The Shepherd (2008) Reviews

• I enjoyed it

  evo-lander2008-09-13

  I enjoyed it. There you go, I said it again. I even bought this movie on DVD and enjoyed it a couple of more times. Call me old fashioned but I prefer movies like this to garbage like Die Hard 4 which hold up the box office and get critical acclaim just because you have some old guy saving America. Van Damme moves well for a guy of his age(47 I think), delivering kicks that reminds one of Kickboxer. If you like old school action and and explosions, this is the movie to watch. This is one of Van Damme's best works. Van Damme and Steven Seagal movies get released theatrically where I live so I never miss a chance to watch our old school action stars on the big screen.

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• A modestly entertaining action flick with some decent scenes

  rlange-32008-07-20

  Worth the entertainment value of a rental, especially if you like action movies. This one features the usual car chases, fights with the great Van Damme kick style, shooting battles with the 40 shell load shotgun, and even terrorist style bombs. All of this is entertaining and competently handled but there is nothing that really blows you away if you've seen your share before. The plot is made interesting by the inclusion of a rabbit, which is clever but hardly profound. Many of the characters are heavily stereotyped -- the angry veterans, the terrified illegal aliens, the crooked cops, the indifferent feds, the bitchy tough lady station head, the crooked politician, the fat federale who looks like he was typecast as the Mexican in a Hollywood movie from the 1940s. All passably acted but again nothing special. I thought the main villains were pretty well done and fairly well acted. By the end of the movie you certainly knew who the good guys were and weren't. There was an emotional lift as the really bad ones got their just deserts. Very simplistic, but then you weren't expecting Hamlet, right? The only thing I found really annoying was the constant cuts to VDs daughter during the last fight scene. Not bad. Not good. Passable 4.

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• This film is good in it's genre

  tirkkanen2008-03-05

  This film is good in it's genre and that genre is naturally action with a little/average budget. Looks like Van Damme delivers greatly better performances when he has a good director guiding him. There is your basic bar brawl, alley scene and mostly a lot of gun fighting. Some basic drama, but nothing too deep. Isaac Florentine directs an OK action flick if you ignore the weak plot and the holes in it. But the person who steals the show is: Scott Adkins. How come this guy isn't a massive Arnold Schwarzenegger caliber action star that I don't know. Director Isaac Florentine has made a movie with Scott Adkins before called Special Forces (2003) which has some unbelievable martial arts talent that will satisfy the most demanding kungfu enthusiastic. Another amazing Scott Adkins feature is Undisputed 2. Check this guy out and make a noise, this guy needs to get super action star status and he needs to get it now! What else can I say about the movie? It's Van Damme stepping up a notch from some of his most recent work. No Oscars here for sure, but you already knew that. But never the less it has a nice little town feel and I could find worse ways to spend my time. So I'm giving this a solid 7 out of 10 in it's genre.

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• Not too bad.

  ColonelFaulkner2008-09-06

  This one brings my collection of Van Damme films up to 25, some good, some stinkers; and although It may be fair to say I'm a fan, I'm no fanatic, haven't watched any of his films for a while and I certainly couldn't tell you what he eats for breakfast in the morning or which high school he attended. Like Forrest Gump might have said about his movies, a JCVD film is like a box of chocolates, you just don't know what you're going to get (though you most likely have have some inkling) and there are more than a few turkey flavoured ones in his box). With perhaps the lamest title of all his films and a dubious 'Steven Seagal' like premise, not to mention some cringe inducing dialogue, fair share of implausability and plot holes (nice to know they have a full time bomb squad and short notice standby in a little border town of 1800), this could be called something of a coin toss or even something to avoid for the more discerning film fan who can't stand the guy or who feels the urge for more intellectual stimulation. For those with enough of that in their other pursuits and who just want to kick back and be entertained, you may be pleasantly surprised. On a night I was expecting to fall asleep in front of anything I watched, It kept me interested and awake, something 'The Godfather' didn't do last week. As an out and out action vehicle, I found this pretty entertaining. It keeps moving along, with several spectacular and hard hitting ass whipping scenes, sufficient gunplay thrown in and a score reminiscent of 'Once Upon a Time in the West'. As far as his recent films go, I would compare this to 'Wake of Death' in terms of quality and while it didn't quite nail it (like most of his films) for the reasons mentioned previously, it wasn't without some quality moments. 5/10 as a 'movie' & 7/10 for the bits you watch this sort of film for = 6/10 overall, a good pass mark. I recommend it and don't think it would disappoint any action fan who isn't expecting a Van Damme flick to send them into orbit.

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• Excellent throwback to 90's Van Damme

  belialprod2008-03-31

  Unlike many of his action "contemporaries" (uh, you know who) Van Damme has at least been trying to improve himself as an actor with his direct to video films, while working with better directors. Many have been attempts at something different, like the somewhat surreal "in Hell". This is applaud able, but who really wants a Van Damme movie with little or no action? The Shepherd is a throwback to his 90's films where plot was minimal and fights and other action scenes took centre stage, where everyone knew they were making a pot boiler and had fun doing it. And thank God, because while no biggie plot wise, this movie delivers everything you'd want from a Van Damme movie. Great if happily familiar martial art fights (it even opens in that old action movie stand by, a diner)lots of guns and explosions, and even a torture scene for our boy. It's also well directed, starting with a great sense of humor then turning dead serious when it needs to. The last 15 minutes or so are wall to wall boom boom. For pure action, for what Van Damme does best, this is absolutely his most entertaining film since he went DTV.

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