Reviewed by

Christopher Armstead

I am glad I finally got a chance to see director Mabrouk El Mechri’s rather odd film ‘JCVD’ because I have heard a lot of good things about it, most of which are fairly justified I might say. It’s funny though because if you observe the number of critics weighing in on this film it is well over a hundred for what is conceivably a bit of an ‘art’ film but if you look a Van Damme’s previous films an observe the numbers it is far more meager. Eight here, a dozen or so there as these so-called ‘critics’ have no desire to sully themselves and watch a movie like ‘The Hard Corps’ or say something along the lines of ‘Until Death’. Nope, they’re too good for that. But not us Jean-Claude, those of us who never left you behind. I’m talking about those of us who watched and weighed in on ‘Second in Command’ and ‘The Shepherd: Border Patrol’. Replicant. Wake of Death. Now I’m not saying that some of those movies didn’t suck, and suck hard… I’m just saying that we were there because we never went anywhere. So just remember who your TRUE friends are Mr. Van Damme as you bask in the glory of your regained favor with ‘JCVD’.

It would be hard to watch the opening scene of ‘JCVD’ and not smile just a little bit as we see a decidedly withered Jean Claude doing what he does in a stylized action sequence ending in a complete and total thud with Van Damme, playing himself, complaining to his completely disrespectful Chinese director how the scene sucks and how his current age really doesn’t parlay well into him continuing doing this kind of stuff. Fast forward to Jean Claude in a Los Angeles court where his ex-wife’s lawyer is using his violent action movies as evidence against Van Damme in a custody hearing. Seems suspect, but what do I know about the law?

So with his professional and personal life in tatters, Jean Claude heads back to Brussels, where it all started, to get his head on straight. Unfortunately things only get worse as Van Damme finds himself in the middle of a robbery at a post office. I am assuming that post offices in Brussels have lots of money. Worse still is that the authorities believe that Van Damme is the one behind the robbery, especially considering in this

particular reality that he is stone broke, is losing roles to Steven Seagal and has legal fees out the ying yang that he can’t afford.

Outside there’s a complete frenzy as an O.J. Simpson type atmosphere has gathered as the populace has learned that their favored native son is holed up post in a office taking hostages, and inside things are considerably worse as the leader of this crew could care less about Jean Claude Van Damme and would surely kill him dead as shake his hand. But this is all about the man coming to grips with the man and who the man is... that man being Jean Claude Van Damme.

Van Damme gets the rap for not being a very good actor, and it’s not a bad rap because he really isn’t that great of an actor but what this film has displayed to me is that this is possibly more of a language issue than the fact the man is devoid of talent. I remember working with a woman from Lithuania who has been in this country for a while and her telling me that despite the fact her English is quite good, she still has to translate everything she hears on the fly into her native language. In all my years of watching Jean Claude Van Damme movies I don’t think I’ve ever heard the man speak French, and if he did, he didn’t speak it much. Now given the opportunity to act, as it were, in his native tongue without the burden of translating everything in a way he understands, I gotta to hand it to the man, he was pretty good in this. I guess it also didn’t hurt that he was playing a character he was quite familiar with and it also didn’t hurt that the man obviously doesn’t take himself too terribly seriously considering how he allowed a lot of personal issues to be aired out and made fun of, with a few embellishments I’m sure.

The most amazing thing that El Machri and Van Damme have done with this movie is that they have taken a man who has had four wives, a notorious cocaine problem, has apparently squandered a fortune and has often come off in interviews sounding like a complete loon, to what I am again going blame on language, and they have made you feel sorry for him. Amazing. The story surrounding the man is interesting enough, it does keep things moving and there are some interesting characters who serve the purpose of bringing up an issue here and there... I’m thinking that Mr. Van Damme might have a little problem with legendary Hong Kong director John Woo, but rarely does the film deviate far from its subject matter. I should mention that I’m a BIG John Woo guy, but I am glad he’s back in Hong Kong where he belongs.