The Shepherd: Border Patrol (2008)

Former US Special Forces officers, who served in Afghanistan, are now drug-smuggling mercenaries, stationed in Mexico using illegals to push heroine across the boarder into New Mexico. Jean-Claude Van DAMME stars as a sombre New Orleans cop who moves to New Mexico to join the Boarder Patrol, motivated by the loss of his daughter(via drug overdose)to help stop the Meyers Cartel, and end their whole dirty operation, or die trying. Pretty much standard action fare with Van DAMME very solemn and stoic, haunted by his past, unable to sleep, almost never cracking a smile. He's often the butt of jokes because of a pet rabbit(his daughter's)he carries around. Natalie J Robb is Robideaux's(Van DAMME)boss, tough-talking Boarder Patrol Captain Ramona Garcia, stressed by the bureaucratic nonsense she often faces in the very dangerous job of stopping drugs and illegals from passing into New Mexico, establishing her seriousness in regards to keeping peace in her town, and not messing up while performing the duties as an officer. Gary McDonald is Robideaux's partner, Pawnell, actually on the payroll of the Meyers Cartel. Stephen Lord is Ben Meyers, the leader of the mercenary group, having sold his soul for the profits from drugs, in bed with other druglords. Daniel Perrone is Nestor, Meyers' second in command, equipped with martial arts skills, so you know he and Robideaux will eventually duel. Like a number of action flicks dealing with the hero up against terrorists or drug dealing baddies, there's the big chase, explosions, machine gun battles where opposing forces trade gunfire, and hand-to-hand combats.Along with the major chase sequence involving Meyers and his gang attempting to move into America dressed as priests inside a heavily armored bus, backtracking as police and Boarder Patrol follow in hot pursuit, the film's essential action set-piece occurs at the end as Robideaux and Garcia attempt to escape the Casa del Mar compound inside Las Palomos in Mexico, while upending Meyers' small army who plan to flee elsewhere due to their hidden lair being uncovered..as often is the case, instead of killing Robideaux and Garcia when he had the chance, Meyers spares them for later abuse, providing them with an opportunity to inflict future harm to his whole operation. I think Van DAMME had some well orchestrated fight scenes, including the obligatory prison contest where he must defeat a hand-picked criminal, and his work opposite Perrone towards the end. The plot is fatally ordinary, but director Isaac Florentine does especially well at showing bodies pummeled, flipping and flying in slow motion as they hit the ground. The movie has flair, but is desperately lacking in regards to it's uninspired story.

The Shepherd: Border Patrol is set in the small New Mexico town of Colombus where New Orleans homicide cop Jack Robideaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme) has been transfered to border patrol, he is partnered up with Billy Pawnell (Gary McDonald) & the two set about catching drug lords & drug smugglers. A highly trained gang of drug smugglers made up of ex marines & special ops work for Benjamin Meyers (Stephen Lord) who likes to make money of heroin. Things are going fine for Meyers until Robideaux arrives on the scene, an honest cop unable to be brought Robideaux sets out to finish Meyers drug smuggling operation & take him down in the process but seemingly as the only straight cop in town Robideaux has his work cut out & has to go it alone...Directed by Isaac Florentine this is a fairly standard straight to video action thriller starring JCVD that I thought was alright but nothing special. The script is fairly routine, a one man army played by JCVD faces up against some bad guy & his henchmen & JCVD eventually comes out on top after having beaten everyone up & then killed them. There's nothing particularly terrible about The Shepherd: Border Patrol but at the same time there's nothing particularly great about it, you stick with it during it's 90 odd minute running time but once it finishes & the credits roll it won't last long in the memory. The character's are alright, there's a fairly predictable plot twist towards the end & while there little bits of exposition & plot development nothing really comes of them like we never find out who was controlling Meyers & the reasons why JCVD is on his personal mission are revealed & then forgotten about almost straight away. This isn't as bad as some of JCVD's recent straight to video efforts but neither is it as good as some, a very middle of the road average sort of film.The action scenes are a mixed bag here, while I really appreciated that the camera was locked down & you could actually see what was going on & there was none of that horrible ultra fast quick editing where you can't make out what's going on the action scenes themselves just aren't that good. The fights are alright with one or two fairly cool uses of slow motion but little else, there's the expected shoot-outs where the bad guy's can't shoot straight & just like stand there waiting for JCVD to shoot them & a reasonable car chase. All in all the action scenes could have been worse but like the film in general they could also have been better.With a supposed budget of about £12,000,000 The Shepherd: Border Patrol is set in New Mexico but was filmed in Bulgaria. The looks nice enough with decent production values. The acting is alright, JCVD is his usual self who at least tries & is still in good shape.The Shepherd: Border Patrol is average JCVD to be honest, it's not terrible but it's not brilliant either. I didn't mind watching it but I doubt I would ever want to see it again & I really wouldn't be able to recommend it.

Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as a border guard forced to fight Mexican drug runners in this adequate martial arts actioner that finds Van Damme in good form, and that has some really good fights. I'm not sure if this is Jean-Claude Van Damme's best direct to DVD effort but it certainly feels like it. The plot is of course negligible, the characters are thin as paper and the story is just an excuse to have Van Damme kick butt and showcase his martial arts. For a fan of such Shepherd:Border Patrol works as what it sets out to do, and it succeeds in a Bloodsport/Kickboxer/Universal Soldier way.In other words it feels like an late 80s/early 90s Van Damme flick and I was happy with such. Indeed Van Damme's one on one with Scott Adkins is great, the action is exciting and I had a lot of fun with this movie. This isn't of course as good as JCVD or even Bloodsport, Kickboxer and Universal Soldier, but it is Van Damme's most fun outing in a long time and Van Damme forgets the over the top melodrama (In Hell and Until Death) to deliver non-stop martial artistry. Sure the movie is stupid, but the pace is fast and it really does feel like a classic Van Damme movie, and really what's much better than that?* *1/2 Out Of 4-(Pretty Good)

Van damme has done some great films over the years and this one hits a big ten in my books. From the setting of Mexico to the five star fight scenes, this movie was amazing. The film is all about border patrol officers protecting there territory which is the border of Mexico. Ex navy seals are smuggling drugs out of Mexico into the united states of America (USA), Van damme and Scott Atkins give stunning performances as the cop and the villain. Although this film wasn't as good as until death but it still gave the action,acting and the film a five star look. I always look forward to these b grade action films and they keep getting better. keep them coming van damme.Watch this film if you enjoyed films like - Until death, The hard corps and second in command.