Dare I admit that I love Jean-Claude Van Damme movies? It's not easy to reveal that I like a short, arrogant, chauvenistic aging martial arts expert who isn't an exceptional actor. But take a look at the storylines of my favorite Van Damme movies.
Luc Devereaux is a genetically reengineered soldier. He was killed in Vietnam and put on ice, then brought back to life as a Universal Soldier, a Unisol. He's an emotionless killing machine, kept alive by drugs. But something goes wrong with Luc's reengineering. He starts to remember, and when a beautiful loose cannon of a reporter (Ally Walker) helps him escape, Luc heads for Louisiana searching for his past. There he is reunited with his parents, who think he died years ago. But another Unisol, the man who killed Luc back in Vietnam, still wants him dead.
This movie has everything, action, suspense, romance, poignancy, and a killer of a climax and resolution.
Sam is an escaped convict who is hiding out when he comes upon a lovely young widow (Rosanna Arquette) who is being victimized and terrified by a developer who wants her land. Sam doesn't want to get involved, but he can't refuse to help a young woman in distress, and he is irresistibly drawn to her children, who make him feel like a hero. As Sam becomes more and more embroiled in the widow's problems and is more and more affected by her and her children, he begins to view himself and his life differently.
Van Damme does a great tortured hero, with a fabulously vulnerable blank stare that works for the type of characters he chooses for his films.
As seems to be the pattern for my favorite Van Damme movies, this one is chock full of action, excitement, romance and a healthy dose of poignant scenes between Van Damme and the little boy, played by Kieran Culkin.
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