We Die Young (2019)

After the film that I watched yesterday, it left a very bad taste in my mouth so I needed some redemption for Jean-Claude Van Damme (Knock Off) and So I trusted in him to try out another film on Amazon Prime. The film I decided to watch is very different for Van Damme in 2019's We Die Young which was written and directed by Lior Geller (Hatched). The film stars Elijah Rodriguez (Sicario: Day Of The Soldado) as Lucas, a kid caught up in the streets of Washington DC as a drug runner for the local chapter of MS 13. All Lucas wants is a way out of this hell hole so that his little brother doesn't fall into the same trap, but after a mistake is committed he seeks the help of a combat veteran (Van Damme). The film also stars David Castañeda (The Tax Collector) as Rincon, Nicholas Sean Johnny (Barry) as Miguel, Charlie MacGechan (The Girl From The Song) as Jester, Joana Metrass (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) as Anna, Robyn Cara (Trying) as Gabriela, Jacob Scipio (Bad Boys For Life) as Tomas, Jim Caesar (The Witcher) as Felix, Kerry Bennett (The Habit Of Beauty) as Brenda, Pablo Scola (The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) as Padre Orelio, Dean John-Wilson (The King and I) as Mousey, and Uriel Emil (The Bourne Ultimatum) as Spider.

As I said before, this film was a very different role for Jean-Claude Van Damme because there was no fancy martial arts scenes or any scenes of charisma in the film because he also had no speaking lines in the whole film. As I said, he played a combat veteran that came back to the states after an IUD went off that left him without a voice and no he works as a mechanic in DC who is just trying to get some pain medicine. Van Damme over the years has been expanding his repertoire and rightfully so after he showed what he could do in the film JCVD which was absolutely amazing. The only thing too is that his role in this film is sort of minor because the film really focuses on Lucas who struggles with the fact that he has to raise his little brother and keep him off the streets. This sounds very familiar because it happens more than you know in the real world where poverty has struck in the inner cities. The story is amazing and some of the action sequences at the end are amazing as well so this is definitely one film that is worth checking out if you want something more dramatic and different from Van Damme. One thing I will also say is that I am a huge fan of David Castañeda who was very good in this film as the head honcho of this MS 13 chapter. He captures everything that you would want from someone the people fear on a daily business plus he has that swagger. Give this one a shot right now on Amazon Prime because you may surprise yourself. I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.