DVD review: Le réserviste (2012)

Private Joseph Danton (David Doukhan ) returns after 10 years in his native village. Welcomed by his uncle Gerard (Michael Pichet) who raised him he starts gradually enjoying life again. This will  soon be interrupted when a crooked promoter decides to buy the whole region in order to build a recreation center. Le réserviste is written by Alain Cogne and Mathieu Berthon who also is the director. The acting is pretty good, the camerawork and editing is good and the soundtrack is nice. The pace is nice, it is a short with a running time of 39 minutes and the filmmakers use that time to the maximum. There are several momens of comedy in this, it doesn´t take itself too seriously, and we get a couple of the mandatory oneliners from the hero.  The action is very good, well staged and choreographed. There is plenty of both shootouts and martial arts. It´s very violent and it´s pretty gory, one of the the highlights being when a head gets blown off by a shotgun. The plentiful squibs are a combination of practical and computer rendered fx. There´s brief female topless nudity in this courtesy of Hélène Darras .
This review is based on the French region 2 DVD release from Oh My Gore!, english subtitles are available.
Rating: 7 out of 7. Le réserviste is a great 39 minutes short! Entertaining, packed with action and some nice funny moments. This is a very nice tribute to the action-movies of the 1980s and in my opinion it is superior to Sylvester Stallones big budget tribute known as The Expendables (2010). Le réserviste gets my  highest recommendations!

/JL