We Die Young 2019 * * * Stars

Director: Lior Geller
Year: 2019
Rated R
Rating: * * * Stars
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, David Castaneda, Elijah Rodriguez

"Yo Lucas, I'm gangster". Oh yeah, you tell em' big boy and young, naive thug. The movie I'm about to review is about as gangster as gangster can get.

Anyway, a teenage minor and his younger brother get mixed up with an evil drug lord. It's up to a mute war veteran to pack heat and help them get out of a sad life of crime. Jean-Claude Van Damme plays said veteran with a weathered look, some genuine facial tics, and a massive amount of brute screen presence. Sans those previous Tostitos commercials and stints of direct-to-video gamuts, The Mussels from Brussels gives us one of the best performances of his career. Yup, that's the gist of We Die Young, my latest review. 

Set in a bad part of Washington, D.C., tackling the notion of post-traumatic stress disorder, and released in the USA by way of Internet, "Young" has a scorched look and a bloody residue that litters the screen. Yeah it's a devastating drama, riddled with jittery camerawork, raw performances, and a couple of slight Mexican standoffs. No one is safe in this flick and you know what, no one should be.

Fundamentally, We Die Young has numerous face tats, blazing guns, remorseless kills, claustrophobic coatings, and plenty of habitual drug use. Director Lior Geller creates a Capital of the World version of City of God. Added to that, Lior also wants to give the audience the ten-years-after version of 2008's Street Kings.

Bottom line: D.C. may be a place where monuments shine, tourism harks, and the President occasionally goes to twiddle his thumbs via the annals of The White House. With We Die Young, the District of Columbia feels more like Beirut on an off day. The municipality comes off as a hidden, veritable hellhole. Rating: 3 stars.

Written by Jesse Burleson