Legionnaire (1998):

Starring:

Jean-Claude Van Damme - Alain Lefevre

Adewale Akinnouoye-Agbaje - Luther

Steven Berkoff - Sgt. Steinkamp

Nicholas Farrell - Mackintosh

Jim Carter - Lucien Galgani

Ana Sofrenovic - Katrina

Daniel Caltagirone - Guido Rosetti

Joseph Long - Maxim

Mario Kalli - Rene Galgano

Director:

Peter MacDonald (Rambo III; The Neverending Story III)

Synopsis:

Alain Lefevre is a French boxer in 1920's Marseilles, France. Alain is forced by local crime boss Lucien Galgani to take a dive in a fight. It turns out that Galgani's girlfriend Katrina is also Alain's ex-fiancé whom he left standing at the alter. But Katrina forgives Alain, and the two hatch a plan to run off to America together. Alain doesn't take a dive in the fight, but just as the escape plan is about to succeed, Alain's friend gets killed, and Katrina is captured by Galgani's men. But Alain has shot and killed Galgani's brother. Desperately needing a new escape plan, Alain signs up for the French Foreign Legion, and is shipped to Africa to help defend French territory against a native Arab rebellion. Along the way, Alain meets some new friends, including an African American who has fled injustice in the United States, a former British Army Major with a gambling problem, and a naive Italian man who wishes to impress his girl back home by returning as a hero. But things will not be easy. The only real way to escape from the Legion is to survive the term of service, and the rebels have them outnumbered. And Galgani has sent his hired thugs into the Legion as well, to find Alain and get revenge for the death of Galgani's brother.

Review:

Love the story here. Very unique even if it is nothing more than a 1990's JCVD film. This one is one of his best actual acting gigs. It involves the least amount of actual fist & kick fighting in his entire career. He has some good dramatic acting throughout or at least good dramatic acting by the standards that JCVD is the main star. Supporting cast is full of guys who at the time were kind of no names but now looking some have had bigger careers since. Especially Adewale (Mr. Eko of Lost fame). The look of the film is very poor considering it's from 1998. If you see this film you will possibly think that it is from the 1970's because it is very grainy & low quality. The back drop of Northern Africa however is great & the scenes set in the castle outpost are great. Very short movie which is nice, it doesn't drag on very long which makes it a great watch. Nothing is worse than a war movie that drags on forever & doesn't end when it should. The only down side to watching this film is that afterwards I wanted to watch The Four Feathers which is an OK film which has some similarities to this one, although with a much higher production value & bigger stars. Overall it's not a bad watch because of the length & the constant movement of the film.

Rotten Tomatoes: 29%

Flixster: 31%

50%

Lead Acting: 8/15

Supporting Cast: 6/15

Plot: 6/10

Compared To The Genre: 6/10

Cinematography: 6/20

Intrigue: 12/20

Extra: 6/10