Day 3: “The Bouncer” (2018)

 30 Damme Movies in 30 Damme Days

The 3rd Damme Day:





Do you believe in Murphy’s Law? It raised its ugly head to me tonight. I got home from work, walked my dog, fixed a cup of coffee, and sat down on the sofa to watch today’s Damme movie… and Murphy struck! My internet is out. I waited 30 minutes and it still wasn’t back on, so to make sure I was was able to watch my required Damme movie tonight, I had to resort to watching it on my cell phone! And after watching it, the internet still isn’t back up so now I’m trying to type up this whole blog entry on my little cell phone screen. But hey, I met my quota, and another Damme movie is in the can!

“The Bouncer” (2018)


This is the first time for me to watch this JCVD movie. 

For me, it was a good story with good acting throughout, but it wasn’t the type of movie I’m used to seeing JCVD in at all. Although there were a few fight scenes, this one was heavy on drama instead of martial arts action. 

Van Damme plays a very mysterious man with a very young daughter, maybe around 7 years old. He’s down on his luck, working as a bouncer at a high-tech night club, trying to make ends meet with the little pay he makes. He’s behind on bills, especially tuition for his daughter's private school. He lives a very simple secretive life, and his daughter means the world to him.

As the story unfolds, you learn that he is using a fake name and keeping himself and his daughter away from the public eye, except for her school where she’s registered under an alias.

In hopes of getting more money to keep his daughter in the school, he takes a new job as a bodyguard and bouncer at another nightclub, but we soon find out that the owners are a criminal element into selling drugs and counterfeiting money. Soon, a secret police organization specializing in crime syndicates makes themselves known to JCVD and forces him to be their man on the inside and report the criminal activities back to them. They blackmail him to work for them by threading to extradite him back to South Africa where he is wanted for murder, and they threaten to put his daughter in the foster care system.


The movie wasn’t bad, but to me, it was slow for a JCVD movie. It wasn't boring, had some good acting. JCVD shows that he can actually act. I’m glad I watched it, because I want to see all of his movies, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I like my JCVD doing some high-flying flashy kicks and punches and this one just didn’t have that going for it, but it was a pretty solid film.

I rate it a 5 out of 10. You should check it out and let me know what you thought of it.


I'll see you tomorrow for another Damme movie!


- Patrick

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