I have always wanted Van Damme in a french style action-noir movie, like the old Alain Delon movies, I was very pleased when I saw Philippe Martinez mix Jean-Pierre Melville classic anti-hero lead with "MTV" camera work. It works perfectly. Van Damme makes his best performance to date, he really acts. The guy have taken some great amount of heat in his past due to his accent. This time around you can't blame or bash Jean-Claude for being stiff. The action scenes are suitable to the story, the fights are short and bloody. No need for fancy 360 kicks, a punch to the jaw and empty the clip in the chest. Classy. The cinematography is one of the best I have seen in a action movie, within this budget, and that is all thanks to the work by Emmanuel Kadosh. The music works really good for the emotional scenes and the sound is clear and top notch.

This is not your average Van Damme flick. Its also not your average action/revenge movie either. There's no doubt that this is a huge step up for Van Damme. His acting is very impressive, in my opinion his best work yet and he is still in great shape and can perform the kicks, no problem. The story is simple but it gives more to you then it should. We get to see Van Damme's character completely break down, and for this you feel for him, which makes his revenge just as sweet as it is for him, for you. Aside from Van Damme the rest of the acting is pretty good. There are also some great fight scenes and car/motorcycle chases. Another thing I noticed is that this movie looked like it had a nice budget..100 times better then Derailed and better then In Hell..It was nice to see that Money was being dished out for Van Damme again. Anyway overall I give this a 10 for Van Damme's great performance, the stylish action and the way the story was executed. Van Damme fan or not, try and check this one out.