it that I can't quite describe. A great film to watch if you are sick at home or just plain out of your mind bored. And also, I'll definitely have to give this movie props as being the best movie I've ever found in the Walmart 5 dollar bin. Even better than the lower budget clint eastwood flicks that I've found in there. It's THAT good!