The Hard Corps (DVD, 2006)

Phillip Sauvage (Jean-Claude van Damme) is a man with a heavy past. Having suffered under stressful conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Al-Qaida takes children as hostages and blows them up, Sauvage had to take some time off in the psyche ward at a veterans hospital.

Sauvage, in spite of his previous bouts with post traumatic stress disorder, he chooses to take a job "guarding" the main hero of the film, philanthropist and boxer Wayne Barclay (Razaaq Adoti). At a nightclub, which Barclay often visits, Sauvage experiences a flashback to the drop of the pulsating lights and pounding music. Never one to let his illness get the most of him, Sauvage turns back into a killing machine and uses his uzi to protect Barclay when drive-by shooters try to take Barclay's life outside the nightclub. One of his best war buddies gets killed. Sauvage attends the funeral with the boxing hero and his sister, Tamara Barclay (Vivica A. Fox).

Barclay, through the advice of Tamara, ask Sauvage to work for them as a bodygaurd consultant. Detective Teague soon takes Sauvage in handcuffs for discharge of weapons in public without a permit. The Barclays can't believe the charges, but Wayne becomes a bit skeptical about Sauvage and his intentions when Detective Teague explains that Sauvage was in a psyche ward for his involvement with murdering innocent children. Wayne keeps this to him until a opening event with the mayor. Sauvage, suspecting the worst, spots a potential suspect in the crowd. Wayne calls Sauvage a psycho who was locked up in a psyche ward. This causes both men to call one another to fight, which turns out pretty bloody. Sauvage holds his own against the boxer with his own fists. He asks Wayne, who said this about him, but Wayne does not yet trust him enough, as his image was destroyed at the event when they had to cleared the building.

It's not until the man Simcoe (Ron Selmour), who Sauvage suspected as wanting to kill Wayne, goes into a bathroom with some of his cronies that we learn that he really is wanting to kill Wayne and Tamara. They attempt to kill Wayne's sister while they are sparring and Sauvage and Wayne are taken to a local hospital where Detective Teague appears. Teague knows a little too much. Wayne's doubt turns his mind back to his trust of Sauvage. Sauvage confesses in the car with Wayne that he was inpatient in a VA Hospital for anxiety and depression. He also recants the school massacre to Wayne, which he was not able to tell Tamara. Sauvage explains in gory detail of how Al-Qaida was using a child as hostage and then had explosives wrapped around his waist, and ended up annhilating a group of school children in Iraq. Sauvage explains he wasn't responsible for this.

Wayne continues to employ Sauvage and one day when Wayne comes to his girlfriend's house he finds her at gunpoint with Detective Teague challenging him. Knowing that Sauvage is a stable man in spite of his previous accusations, he stands together with the rapper to kill Wayne. A large scuffle and many misfortunes befall the characters of this film in the end.

If I had seen this earlier when it came out, I would have watched it anyway again on video for the 2nd time. There are many things about this movie that imitate real life and is an extremely tense film, since you have people trying to kill one another.

I'll give this 5/5, even though the film never made it to the theaters and went straight to video.

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In this movie, The Hard Corps, a soldier did time in Iraq and is very aggressive. He has returned and is missioned to become a bodyguard for a boxer who is being harrased. The boxer learns that his sister is involved with the bodyguard. Plot sounds familiar to the bodyguard, eh?

I am a Jean Claude fan and love the movies he is in because they are full of action and yet have an actual point or sometimes even a lesson learned. I was very impressed with The Hard Corps it was one of his best movies that I have seen yet and I was unable to take my eyes off the movie it held my full attention and kept me on the edge of my seat, excellent movie!!!!
Thank you Karla Irving

I'm an avid John Claude Van Damme collector (JCVD) for short. There's hardly a movie he made that I don't own in some form or another, and this one is no exception. Great story line, plus....what gal does NOT like seeing John Claude Van Damme doing the splits he's so famous for? LOL.

I decided to use Half.com because this new movie was retailing for so high and we didn't have a lot of money to spend BUT we always trying to complete our Van Damme collection...and this movie was actually really good!!