We Die Young (2019) User Reviews

Not really watchable

[randomfx01 · 4/10 · 12 April 2019]

This is not an engaging movie at all. It shows some promise at the start and teases, yet never delivers. JCVD is under utilized and does nothing of note. The shaky cam is well noted and just underlines the cheapness of the whole project. It would of been an easy 5* if JCVD just burst out from his passive shell just once.

Reviews mislead me...

[Reem750618 · 4/10 · 10 December 2019]

With all the positive reviews on IMDB I thought it was a good movie, but it really isn't. I'm a Van Damme fan, but this movie is just done badly. The camera is all over the place, even when there's no action it just jerks from left to right. The music is bad, the story is dull and there are way to much boring scenes that just don't fit the film and take the pace out of the story, if you know what I mean. All in all it's just a weak movie, that isn't even interesting enough to play in the background. Sorry, Jean-Claude...

Awful Acting and Terrible Action Scenes

[BloodyPredator2 · 4/10 · 26 June 2019]

Van Damme is one my favourite Action heros ,but this movie was quite disappointing. The actors were awful,The Action scenes and the Cinematography was terrible also the Storyline was not real Interesting. There must be many fake reviews for this movie on imdb made by the Bulgarian Co production Company. Van Damme should better read the script before make such awful Films,and not thinking about a quick paycheck.

The Camera man has worst shakes than Parkinsons & no action

[answerscommentsadvice · 1/10 · 16 July 2020]

I thought District 9, Children of Men & Blair Witch Project had bad camera shakes but this one....OMG......it has 3x as bad. Even just normal talking scenes, they can't hold the camera still. You'll get motion sickness. If you never had it (like me), you'll get motion sickness from this movie. Don't bother with storyline or action. Is a Flick Bait using Van Damme name. The worst. I stopped half way cos it wasn't going anywhere.......just like JCVD career now. Such shame & let down. Used to love JCVD movies but now....more like OMFG

Great casting, weak story, poor camera work, but still a fun film.

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 7/10 · 2 March 2019]

I have to say the gangster casting was very convincing and on point. Lior Geller's story's concept was good, but the screenplay had some issues. His directing was good, but his camera work was poorly captured with the non-stop shaky cam shots. Not sure if he's heard of a gimbal or a cam tripod, but it was really needed in 80% of this film, as I was getting a headache trying to stay focused on the main scenes. The score was decent, but overbearing and unnecessary in some parts. JCVD was great in this, although not much of his martial arts talent was showcased. For a B-grade film, it was decent. Would I recommend it? Sure, if you're a fan of JCVD, as this is better than some of his recent previous work. Would I see it again? Nope. It's a generous 7/10 from me

Dizzy and Sick

[donbassetti · 1/10 · 6 April 2019]

People, if you get sea sick don't watch this move. The camera is bouncing all around the darn screen! Plus you can't seem to hear any conversation about the movie be use of all the loud Latin music over Bering to the conversation. Not sure what they call this type of film where the camera is all up in the actors grill. Anyway if it wasn't for the jumping, swaying, back and forth up and down camera foot that makes you Dizzy and sick, I would have stayed. Walked out and got a refund!

Good news. A solid Van Damme flick in 2019.

[bcbell79 · 7/10 · 2 March 2019]

As a long time JCVD fan, from time to time I look up to see what he has coming out later in the year. I've been waiting to check out We Die Young since I found out about it last year. Since I grew up 20 minutes from Washington D.C. (not far from where the film takes place) I was extra curious about this one. Although not the actionfest I was originally hoping for, it turned out to be a surprisingly good film. Solid directing and acting make this one of the better Van Damme movies of the last decade. Nothing revolutionary, but an entertaining "day in the life" of a teenage gang member who suddenly tries to get his little brother out of the gang life. The films main character is a teenage drug runner for the MS13 gang in a D.C. neighborhood. The same day he is making the biggest "package" run of his life, some gang members decide to "jump in" his little brother. Deciding he doesn't want that life for his little brother, they try to take off, and things get hectic from there on out. Van Damme is a former marine, who was injured and lost his ability to speak (yes, Van Damme has no dialog in the film) and is now a junkie who buys from (and eventually helps) our teenage lead. Don't let that deter you, JCVD is in the whole movie, it follows both characters over the 24 hour period in which the film takes place. There isn't a single martial arts fight, but there is a good amount of violence from beatings, stabbings and shootouts. Van Damme gives a solid performance, especially for no dialog. If you just enjoy gang films it's worth giving it a watch. If you like JCVD movies than definitely check this one out, it's one of this best films in years.

