This is without a doubt one of the better Van Damme movies in the entire course of his career. Why? Well because it is not the average generic movie that he usually makes, where he is sort of a lone underdog hero who is fighting an uphill battle against overwhelming odds, and with some miraculous force he manages to singlehandedly emerge victorious at the end, even after having received a beating that would normally drop dead a prize-winning bull.

"6 Bullets" is a great story-driven movie, in which Van Damme plays Samson Gaul, a mercenary who is working in Eastern Europe to infiltrate human trafficking rings and rescue underage boys and girls, and bring them home to be reunited with their families after these horrible ordeals. However, during one such a mission, something goes horribly awry and two innocent young girls end up dead. Haunted by the apparitions of these dead girls, Gaul ends up seeking solitude and salvation at the mercy of alcohol while trying to make a living as a butcher. A young American girl is kidnapped from her hotel and the parents seek out Gaul for help. But can Gaul redeem himself of the past and step up to the task at hand? The storyline in "6 Bullets" was really interesting and captivating, as human trafficking is, sadly, every day events in parts of the world. So with that in mind, then this story really takes on a personal approach and becomes more than just mindless martial arts entertainment.

Plus, the storyline is really helped along by some powerful performances, not only by Van Damme, who really stepped into character and showed a great acting side, but also by Joe Flanigan (playing Andrew Fayden).

The movie was nicely shot, the dialogue was good and it moved at a great pace. There was a fair amount of drama in the movie, spiced up with martial arts, of course, and also gun fights. This is really one of the better Van Damme movies that I have seen in a long, long time, and it is good to see that he is back in the game.

There were just a couple of things in the movie that I didn't really understand. In the opening sequence, how did Gaul manage to plant all that explosive in the cars parked outside the building when there was all that much security personnel around? And also when he wanted a phone number traced, it started with 555, which is a number associated with Hollywood movies, so we must assume that it is an alleged American fake-movie phone number, so why was it showing up on an Eastern Europe phone? And finally, why would most people in Eastern Europe opt to speak English first whenever addressing strangers? Wouldn't it make more sense to speak in their native language? Anyway, these touches are just small flaws that don't really have much impact on the movie. I just happened to notice this and wonder about it.

"6 Bullets" is a great addition to movie collection for fans of Van Damme. And it is also good entertainment, even if you are not particular a fan of him.

If Liam Neeson can have a big hit with Taken then why not jump on the bandwagon.

6 Bullets has Jean Claude Van Damme playing a mercenary Samson Gaul infiltrates Eastern European human trafficking rings and rescue boys and girls from the sex trade.

At the beginning of the movie we see him rescue a young boy but Gaul failed to take into account the collateral damage of his actions which left two young girls dead.

Haunted by this he ends up drinking and working as a butcher.

The plot kicks off when a teenage American girl is kidnapped from her hotel in Romania and the parents turn to Gaul for help. Gaul reluctantly accepts as he also persuaded by his son who is a cop. Gaul discovers that the criminals are being aided by the Romanian secret service on behalf of a wealthy Arab arms dealer who wants an American virgin.

The film wants to make serious points about the child vice trade, a serious issue in parts of Eastern Europe since the 1990s wrapped around an action thriller. Van Damme is assisted by Joe Flanigan who plays the dad and who in the movie plays a major MMA star, therefore he can share the action scenes with Van Damme.

Of course its basically a low budget Taken rip off without much verve or characterisation that the original Taken had. Its still an involving story, decent action scenes although the parents of the kidnapped daughter are flatly drawn.

Although 6 BULLETS is nothing more than a star vehicle for B-movie star Jean-Claude Van Damme, one filmed in Eastern Europe to boot, it's actually pretty decent and much, much better than the similar fare churned out by Steven Seagal for the last fifteen or so years.

This film has lots of flaws but somehow it remains sparkly fresh, inventive, and exciting. The storyline is nothing new: a girl is kidnapped by people traffickers, and her parents call in the forces of a top bad-guy-finder to track her down. Clocking in at two hours, this is also overlong, with far too much screen time of the frustrated parents which drags things down a little. But when Van Damme's on screen, this film really comes alive.

The action scenes are hard-hitting and feature some great moves in the tradition of Asian fight choreography. There's an over-reliance on cheesy CGI effects here, but that can be ignored because for the most part this is exciting, well-filmed entertainment. Van Damme is on top form playing another world-weary protagonist, and his opening scene in the goatee disguise is a highlight. 6 BULLETS is no classic but it is a lot of fun nonetheless, and especially so given the obviously low budget.