- "JCVD" by Steve Howells
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- When I say the words Jean-Claude Van Damme, what images immediately come to mind, splits, high kicks and cheap martial arts movies? If I were to say range of emotion, honest acting and a movie that had a good story line you would say what in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie but that is exactly what I am telling you. In Mabrouk El Mechri�s movie JCVD which he also co-wrote he has created a movie that really shows off the acting abilities of Jean-Claude Van Damme which is something I am not sure I would ever write. I saw this movie at the Toronto International Film Festival Midnite Madness showing and the crowd was very enthusiastic and were not disappointed from their reaction.
The movie deals with Jean-Claude Van Damme playing himself in his native country of Belgium and how he is perceived there and what happens when he gets involved in a real life hostage situation. His life is not going according to plan and he goes back to Belgium to re-group and examine his options after suffering a set back in his on going custody battle. The movie moves from clips of his custody battle to Jean-Claude in Belgium trying to send money to his lawyers to continue the custody battle. Due to unforeseen circumstances Jean-Claude gets involved with a robbery/hostage situation and the movie continues from there with some interesting plot twists. The robbers are typical movie characters including a pointed homage or direct rip off of John Cazale�s Sal from Dog Day Afternoon. It was interesting to see how they reacted to Jean-Claude Van Damme as a hostage.
Jean-Claude shows a range of emotions in this movie that has never been seen in any of his movies and one wonders whether Jean-Claude thinking and speaking in English removes some or most of his acting ability. I truly believe Jean-Claude should continue making in his native language and he could become a cult hero. This movie moves with a good pace and had some very interesting character actors to carry it and make it very entertaining. I would recommend this movie to all who enjoy Jean-Claude Van Damme movies and are curious to see how his career and life have been going.
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