The Bouncer

Van Damme does well in these types of roles and even with the ease of a mostly French dialogue, he shines through when he's quiet and just painting a portrait of his character with the pain in his eyes and the tired look on his face.

Pretty straight forward plot. Van Damme, a club bouncer with a mysterious past, quickly finds himself unlucky and stuck between a rock and a hard place. All he really cares about is his daughter but the world just keeps getting in his way.

The action is unspectacular but in an artistic way. The fights are physical, gruelling and full of blunt force hits more than martial arts or fancy maneuvers.

If you're a JCVD fan you'll appreciate this film for what it is. And with a roughly 90min runtime, it's easy to get quickly invested and checked back into the world on a Saturday afternoon.

Decent pacing, simple story with a bit of action and a little bit of heart.

Not a masterpiece but still very good acting from JCVD, kind of a film noir, not deceiving, well filmed with good actors, the only movie that didn't deceive me that month :)

Van Damme has improved as an actor majorly, he needs to continue this European movie making streak and leave the usual hollywood action crap behind, this is a nice movie with better acting than story but still better then what he has done in the past decade. Watch it, won;t be disappointed.

So the out-of-luck tough guy falls in with the bad guys, and has to sustain his sweet lil' daughter, eh? Usually, such a story would be a recipe for disaster, especially when the movie stars a former action hero who's too old do any real action.

To my everlasting surprise, this one is neither cheesy nor predictable or boring. It's simply a very good movie. The slower approach results in a realistic appeal, even though it suffers from the "blockbuster" orange-and-teal color grading. The gunshots sound like the real thing - and cars don't explode on impact.

At the end I was saddened that it only runs 90 minutes. Highly recommended for the JCVD's performance alone, let's hope they keep this coming.

The Bouncer is an extremely grim & gloomy dark tale of a single father who works nights at sleazy clubs as a bouncer but can't wait to get home to see his daughter.

This is a very dark story, realism is splashed all over this Drama/Thriller & van damme gives probably his greatest performance of his career!!!

I like most grew up watching his 80's & 90's action films & have always been a huge fan of his as i am of Schwarzenegger & Stallone, so IT'S really nice to see van damme in a way long overdue dramatic role with serious acting even though it's another straight-to-dvd B-movie it's made with depth & character.

Van damme play's Lucas as a very lost & damaged man who only lives for his daughter.

The music is sometimes sad & dreary, it suits the gritty & grim tone perfectly as does the cinematography that captures the depressing surroundings.

A fantastic performance from van damme & a good solid gritty & violent story, just the ending ruined it abit for me but this is way better than most direct to dvd films & a million times better than nearly all of steven seagal's dvd flicks.

As all my action heroe's have aged & I've gotten older too, i see now that Van Damme is the best actor of those old school action stars & find that Van Damme gives the best performances in his films even if their low-budget B-movies & i find Van Damme to be the most down-to-earth of those guys & has become my favourite action star.