Comeuppance Reviews Jack Robideaux (Van Damme) is a cop from New Orleans who comes to the small town of Columbus, New Mexico to start on their border patrol. It seems a gang of drug smugglers, including Karp (Adkins), are made up of former U.S. Soldiers gone bad. Now Jack, his partner Billy (McDonald) and Captain Ramona Garcia (Robb) have to get to the truth. Additionally, some folks in this dusty ol'town don't take kindly to newcomers, so Jack, and his pet rabbit, also named Jack (there's an explanation) must defend himself there from the locals. After some twists and turns in the plot, we finally get to the fight scene between Scott Adkins and Van Damme that we all want. Will human Jack and rabbit Jack get what they came to New Mexico for? We're happy to announce that The Shepherd is a winner! Overall this is a solid, entertaining, quality movie that delivers the goods. And why wouldn't it, as it was directed by the capable and dependable Isaac Florentine, whose name is becoming synonymous with satisfying action creations. This movie really should have gone to the theater in America. Sure, there's at least one scene that's a bit too long, and there might be some other quibbles here and there, but this movie is prime JCVD all the way.Naturally, Van Damme plays yet another guy with a French name. This harks back to past JCVD efforts, while references in the movie to hurricane Katrina, the war in Afghanistan, and of course, the issues surrounding the U.S./Mexico border firmly bring The Shepherd into current, relevant territory. It is somewhat lame that the bad guys are former U.S. Soldiers - what, they couldn't think of any other type of person that could be evil? - but we get it, they are "rogue" agents and all that. But it's puzzling why that's the place the writers went to. They even find time to sneak in some Punchfighting! Sure, it's unnecessary, but who cares? It's just fun. Of course, there's the prerequisite torture scene, which is just another excuse for shirtlessness. We love Scott Adkins, and he does a good job as one of the baddies, but we think he makes a better good guy. Someone we've always lovingly compared Adkins to is Gary Daniels, and it would be weird seeing him as a baddie (even though it has happened, mainly in the earlier part of his career). That aside, Adkins is a talented martial artist and has strong screen presence. His fight with Van Damme gives you what you want. They would team up again in the disappointing and inferior Assassination Games (2011). Also Van Damme has a pet turtle in that movie. Either a rabbit or a turtle, and Scott Adkins. But that's where the similarities between the two movies end.The Shepherd just goes to show that if you use Van Damme right, he's still a viable star. This can firmly be placed in Van Damme's win columnFor more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Paul Andrews 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.

rlange-3 Worth the entertainment value of a rental, especially if you like action movies. This one features the usual car chases, fights with the great Van Damme kick style, shooting battles with the 40 shell load shotgun, and even terrorist style bombs. All of this is entertaining and competently handled but there is nothing that really blows you away if you've seen your share before.The plot is made interesting by the inclusion of a rabbit, which is clever but hardly profound. Many of the characters are heavily stereotyped -- the angry veterans, the terrified illegal aliens, the crooked cops, the indifferent feds, the bitchy tough lady station head, the crooked politician, the fat federale who looks like he was typecast as the Mexican in a Hollywood movie from the 1940s. All passably acted but again nothing special.I thought the main villains were pretty well done and fairly well acted. By the end of the movie you certainly knew who the good guys were and weren't. There was an emotional lift as the really bad ones got their just deserts. Very simplistic, but then you weren't expecting Hamlet, right? The only thing I found really annoying was the constant cuts to VDs daughter during the last fight scene.Not bad. Not good. Passable 4.

Mash-the-stampede It's really good to see Van Damme's film are slowly getting better of late and especially compared to C-grade flops "Derailed" and "Second in command" which were both tragic and not in a good way. The Sheperd: Border patrol is a good action flick with some really great action/fight sequences. It's good to know that Van Damme still knows how to kick seeing as his last film "Until Death" had no martial arts in it at all!!!That being said, this film is significantly inferior to "Until Death" which was a really good turn for Van Damme. "Until Death" lacked the over-the-top action of most Van Damme films but was dark and gritty and Van Damme's performance as an actor was surprisingly good in that film. Still, The Shepherd is definitely a film worth checking out especially for Van Damme fans or just action movie fans in general but if you're looking for a film with a bit more story line.....you may want to skip this one!I do believe that this film was done well enough especially on what little budget it would have been shot on. The only real problem I have with this film is the title; "The Shepherd"? I don't get it! I suppose "Border Patrol" just doesn't have the same ring to it without the word "Shepherd" in front of it!!!My rating for this film is 7 out of 10 but that's by Van Damme movie standards not in any other film category.i.e. It's good for a Van Damme film.