We die young... of boredom !

[destroyerwod · 4/10 · 29 July 2019]

MAY CONTAIN MINOR SPOILERS (i wasn't sure it could be seen as it, so i clicked the box to avoid any sanction by IMDB)

I will admit i was surprised to see this movie getting so much high reviews on IMDB. I always been a fan of JCVD and usually i can cope with Direct to DVD/VOD stuff and still be satisfied, as long as the story is interesting and the action is good, even if low budget. But this one was the least satisfying in the last 10 years to me, even less than Lukas .

This movie has a good premise, but the actual story itself is nothing great. I will give props to the actors who did a great job in my opinion, especially the guy portraying the gang leader, but sadly thats one of the few praise i can give this movie. Its low budget i get it, so they couldn't do a lot and the movie had to be told on a smaller scale but not much happen.

First of all Van Damme decide to once again plays a "down on his luck, wrecked by life, depress character" in a dark gritty movie like he does in almost all his recent movies exept Ennemies Closer and Welcome to the Jungle. Only this time, the character can't even speak due to an injury from his past. This play very little part in the story so it feel completely unnecessary.

There is barely any action and i think this is where it bothered me the most. You look at the cover and you expect Van Damme taking on the MS-13, that there is gonna be plenty of fights and everything. But nop... I don't even recall Van Damme giving one kick in the whole movie. He has barely one fight and its super lame.

Maybe i am typecasting him too much but when an actor has been known for action roles (especially fights) the majority of his career, and looking at the premise of the movie, and the trailer too, that was what i was expecting.

The last 2 movies i watched of Van Damme, this and Lukas, have really bored me. There was a time , yes even in the direct to dvd era, that i was really looking forward to his new movies. Some have been really cool. Maybe he want to do different stuff, more drama, now that he is older, wich is guess his fine if its what he want. But for me watching a new Van Damme flick on friday night meant seeing an ass-kicking on screen while drinking a few beers.

Flows and is kinda promising average action flick up to about half point

[sumtim3s00n · 1 March 2019]

Then the kid suddenly doesnt see nor hear a 10lbs object flying out of his bag in a quiet room nor he sees it later when he moves the bed. And to make it completely idiotic, he then gets into a huge fight despite living so long in D.C he shouldve known would never end well for him. When he could have easily, E A S I L Y just told them what happened and they would leave him be to finish it. And then take his bro to camp. But no... Why defend yourself or explain anything, better to provoke or be quiet and then be killed. Its close to impossible to watch a movie from then on because its all tainted by that idiocy. But I have. And it tops that even possibly. The worst is, a scene at traintracks where a a crazy killer of a guy for whom life is worthless even shooting those very close to him, all of a sudden gets an itch not to shoot a guy with a gun whos is a danger for him in that moment and actually has reasons to.No words...

JCVD Proves He's More Than An Action Star

[ActionFan-Reviews · 7/10 · 3 March 2019]

Everyone remembers Van Damme as the legendary action star of great 80s and 90's genre classics. In the last decade, he's proven he's more than that especially in his post JCVD (2008) career and has shown more depth to the roles he has done. This is more than action, it has a dramatic story with genuinely good performances from the actors which make you care about the characters more than a typical action movie. The story felt realistic, had a good message and was better than expected for a B direct to VOD movie. Overall, the movie may not be as action packed as some of his earlier work, but is still recommended for fans as Van Damme gives a solid performance. Good to see JCVD doing better than Seagal after all these years, and this is one of his better latter career movies alongside his recently released film - The Bouncer.

