I really had hoped that Jean Claude van Damme had improved with age but the fact remains that the guy just can't act. Instead of improving with age, this film appears to magnify the horridness of JCVD films...and at one time, I was a hardcore JCVD fan. Like Steven Seagal, JCVD appears to be trying to cloak the truth of his age and lack of prowess; much of this movie was very dark (as in _lighting_ not the tone of the film) and the few (VERY few!) fight scenes there were amounted to a couple of roundhouse kicks that seemed to be spliced together in post-editing. If you're expecting a better JCVD and better fight choreography, let me save you an hour and a half: there are none. This movie is about 70 minutes longer than it should have been. I won't say it's "predictable" (unless you count "predictably bad") because it's very unlike early van Damme movies that featured the same horrible acting but at least had some decent fight scenes. This is 90 minutes of wandering, disjointed scenes featuring repeated close-ups of different actors/actresses facial expressions, tears, smoldering anger, rage, etc...all wanting to pull you in (yet failing miserably). The only reason I didn't give this a 1-star review is - quite frankly - because I still don't understand how "weak sauce" is supposed to be worse than "terrible"...so, IMO, 2 "Terrible" is worse than 1 "Weak Sauce"…but I digress. I was very disappointed in this movie because - again - I had expected JCVD to really get better with age, but he still can't act. And again, like Steven Seagal, JCVD needs to stick to movies that are 99% fighting and leave the "romance" totally out of it. Can you say _Awkward_? The handful of "emotional" moments...well, friends and neighbors, I just don't have the words. If, like me, you are (or _were_ ) a fan of JCVD, do yourself a favor and go watch _Bloodsport_ again. Twice. Three times. Watch all the fight scenes from _Lionheart_ . Just don't watch this (and for heaven's sake, don't watch _Kickboxer_ again! That one needs to stay buried forever.)

When I sat down to watch this movie last evening I expected a fairly ordinary direct-to-video (actually it was released to cinema in France) action movie with Jean-Claude Van Damme that would, at best, be somewhat entertaining. Well I was wrong. After having watched the movie I had to say: Wow that was a good movie! Now the threshold for that wow was of course a bit lower than usual since I was not expecting that much from the movie but still, this is a surprisingly good movie.

Sure it has its silly moves and plot holes like most movies of this kind but it is miles away from the usual brain-dead run-of-the-mill action movie.

First of all, Jean-Claude Van Dame makes a quite decent, even good, performance. Personally I am not much for these sentimental cry-scenes but Jean-Claude manages to make these parts well and at the same time he is brutally cool when he is out seeking his revenge.

The action in the movie is also very enjoyable whether it is car chases, motorcycle chases or martial art displays. When it comes to the latter Jean-Claude proves that he is still good at making these scenes unlike for instance Steven Seagal who mostly stands in one spot waving his hands while trying to hide his beer belly. At times the movie is quite cruel. There is a torture scene which is really good without being unnecessarily graphic. Speaking of graphics, the entire movie is well shot. The cinematography is simply very good. I would even say that for this kind of movie it is great. At times this is a very dark movie and those parts of the movie are really the best.

For me this was a very positive surprise and I found this movie very well worth watching