June-Claude Van Damme: 6 Bullets (2012)

The second of a few Van Damme vehicles directed by Ernie Barbarash (who has a filmography varied enough to include films like Falcon Rising and Christmas Inheritance), 6 Bullets balances a decent amount of action with a plot that involves children being kidnapped and sold on as sex slaves, which obviously isn't the most cheerful of subject matters.

Joe Flanigan is Andrew, a mixed martial artist preparing for his next fight in a foreign city. He's accompanied by his family (wife, Monica, played by Anna-Louise Plowman, and daughter, Becky, played by Charlotte Beaumont) and they're quite the happy bunch. That changes when Becky is kidnapped. Andrew soon finds that he's out of his depth, despite his ability to beat people up as he tries to find clues to the whereabouts of his little girl. He eventually tries to hire a reluctant ex-military man (Van Damme), a man in self-imposed retirement from any such work because of his guilt over people he believes died due to his actions.

6 Bullets could have easily been a mess. The baddies here are very bad people indeed, there are scenes that will make many viewers squirm in discomfort as they arrange sales of their "commodities", but Barbarash, helped by a script written by Chad Law and Evan Law, manages to give just enough details to ensure that these people are hated before sending the good guys in to beat them all up and attempt to save some of the children.

Flanigan isn't too bad with the punches and kicks, making him a good figure to support Van Damme. The two feel like they are very different in style, with the latter giving off those years of experience and savvy as the former moves forward in a bluster of wild fight moves without any specific targets. The same can be said of their approaches to acting, with Van Damme very comfortable at this point playing both the more entertaining action beats and also the moments that develop his character. Flanigan doesn't embarrass himself, even if he doesn't emanate star quality. Plowman does well, Beaumont is very good, and you get a variety of Eastern European characters played by the likes of Uriel Emil Pollack, Louis Dempsey, and Mark Lewis.

Another of the more interesting films scattered throughout the filmography of Van Damme, and it's worth remembering that he's tried to offer more variety in his 21st century output than any other standard action movie star, 6 Bullets somehow manages to build a solid movie around a serious issue without feeling overly exploitative or mishandled, to the credit of Barbarash and the writers.

6/10

You can buy the blu here.
Americans can get a disc here.

The Foreigner (2003)

The Foreigner of the title is Steven Seagal, a man entrusted to pick up a package and deliver it. Sounds simple enough. It soon turns out that a lot of people want to get their hands on this package and Seagal must fend off numerous foes while he tries to resolve the situation for the best.

Written by Darren O. Campbell and directed by Michael Oblowitz, The Foreigner is one big mess of a movie that somehow manages to avoid boredom by throwing in a BIG explosion every 20 minutes or so and letting Seagal kick ass often enough to appease his fans.

The acting is pretty terrible from all involved. Seagal himself is up to his usual standard (take that as you will) but the rest of the cast seems to be filled by jobbing actors who keep struggling to decide what accent they should be using. Max Ryan is the worst offender as Dunoir, the main foe for much of the movie, but Deobia Oparei uses his limited screentime to drag the movie down and Harry Van Gorkum isn't someone I will be looking out for in future. Jeffrey Pierce somehow comes out of this looking better than most, perhaps thanks to his laid-back character being a bit more relaxed than all of the uptight folk trying to keep straight faces. And Anna-Louise Plowman is both okay in her role and easy on the eyes.

Filmed in Poland and Germany, the movie feels like a cheap quickie made to please easily-satisfied action junkies. There are plenty of little editing tricks making the most of the footage and the same stuntwork crops up in most of the action sequences (just how many times do we need to see a "standard henchman" tumbling backwards from a ledge?) but I'd also have to admit that it actually does meet the requirements for low-grade action fare.

This movie marked the beginning of what we might call Seagal's wilderness years (numerous movies that didn't get theatrical releases before his "Steven Seagal: Lawman" TV show and his role in Machete) but it's still not the worst thing his fans could choose to watch.

4/10.

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