7/10

What did I just watch?

[rgu-29744 · 1/10 · 26 September 2019]

This is just bad. Any good reviews must be from teenage, males, who might barely enjoy this. JCVD doesn't even do much in the way of fight scenes. Crappy story, so so acting, means a total waste of time.

Wasted potential

[mikkiparker · 8/10 · 3 March 2019]

The beginning of the movie was really promising. Casting was great, people who were cast as the gang members were amazing, David Castañeda did an amazing job portraying Rincon. JCVD l, even though he didn't appear much in the first half, did a great job as well. The biggest problem was the camera man. Almost every shot was shaky and after a while, you couldn't ignore it anymore. I do understand that the budget was very low, but it's not hard to shoot scenes with steady camera. Also Elijah Rodriguez, in my opinion, was missing emotions needed in certain scenes. The ending wasn't that great as well. They could make it a little longer or add a few scenes. A little more action couldn't hurt too However, considering how low the budget was, they did a good job with the movie.

Hospital, prison, grave

[nogodnomasters · 6/10 · 24 March 2019]

The film centers on Lucas (Elijah Rodriguez ) a runner for the MS 13 gang in Washington DC. Cops don't know who they are because they disguise themselves with massive MS 13 tattoos on their face. Daniel (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a PTSD marine who was also injured in the war. He is mute and has lost a lot of steps, especially the high split. Daniel gets pain killers from Lucas because he can not get enough from the VA.

The cops are onto MS 13 and Daniel is given the task to deliver two bricks, something that goes wrong and the next thing you know, Daniel gets involved.

All of MS13 is no match for a normal healthy Jean-Claude Van Damme who would typically fight them all one at a time while the rest stand around in a circle. In this movie they went a bit overboard on his disability, taking some of the Damme fun out of the film.

Guide: F-word. No sex or nudity.

Oscar Winner for Most Fake Reviews. See below-

[NickGepetto · 1/10 · 6 August 2019]

26 of the 57 reviews are 8, 9 or 10 stars. It's so surprising to me how IMDB allows trash like this to be padded with obviously fake reviews. Most are laughable. Here's an example of the absurdity. An actual 10 star review IMDB: --------------------------------- 10/10 REVIEW TITLE: Not bad irina_galaxy3 March 2019 Only giving it 10 stars because David Castaneda was really good. Not bad overall, you can tell that the budget was 10 bucks though. ------------------------------------- So Ms. Irina Galaxy (her real name, I assure you) gave a 10 star review titled "Not Bad."

So what about the movie? O M G. Really terrible on all levels. Why? Let's start with JCVD. He plays a soldier suffering from extreme PTSD. OK. Is that it? No. This soldier also got shot in the throat. So what? So that means that JCVD is mute for the entire picture. A few grunts but he doesn't say a word. Is that all? No. From JCVD's years of cocaine, smoking, drinking and stress, his face has transformed from a guy so handsome you may want to switch sides to a dried apple doll that you find in the corner of a Cracker Barrel Kuntry Store. The main character is played by a muncher named David Castaneda. With his droopy eyes, he looks like a low-rent latino Forest Whitaker and his fake tattoos are ridiculous. His style of "method acting" is to stare at the person he is talking to or the object he is in front of for a long, long time. I think it's supposed to express his "depth" but after the 50th time you will be asking "WTF are you starring at?" There is no character development on the kids. Do they have parents? They don't? So they live in D.C. on their own? And don't go to school? Yeah, no. Truant and social services (Washington D.C. has the 3rd largest in the nation after LA and NYC) would be all over them within a week. So are they constantly running from the truant officer making up an interesting and engaging aspect of the plot? Nope as this would require thought and intelligent writing which this movie does not possess.

Definitely not worth the time to watch even if you are hardcore JCVD fan. Just watch Bloodsport again and you'll be happy.

