Bullet Points: The Last Mercenary
Netflix is officially in the Jean-Claude Van Damme business with the release of 2021’s The Last Mercenary.
For those of you who may have caught the trailer that Jean-Claude Van Damme shared on social media a while back, you probably noticed that The Last Mercenary is a French film. I am happy to report to my fellow English speakers that may not be into subtitles, that the film is dubbed (with Jean-Claude Van Damme dubbing his own voice) for the English version that is now streaming on Netflix…
- Mission Accomplished: We are introduced to famed mercenary, Richard Brumère (Jean-Claude Van Damme) while he is on a rescue mission and it is quickly established in this opening scene that the movie is not going to take itself too seriously. Richard rescues the son of his wealthy client in somewhat unorthodox fashion, but Richard lives up to his reputation and gets the job done. However we soon find out that Richard’s next mission might be the biggest challenge of his career…
- Identity Theft: We are introduced to Simyon Novak (Nassim Lyes) as he is involved in a high speed chase with the police. Simyon is a spoiled rich kid living abroad in France who has stolen the identity of two people… Richard’s estranged son Archibald, and Tony Montana from Scarface. Simyon under the guise of Archibald has made Paris his personal playground and he has been getting away with all sorts of things due to the fact that Archibald was granted immunity at birth (one of the perks of being the son of a former French secret service special agent like Richard Brumère). But after bumbling bureaucrat Alexandre Lazare (Alban Ivanov) revokes Archibald’s immunity status, the cops don’t come after Simyon, they go after the REAL Archibald Al Mahmoud (Samir Decazza)!
- Father/Son Time: To protect his son Archibald (or Archie as he prefers to be called) and clear his name, Richard has to get directly involved in Archie’s life for the first time ever. But it is not going to be easy since Richard has some enemies in the French government. And speaking of the French government, we find out that Simyon had help in stealing Archie’s identity from a rogue government employee, Paul Lesueur (Éric Judor) and identity theft is not the only nefarious thing Simyon and Paul are into. Paul dispatches some mercenaries of his own to make sure the famed Richard Brumère does not ruin his big plans with Simyon.
- The Team: Richard finds himself working with a team of rank amateurs that includes his son Archie and two of Archie’s friends, Momo (Djimo) and Dalila (Assa Sylla), who step up in a major way to help their friend in need. Bumbling bureaucrat Alexandre Lazare, who basically caused this whole mess to begin with, gets in on the action too (you’ll never guess what his hobby is). The interaction with Richard and his team is where the movie really shines as there is not an unlikable character in the bunch and you can’t help but emotionally invest in their adventures (or misadventures in some cases) and hope they succeed in the end.
The Last Mercenary was the most fun I have had watching a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie in years. The tone and tenor of the movie is reminiscent of Van Damme’s short lived Jean-Claude Van Johnson series. If you enjoyed that series or just like your JCVD entertainment lighter than some of the darker and more serious movies he has been putting out the past few years, I am confident you will enjoy watching JCVD ham it up and mix it up with a great ensemble cast in The Last Mercenary.
The Last Mercenary is action comedy done right with Van Damme getting to show off both his action and comedic chops.
Now allow me to show off some Bonus Bullet Points done right…
- If You Ever: …wanted to see JCVD in drag, then The Last Mercenary is the movie for you. In fact, JCVD was practically “The Man of 1,000 Faces” donning a number of disguises throughout the movie.
- Soundtraxx: With a key character who idolizes Tony Montana and watches Scarface on a loop, it makes sense that the song “Scarface (Push It to the Limit)” by Paul Engemann is featured. The Blondie classic “One Way Or Another” is also prominently featured in the movie.
- AKA: Richard Brumère is also known as “The Mist” or “La Brume” in French
- Secret Quote: “The goose is out of the freezer.”
- Roots: No one can accuse JCVD of forgetting where he came from, we get to see Richard bust out some Kickboxer like dance moves. Richard also acknowledges a Bloodsport poster that is hanging in Simyon’s swanky game room.
- Don’t Turn It Off: Word to the wise, the fun continues during the end credits, so DO NOT turn the movie off when the end credits start to roll.
