The Shepherd: Border Patrol is an action/martial arts movie starring both Van Damme and Scott Adkins.
You’ve got Jack Robideaux, a ex cop from New Orleans who has come to New Mexico with his pet rabbit, taking a job to help protect the border. While patrolling the border, Jack starts to notice a few things the other men don’t, he then finds a group of men trying to cross the border and discovers one man has a vest strapped with C4 explosives.
These men, sent by a group of Ex Special forces guys, are trying to smuggle drugs into the country. Ben Meyers and his second in command Karp (Scott Adkins) then become very crafty and try to find new ways to smuggle their goods into the country.
After a failed operation Ben and Karp flee back across the border Pursued by Jack and one of his fellow officers. There Jack is captured, and put in prison, where he must do the whole Van Damme thing – and kick his way out.
Why is a highly talented Martial Artist working on the Border?
Jack’s abilities are a little above and beyond the men around him – is it the rabbit?
Well no, Jack’s basically on a revenge mission after the drugs (much like the ones being smuggled) killed his daughter. The rabbit was her pet named Jack – jokingly named after her father.
This creates a pretty basic story to follow – unstoppable man plots revenge on some bad guys. So this your basic action film which has a little flashes of action throughout it – done well as most movies directed by Isaac Florentine are.
The Action
With the story being very skin deep, the action is really the main star of this film. It’s well done – a few explosions and gun fights but ultimately the fights are hand to hand.
The fight scenes are inventive and smart like most of Isaac’s movies and needless to say – Scott Adkin’s does what he does best, just not as often as we’d all like.
Scott’s action scenes were performed flawlessly, with magnificent kicks and even a flying arm bar from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. But I feel that they held him back a little bit when he fought Van Damme – to appear as if on the same level.
Van Damme’s action was good – from the waist down. From the waist up he was very stiff and rigid – as opposed to relaxed as a martial artist of his calibre should be. He holds his hands pretty unnaturally like he’s forcing a kick boxing stance, but he still manages some pretty cool fight scenes.
The way the action was shot and things they had him doing were pretty cool. The bar fight was a nice little hint of things to come, while the prison fight was probably the best work Van Damme did in this movie.
Would I Recommend it?
It’s ok. If you’re a fan of Scott Adkins or Van Damme you may get some enjoyment out of this movie, but it’s definitely not among the best of either actors’ films. A perfect Sunday afternoon time killer though.
Find it On DVD –
Region 1 (US & Canada)
The Shepherd: Border Patrol on DVD
Region 2 (UK, Europe, etc)
The Shepherd: Border Patrol on DVD
Region 4 (Australia, New Zealand, etc)
The Shepherd: Border Patrol on DVD (Part of a 4 movie pack)
