Some people will notice that since Belgian-born martial arts star Jean-Claude Van Damme, who was at the peak of his Hollywood popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s, retreated to the direct-to-video route in the early 21st century, that some of his movies have gotten progressively better, both in terms of his acting abilities and the increased realism of his martial arts hand-to-hand combat sequences.
2001's "Replicant" is one example. "In Hell" (2003) is another. 2008's "The Shepherd: Border Patrol" is the latest of his that I've seen. The single best film Van Damme has ever done in his entire career is "JCVD" (2008); while not a true action movie in the usual sense, his performance in that film is worthy of an Oscar nomination ("Time" Magazine said so at the time - I'm just confirming it). I was also quite pleased with his villainous turn in "The Expendables 2" (2012) when I saw that earlier this month.
But back to "The Shepherd: Border Patrol." In the film, which is competently directed by Isaac Florentine, Van Damme plays Jack Robideaux, a former New Orleans police officer who has just transferred to the U.S. Border Patrol agency in New Mexico. Carrying along with him his pet rabbit (also named Jack), he knocks heads with the sexy no-non-sense Border Patrol commander, Captain Ramona Garcia (Natalie J. Cobb), and soon finds himself at war with a team of rogue ex-U.S. Special Forces commandos-turned-mercenaries working with a Mexican drug cartel just across the U.S.-Mexico border. And it is later revealed that Robideaux has a personal vendetta against the mercenaries and the cartel.
"The Shepherd: Border Patrol" is not a bad film at all. Like I said earlier, the film is worth noting for a noticeably more dramatic performance from Jean-Claude Van Damme, and fight scenes that are more realistic and lack the flashy glitter of the fight sequences from his earlier Hollywood heyday. Since Van Damme was 47 at the time of the film's release, he is still remarkably well kept-in-shape, and can still hold his own against the legions of bad guys in his way. And he is still arguably one of the best screen kickers out there. His greatest fight sequence, of course, will be his climatic showdown with mercenary henchman Karp (Scott Adkins, who also appeared as Van Damme's chief henchman in "The Expendables 2"). That scene alone will be worth the price of the DVD.
As a direct-to-video effort, "The Shepherd: Border Patrol" contains better-than-usual production values, since these types of movies are usually quickly, and cheaply, made, and typically it shows. This looks like it did not have a real big budget behind it, but Isaac Florentine obviously put forth some effort to make the movie look good and cast actors capable of putting on decent performances and staging really cool-looking action scenes.
In other words, it's a worthy straight-to-video Jean-Claude Van Damme effort that proves that he still has what it takes to deliver the action.
7/10
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