I had fun spotting actors who have appeared in Eastenders, the Casualty franchise or the Doctor Who franchise. Which means that although this film is set in New Orleans, it was filmed somewhere in central or eastern Europe.

Jean Claude Van Damme is a rogue cop Anthony Stowe, a heroin addict, his personal life in the sewer, his wife is pregnant by another man and other cops do not like him.

Stowe is hung up in nailing a villain called Callaghan (Stephen Rea) but Callaghan was his former partner who went dirty. When one of his goons shoots Stowe in the face, he miraculously survives but goes in a coma.

When Stowe emerges from his coma, he decides to become a better person, he rights some wrongs such as when he betrayed another officer and rekindles his relationship with his wife.

Until Death is a serviceable film, it never amounts to be more than a time filler. You have fun seeing Brit actors attempting to do hard boiled American accents. It lacks a lot of action because it wants to focus on the story. This is a shorthand way of saying that the action star is too old for for doing the fight scenes. Stephen Rea turns up for a glorified cameo for the pay cheque.

Like a good few of the films that Van Damme's been making of late, UNTIL DEATH is an attempt to do something different. It isn't even an action film really, although there are two or three decent action scenes thrown in to please the fans. No, UNTIL DEATH is a human drama, an exploration of the human psyche and Van Damme is the character at the centre of it all. For the first time in his career, he plays a really murky character, neither out-and-out good (as in 90% of his roles) or out-and-out bad (like the killer he played in REPLICANT). No, his character is a narcotics cop who just happens to be hooked on heroin himself, and he's just as unpleasant as you'd imagine.

Then, around halfway through, his life catches up with him and he's put in a coma. When he comes out of it six months later, he's a changed man and we start seeing the real, genuine side of his character without all the rubbish. What makes all this more than watchable is the actor himself. I keep saying this, but Van Damme has really grown over the years and he puts his heart into his performance here. I can't fault his acting, and indeed he's the best actor in the production. He certainly puts the likes of a slumming Stephen Rea and the awful Selina Giles to shame.

In any case, the story is engaging, moves in quite a lot of different directions, and Simon Fellows does an okay job behind the camera. This one was shot in Bulgaria, but you wouldn't know it, as it has a slick, glossy Hollywood look. Once again, there are a couple of guys out of the UK TV series EASTENDERS hanging around, Gary Beadle and Stephen Lord, and they're both pretty good in their parts. This can be quite a depressing film in parts and if you're looking for excitement you'll find none, because it isn't about that. Instead it's an intense, dark human drama and Van Damme alone holds it all together.

Anthony Stowe (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is a bitter heroine addict. He's also a New Orleans police detective. His undercover sting to get his former partner turned drug lord Gabriel Callahan (Stephen Rea) goes terribly wrong. Two cops are killed. Back at the station, he turns in a fellow cop for trying to help his drug dealing nephew. His estranged wife tells him that she's pregnant by another man. His life is a mess. Callahan ambushes him leaving him in a coma.

Van Damme is trying to do some deeper material. I like some of the first half even though it is still solidly a B-movie. The action directing is trying to be edgy but it's somewhat flailing around. The actors are mostly subpar. Van Damme does an admirable job but then the movie does an 180 in the middle. He goes into a coma and his character is swapped. The first half is a B-movie with potential. The second half turns it into a muddle.