Jean-Claude Van Damme (“Double Impact”, “Universal Soldier”) stars in this surprisingly somewhat competent war film about the French Foreign Legion. Most of Van Damme’s film are about high-flying kicks to the face but “Legionnaire” is a war film not a martial arts movie.

In “Legionnaire”, Van Damme plays a boxer by the name of Alain Lefevre, who is supposed to throw a match but ends up winning with plans to leave France for America with his girlfriend. After being chased by gangsters in Marseille, he finds himself joining the French Foreign Legion. He’s sent to Morocco where he learns loyalty and friendship as he battles Arabs at a remote outpost.

Van Damme isn’t a great actor and here he doesn’t even get to display his signature fighting moves. With that in mind, I was actually somewhat impressed with how tolerable he is here. Steven Berkoff (“Beverly Hills Cop”) is entertaining as Sergeant Steinkampf do a lesser Sergeant Hartman from “Full Metal Jacket”. The other soldiers aren’t too interesting. Jim Carter (“The Golden Compass”) is okay as the head gangster. The Arabs don’t get much screen time beyond charging across the screen on horses being shot at but they at least do the charging around on horses well.

“Legionnaire” is rather bland during its opening scenes but once Van Damme is shipped off to Africa, parts of the film are rather entertaining. The action sequences are rather enjoyable at times but the characters aren’t very interesting. I didn’t really enjoy myself during this film but I certainly found myself a lot more impressed with what was onscreen than I expected. If you’re a big Van Damme fan you might dislike this film due to the lack of martial arts but at the same time, those that don’t care for Van Damme’s work might want to check this one out if they like war movies.