So bad

[ayiednote · 2/10 · 12 March 2019]

I thoughts when I see Van Damme is going to be great but no Van Damme looklike new actor or something. Even the end of the movie wasn't what you will expect.

JCVD rocks!

[lifelinespublishing · 6/10 · 2 March 2019]

Watched this last night and I must say, Jean Claude has really honed his skills more on the human side than just the ass kicking, gun toting, karate chopping JCVD we were accustomed to in his younger days.

Overall, it has a nice story and JCVD played his drug dependent character and pathetic person to a T though he's a hero at the end.

My only criticism is Elijah Rodriguez should hone his acting skills more, there were a lot of times where he was not conveying the emotion needed in the scene, but the other actors were really good...

feel free to watch this if you have the time. IT has a good ending as well

The camera work ruined it

[nickpedersen · 3/10 · 18 June 2020]

There is some interesting characters here doing a somewhat okay job. The story is good. Jean Claude, like many other older actors, has become a person you like to watch. But there is a lot wrong with this movie that just takes it down..... Real low down. First of all the young boy who we follow..... Being the right hand of the local gangster, you would think that he had some kind of a brain, and that he was able to follow a simple order.... But no! Then the gangster who dont like this young boy because he is jealous to him. When he get an opportunity to waste the boy, he starts talking and explaining things. And this goes on and on, until he loses the opportunity to waste the boy! Very annoying when they do that in movies.... But worst of all is the camera guy! And the cutter! The camera guy never learned to hold a camera steady. You would think that this would be an important skill being a camera guy. But no no...... To easy..... Let me shake like Elvis.... And the action scenes is short cut on short cut, glued together, making it impossible to see anything! I know they do it to make the action scenes cheaper without using to many effects.... But it screams to us viewers that its to cheap! Just dont do it..... Ever again...... Never.....

Solid JCVD

[tobiasthuressongtv · 7/10 · 7 March 2019]

Jean-Claude Van Damme is an odd duck. He started out as probably the cheesiest action star (we all loved him and grew up on those films but let's be honest), then got somewhat of a superstar in the early to mid nineties, then developed a huuuuge coke addiction as well as a worsening onset of extreme bipolar disorder and finally he crashed and burned completely. He then lingered in DTV obscurity (from the mainstream audiences, that is. He still had a dependable fanbase built up) for years and years. During those years he started to mature and develop as an actor. We could see signs of that in Ringo Lam's "In Hell" where he acts his socks off and is very good. Still, a mainstream return seemed highly unlikely before a little film called "JCVD" hit the scene and became sort of a critical darling. Especially for the wonderful and heart breaking monologue he delivers to the camera at one point in the film. Suddenly people started to see that there is actual talent there except just roundhousing fools in the face in slo-mo while screeching like a banshee. Even still, mainstream acceptance eluded him, so he kept toiling in the DTV world. Except for the odd Expendables he seems destined to remain there. This film is no exception. This too, is an odd duck. It feels like a melodrama with some moments of action sprinkled in here and there. It's nowhere near bad and is very competently made and mostly well acted. Van Damme also doesn't say a word in the whole film (he plays a mute war vet with PTSD and a pill addiction). I like this film and JCVD is very good in it but I can't shake the feeling his character belongs to a different film. It feels a little off. It's hard to explain. Anyway, his character lives in a rough neighborhood where he keeps mostly to himself. The MS 13 affiliated kid he buys his pills from tries to keep his little brother from getting sucked into the gang lifestyle while at the same time performing his cartel duties such as drug running and collection of protection money from the terrified citizens in the neighbourhood. Things go sideways and all hell breaks loose. JCVD feels compelled to come to the rescue. He made a mistake in his soldier days and perhaps he can be here for these troubled kids. Like I said this is neither masterpiece nor crap. Just a solid JCVD DTV. It's interesting how he came out on top compared to all the other lower level action guys (the king is still Stallone, tightly followed by Arnie) who were around in the 80's and 90's. Several of them are producing mostly dreck. especially Steven Seagal who gives nary a hoot anymore as long as the buffet table is stocked and his check clears. Dolph Lundgren sometimes also dips back into mainstream cinema from time to time (Aquaman and Creed 2 this past year) but is otherwise firmly trapped in DTV-land. Van Damme at least tries, even if he too makes plenty of garbage just to pay the bills (Black Water, Pound Of Flesh, Kill Em All).

