Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

When I watched Nowhere to Run, I thought I had seen the Van Damme movie which featured the least amount of his trademark high kicking action. I was wrong. A few nights ago I caught this movie on TV.

Legionnaire is about a fellow by the name of Alain Lefevre(Jean Claude Van Damme - Bloodsport), a professional boxer in 1926 Marseille. He is set to take on rival Julot (Joe Montana – The Bourne Identity) but a mobster by the name of Lucien Galgani (Jim Carter – Brassed Off) informs him that unless he accepts his bribe to take a fall in the second round, he will never fight again.
After meeting up with his former sweetheart Katrina (Ana Sofrenovic – TV’s Ultimate Force), who is now dating the mobster, plots to run away with her to the USA, after screwing the mobster and defeating his opponent.
However, on the way to the train station, his plan is rumbled, and his best friend/ manager Maxim (Joseph Long – Chasing Liberty) is killed and Van Damme is forced to kill Galgani’s brother before making his escape to the only safe place: The French Foreign Legion.

At the legion, he is under the command of the nasty Steinkampf (Steven Berkoff – The Krays), but soon befriends a rag tag bunch of fellow legionnaires including Luther (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje – The Mummy Returns), an African American here to make money to try to start a new life in Africa, Mackintosh (Nicholas Farrell – Pearl Harbour), a disgraced English soldier and Guido (Daniel Caltagirone – Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life), a man who wants to prove his bravery so his girlfriend will marry him.

Soon, their branch of the legion is sent out to the desert, where a group of rebels led by Abd El-Krim (Kamel Krifa – Kickboxer 4) have been savaging a Legion outpost. However, their squad is ambushed and Guido, along with several other legionnaires are killed, and the valuable supplies they were bringing are lost.

But, after spotting a photograph of Alain in a newspaper, Galgani sends out Julot and another goon to join the legion and track him down. But that isn’t the biggest of his worries, as the rebels are about to launch one last siege on the outpost…

Legionnaire went straight to video, which is a shame, because it is much better than any of Van Damme’s recent efforts, and is much better than half of the crap action films released in cinemas recently (See: anything with Vin Diesel).

In a shock revelation, this movie only features ONE hand-to-hand fight, and it is boxing, not even a martial art. Despite having Jean Claude, Takis Triggelis (Savate) and Kamel Krifa in the movie, there are no martial arts brawls. Which is a shame, seeing as Van Damme never got to kick inn the second Tong Po.

Seeing as he doesn’t have his martial arts skills to help him out, Van Damme actually has to try and act, which he actually does to a decent degree. I mean, he isn’t brilliant, but there are plenty of worse actors out there who get more credit than he does.
His supporting cast are good as well, with no complaints at all. The banter between Mackintosh, Alain and Luther is really quite convincing at times. And all of the actors pull off their roles well.
The special effects are really quite impressive, with a good few nice explosions and blowing up of the Fort. No complaints there.

The music is pretty forgettable, but is by no means bad.
One manner in which the film suffers is its lack of originality. Pretty much every character and situation has been copied and pasted from another movie. The only remotely original thing I can think of is the fact that Alain’s love interest is taken out of the equation early on, and only mentioned towards the finale.
One other complaint I have, is that Julot and Van Damme helping each other is not explored enough, we only actually see them shooting a few guys, then running away together, before Julot becomes friendly and gets killed. Legionnaire is by no means a great movie, it is derivative of almost every war movie ever made, but it is a fairly enjoyable 90 minutes. You don’t even have to be a fan of Jean Claude, seeing as it isn’t a stereotype Van Damme flick. Watch it if its on TV, but I wouldnt run out and buy it unless it was cheap.

Year: 1998
Titles: Legionnaire



Recommended: Yes