Legionnaire (1998)

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

An oldie but a classic JCVD movie. If you just want to watch some action without thinking too much then this is for you.

Alain Lefevre is a boxer paid by a Marseille mobster to take a dive. When he wins the fight he attempts to flee to America with the mobster's girlfriend Katrina. This plan fails and he seeks escape by joining the foreign legion. Legionnaire is another pretty good Van Damme flick but except the action which was very good the film also boasts dramatic depth as well and they did a pretty good job as they could. Van Damme was really good on his role for sure and i liked Adewale as well. Definitely a movie that has aged way better than i mostly remembered. (8/10)

Oh my god from the beginning boxing scene to the very end battle this movie is the worst god-awful thing on the planet! I only liked a handful of the characters, it's very boring, and the end everybody dies but Jean Claude. It sucks because you're rooting for everybody but him. The ending is very depressing and just very poorly written seeing as how once everybody you care about dies it's just pointless. I hate the whole concept of having Van Damme be a soldier again. I've seen enough of the new Jean Claude bring the old Van Damme back because I'd rather see his older movies than newer movies. Yet I don't really care for van damme's movies at all at least with those films you get satisfied to see the villain get whooped brutally. This film you'd rather just ignore it's existence. I'll give it a one seeing as how it had decent character build up.

"Legionnaire" is one of Jean-Claude Van Damme's more serious movies. Here, he tried to take a break from his usual action packed movies and appear in a picture that focused on story and character development. The result is a film that doesn't really work that well in the end, but it is definitely not that bad either.The film relies more on drama than on action scenes and in spite of the fact that this represents a pleasant departure for Van Damme from his usual movies, this is also one of the film's main weaknesses. The movie doesn't know exactly what it wants to be. There were times when the film was a little too slow and some of the actors seemed a little uncomfortable in the scenes that demanded some acting abilities. On the other hand, the film makes good use of its setting (desert) and it has a good atmosphere. I also found the ending to be pretty good and thought that Van Damme did a decent job as an actor, an improvement from his previous roles.In the end, "Legionnaire" is a nearly good movie, but I had the impression that they could have made it better. Also, if I were to compare it to Van Damme's other effort from 1998, "Knock Off", this is a lot better.My rating: 5,5/10