Jean-Claude Van Damme deserves better than this old comedy, but it fails

French action comedy from another time, “The Last Mercenary,” on Netflix, does not do JCVD ​​justice. If, at the age of 60, the Belgian actor has not yet acquired rheumatism the symbol of popular culture, then the film is already hardened.

Richard Brumaire, as his nickname, “La Brumme”, is a former scum of the French secret service. Disappeared from the radar for a quarter of a century, the man with quick and effective methods reappears to help his son, Archibald, whom he never knew and whose existence he never knows. With the help of a gang of suburban youth, Boromir will challenge the mafia on the ankle with power, while trying to establish a relationship with his descendants, less reckless than himself.

Ago JCVD (2008), Jean-Claude Van Damme enjoys playing with his legend that he created with Jerry’s cattle at the end of the 1980s. There is no doubt something touching this desire to scream his existence, to assert his identity, while age begins to catch up (60 years), even if it sometimes means getting lost in the incomplete mise en abyme (Series Jean-Claude Van Johnson). Because it’s a fact: Despite a dazzling American dream of his debut, the Belgian actor never achieved the recognition he truly wanted. Like his favorite character, split faces, Van Damme has always been the link between Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger on the one hand, and Chuck Norris and Steven Seagal on the other.