Legionnaire

This movie is better if watched closely. It’s a war movie--who knew?

Overall VD Rating: 7

To sum up, Kate captured this movie beautifully as she exclaimed at the end: “Oh no! I’m moved!”

JCVD Exposure: 9

JCVD’s exposure is based solely on his acting in this film. Well, and a couple of times when he takes his shirt off. It’s hot in the desert after all. Seriously, though, he plays a courageous man, who struggles with the concept of honor and demonstrates an early set of acting chops that find fruition in his later movies. While he never sheds real tears, he does get teary-eyed at several points in the film as he remembers his love Katrina, his friend who dies in his arms, and the friends amongst the Legionnaires that he watches die. This is the kind of subtly good acting of JCVD as seen in Wake of Death.

JCVD Boot to Face Action: 3

It’s a war movie! Except for a few boxing scenes the only real “fighting” that happens is with guns and bombs. The director doesn’t even attempt to convince the audience that JCVD is a boxer who can magically roundhouse kick--instead JCVD plays a character who is excellent at boxing and shooting, but not the martial arts. While we appreciated the artistic authenticity to storyline, that meant boot to face took a hit.

The Effect of Others on JCVD’s Awesomeness: 9

Kate loves Katrina! Jess was impressed as well. For only a few scenes she captures the viewer’s hearts fairly effectively and convincingly portrays an empathetic character. This is one of the only times we have actually cared about the girl as much as JCVD cares about the girl.

As for the Legionnaires there was Guido, the love struck Italian, the angry German, Mac the stuffy Brit, and Luther the irreverent American. This movie dealt strongly in original portrayals of cultures.

Never the less, Guido, Luther, and Mac all provided significant emotional opportunities for both the viewer and the plot line. All were empathetic, surprisingly well fleshed out, and tragic in their endings. It was interesting how not two dimensional these characters were, especially when it is considered how little screen time they individually possessed. All of them grow and in turn allow JCVD’s character to grow. It was one of the best examples of supporting characters genuinely shaping and affecting the lead.

In the interest of full disclosure, we tried to watch this movie once and epically failed. We were both distracted and expecting a typical JCVD shirtless fighting fest, and quickly became confused and bored. We’re both happy we gave it a serious chance, however, as it has proven itself a surprisingly emotional, and well made film. There are things that could have been better, of course, but overall we think this is probably an underrated film.

FYI--the music is superb. By far the best music in a JCVD film thus far.