The Hard Corps

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This film just lets itself down towards the end. From the start I thought maybe this one was going to be different and not the same as Vann Damme has been doing for the last 5 years, which has been in most cases disappointing. But these films seem not have the stamina to finish the race, and the plot seems a little hard to swallow. But I do like Vann Damme's idea of moving away from the action, more for the acting but he needs to find the right material or its just a waste of time. In closing quite a lot of things were bad from the make-up to the acting. Vivica A. Fox who did your make-up girl, they need shooting. Your not missing anything new by missing this one.

This movie was a good flick and one to be proud of it was an unusual role for van damme to play. He seemed to be more interested in the story of the movie than the movie itself and we have seen less martial arts of his later films. If you watch second in command and wake of death you will notice that he truly wants to be an actor now then a martial artist. This movie should have got a cinema release it was that good maybe this might be a new start to an old genre of films this movie will be one for my collection along with hard target maximum risk and the order.So for those those who want to see this movie go get it out from your local rental store its great. I will look forward to van damme's next flick.

I was expecting this movie to be well made seeing as the same writer worked on Bloodsport, Rambo II and Lionheart. This movie is full of poor actors/acting, weak script and the references to Iraq and Afganistan every 5 mins become too repetitive. Whoever was in charge for the casting has made this movie look cheap beyond belief, the directing is awful too, for allowing the ever so present facial expressions which are out of context. Hardly any actor has presence, I hardly felt sorry for anyone dying, it was very aimless, with little sorrow. This movie is only for the die hard Jean-Claude Van Damme fans, avoid this movie unless you want to be disappointed.

The picture concerns an Afghanistan/Irak veteran (Jean-Claude Van Damme) , he's living at hospital when is hired as a bodyguard . He must protect an ex-heavyweight champion , now a building magnate (Adoti) and his sister (Vivica A. Fox) against a dangerous rapper recently out of prison . The war veteran sets up an experienced team (Mark Griffin , among others) called ¨Hard Corps¨ to save menaced ex-boxer . This movie direct to video packs violent action , suspense , shoot-outs , boxing and martial art fighting and results to be quite amusing . Suffering Van Damme plays finely a sad and affected veteran , splendid Vivica A. Fox as enjoyable sister who falls in love for him and the brother played convincingly by Adoti who acted along with Jean-Claude in his former film ¨Second-in-command¨ . The movie is pointlessly energetic , occasionally fun and entertaining and for that reason will appeal to real devotee Van Damme . It's produced in middling budget by Pierre Splenger who produced last films of Steven Seagal and Van Damme . The movie was professionally directed by Sheldon Lettich. He spent several years in the US Marines Corps , including a time in Vietnam war . Lettich is filmmaker of Van Damme previous hits such as ¨The order¨ , ¨Double impact¨,¨Lionheart¨ ; furthermore , he is author of hunk men vehicles such as Daniel Bernhardt : ¨Perfect day¨ , Dolph Lundgren : ¨List patrol¨, and Mark Dacascos : ¨Only the strong¨. Rating : Acceptable and passable .

The Hard Corps starts as notorious killer, gangster, drug dealer & general all round villain Terrell Singletery (Viv Leacock) is released from prison after only serving eighteen months of an eight year sentence because of his hot-shot lawyer. No sooner has Terrell left prison & he is arranging the murder of the man who put him there, namely ex-heavyweight boxing champion Wayne Barclay (Razaaq Adoti). His sister Tamara (Vivica A. Fox) & business associate Kendall Mullins (Peter Bryant) decide to hire Clarence Bowden (Julian Christopher) as a bodyguard to protect Wayne who in turn hires ex-army dude Phillippe Sauvage (Jean Claude Van Damme) to help him. During an attempt on Wayne's life Clarence is shot & killed which upsets & angers Phillippe who then decides to protect Wayne himself & find those who killed his friend... Co-written & directed by Sheldon Lettich this was the fourth time he & JCVD teamed up to make a film after Lionheart (1990), Double Impact (1991) & The Order (2001) although one has to say that out of the films they made together The Hard Corps is by far the worst & for me is probably the worst JCVD film I have seen. For a start the story is terrible, it's not involving in any way & is a bit of a chore to sit through. The script is standard direct-to-video/DVD stuff with a lightweight story, clichéd character's, limited ambition & lots of boring dialogue. I usually quite like JCVD but The Hard Corps is as bad as the rubbish Steven Seagal has been making lately, there's barely any fights or decent action scenes which is odd since JCVD is a martial arts expert & surely he & his skill's are the films best asset so why ignore it? The story plods along at a fairly sedate & boring pace & I just wasn't interested in anything that was going on, there's a really predictable plot twist at the end too which just confirms how clichéd & by-the-numbers it really is across it's near two hour duration. The action scenes here are well below par, JCVD has two fights both of which are poor & there's various dull shoot-outs & not a single car chase or explosion in sight. Disappointing. There's an amazing car at the start which Terrell is picked up in, most would need a stepladder just to get into the thing. The violence is tame & there's no nudity either. Apparently rap star DMX was hired to play the villain Terrell but went to prison so couldn't actually make the film, DMX was subsequently quoted in a magazine saying 'I'd rather have gone to prison anyway' & after watching The Hard Corps I sort of shared that sentiment. With a supposed budget of about $12,000,000 I don't see where the money went, although set in the US this was shot in Bucharest in Romania & in Vancouver in Canada. The acting is strictly average & no-one seems to have much heart in the film. The Hard Corps is probably the worst JCVD film I have seen & I have seen quite a few, light on action, light on originality & a dull forgettable story makes this one worth skipping.

Like wake of the death and the replicant this movie shows a more mature JVC, and that is a wise move since the guy is well in his 40's after all. With this film JVC gets a decent budget and decent production values and a chance to put some more flesh in his character.. however that is about all that is really nice about this film. In many ways this film reminds me of the flicks of Steven Seagall doing buddy buddy with some rap star and like steven, jean claude also feels a bit misplaced in the setting of rap music and undressed women, this is actually felt by his acting in some scenes... I don't have the feeling he really believed or enjoyed himself all that much. There is very little hand to hand combat in this film and a very low amount of action, you can actually feel your ass telling you this flick really takes 110 minutes to tell its story. There isn't much to tell about the story that is interesting and the constant use of flashbacks is becoming irritating around halfway ( yeah we know the guy has problems from the war..yeah we get the hint) But all in all I found it a nice enough movie..little fast forward here and there but still a pleasant time waster. Lets be honest, I saw vandamme for the very first time with bloodsport when all the action heroes were still around. Now in 2006 he is basically the only one left even trying to deliver some decent movies and that makes me very forgiving.

Jean-Claude will be playing a Combat Vet who's just spent the last 3 years fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq, who is hired to be a bodyguard to a former World Heavyweight Boxing champ to protect him and his family against a Rap Music Mogul. He sets up a team called "The Hard Corps", complications arise when the boxer suspects that his sister may be in love with the bodyguard. - - - I really enjoyed this film, not just because I'm a huge Van Damme fan, the story is really intense and Sheldon Lettich did a great job. Is very good to see that Van Damme is getting back, his acting is really good, and he still a great fighter. Razaaq Adoti was great too. Vivica A. Fox is sexy and perfect for her role. The Bad guys were awesome in too. The fight between Van Damme and Razaaq was very cool and real. In Hell, Wake of Death and The Hard Corps were great films. Let's wait Til Death!!! I give it a 7.8/10