Should have done better!

[kwenchow · 4/10 · 20 April 2019]

Jean-Claude Van Damme actually not main actor in this film, that's why a bit disappointed! The film keep showing the drug lord wedding from opening until the end! Really awful! But actually the action is quite decent! Bloody violent! It's sad because the action all portray at the end only! I will give it better score if the movie is more intense! Movie title is 'We Die Young' but the two young actor did not die in the end! Lol! And Jean-Claude Van Damme portray a mute but after his smartphone got hit on the ground and broken, I don't know how the other understand him, because he did not show some sign language also! Good action but too much talking!

Great story!

[jewelsb129 · 7/10 · 23 March 2020]

An interesting character for JCVD, for which he seemed to have lost a significant amount of weight with his sunken-in face look...but I guess that does tend to come with age, too. The rest of the characters were just as amazing. This was a surprisingly fascinating and on-point interpretation of the gang world and PTSD. There were a few misses in the plot points, but I'm glad I watched it. I had actually been waiting for its release for some time and thoroughly enjoyed it. After all, movies are my jam, and I'm easy to please.

Nanosecond cuts

[mika-ingves · 4/10 · 27 July 2021]

Horrible horrible directing camera shaking and the cuts are horrible . Van Damme character is ok .

Really good movie

[ryan-59722 · 10/10 · 2 March 2019]

I thought this movie was very well done, for it's budget. JCVD said they only had 30 people on the crew rather than 300 like a normal big budget movie. So for what it's worth the movie was done very well IMO. It's not your typical JCVD movie with all his spin kicks and stuff. Instead he's a junky soldier with PSTD but trying to make a meager living. The story is more about these kids in MS-13 being used by the drug lord to run drugs around the city. JCVD gets caught up with the boys when they get in trouble and all hell breaks loose. JCVD isn't really a figher in this but more of a solder trained with guns.

The acting was great, the car chase scene was intense. It's a drama that grows on you. Drama with action. I think JCVD has risen to a new level in acting on this movie.. His crew members, The main MS-13 guy and the boys did an excellent job too. I watched the movie yesterday and going to watch it again today. This movie really grows on you.

very good for a low budget movie

[bishoysamir-55989 · 7/10 · 6 March 2019]

The movie was better than what I expected.JCVD was very good and also David Castañeda did an amazing job.don't expect typical JCVD combat moves.the overall experience was satisfying.i recommend it.

Watchable but terrible casting. No soul.

[jftherd · 1/10 · 4 December 2019]

I'm a 35 year old Guatemalan-American. If Lior Geller was making a film about MS13, at least put a majority a real latinos in it.

Rincon, the main bad guy was good. The fat kid with blond dye hair was believable and the 2 main kids were ok, but not great.

Alot of the supporting cast was no where near hispanic. Spider, the guy in blue shirt who who gets beat down towards end is Israeli and his accent sucked ass, his acting was a characture of a cholo, nothing believable.

The supporting actress was terrible. FAKE, pointless accent. She says Latinos the way an American would say it,it was so pathetic.

I'm prettysure Lucas says "Salvatrucha" wrong. He ssays "salvatruka."

Jesster, was just a white guy acting angry with fake tats. The problem is because it was few real latinos, it lacks soul and truth. And when was JCVD supposed to have been in Afghanistan? If he is 50 and was the in 2004, when he was 35, then damn, suffering from PTSD 15 years later? Not understanding his out of place character...not realistic.

Stupid incoherent mess

[rommelrommel · 2/10 · 31 May 2020]

If you want to watch a pointless boring mess in which you don't see what's going on, JCVD does nothing, and nothing makes any sense at all, have I got a movie for you... anyone who rated this more than a 4 is a shill.