The Last Mercenary

Van Damme is in on the joke, and never for a second lets us see that he’s in on it. That’s what’s the most fun about The Last Mercenary.

The Last Mercenary is Van Damme at his best: his comedic timing is precise (likely because he's acting in his native tongue), and the movie's action set pieces are deeply satisfying.

The fight scenes have wit and Van Damme delivers his lines with just the right amount of weary good humor.

The plot chugs along with no surprises, but that’s beside the point. While it’s not exactly a laugh riot, the film’s humor tends to land.

The Last Mercenary has bounding energy and a fun take on star Jean-Claude Van Damme's past exploits as an action star, but the humor is way more miss than hit and the actual nuts-and-bolts spy plot is a trudge.

You could call the film a slightly absurd corruption thriller, an action movie with not enough action, or a by-the-numbers father-son bonding movie. Yet here’s what’s weird about it. The Last Mercenary thinks it’s a comedy, but not because anything in it is actually funny.

After about 15 minutes of The Last Mercenary, though, even if you can't do splits like Van Damme the temptation is to split -- and to paraphrase "Scarface," say goodbye to him and his little friends.

Lighthearted action comedy which reminded me of the slapstick style of Louis de Funēs movies. JC van Damme was a pleasant surprise in his willingness to make fun of himself. But the whole cast was quite good. I found myself smiling throughout, even if the silliness sometimes is taken too far or goes on to long. All in all a pleasant surprise.

Does JCVD have a limited rank as an actor? Nobody doubts that. Here what was wanted was to do a mixture of action, comedy and adventures of spies; the result never comes together, especially for the first 45 minutes and because it is never explained what relationship the prologue sequence has with the plot. Too bad, everything to serve is over.

The Last Mercenary is a bad film. At least in my opinion. And that opinion is based on my overall experience because I found nothing in it's offer I could call noteworthy. Now having said that, for any Van Damme fan I doubt that matters. After all, this is dumb entertainment. The film embraces it completely. It's a silly action story, but that's precisely what it wants to be. I can only acknowledge its transparency in that regard. But that's it. There's nothing else behind that.

No,no,no and one more NO. Van Damme kicks, jumps and dances, but that's not the same as in Kickboxer. Don't waste time.

très mauvais film. Réalisation aux fraises, jeu d'acteur déplorable, scenario débile, scènes d'actions mal filmées. A part JCVD, rien ne vaut le coup dans cette comédie pas drôle.