J.C.V.D. (2008)

Jean-Claude Van Damme. The Muscles From Brussels. Wham Bam, Van Damme. More than likely after hearing either his stage name or famous nicknames you will already have a preconceived perception, and high chance it isn't a very impressed one.

I remember when I was first introduced to the movies of Van Damme (born Jean Claude Van Varenberg), I was 11 years old and it was a primary school mates dodgy pirate copy of A.W.O.L. (aka Lion Heart aka Wrong Bet) on VHS. It blew me away. I had grown up on healthy doses of Sly and Arnie and this guy was just what the doctor ordered. My mates and I fell in love with Van Damme instantly, renting the likes of Kickboxer and Bloodsport over and over again and if we weren't watching Van Damme's celluloid rise to fame we were play fighting, re enacting fight sequences and mimicking moves we had seen in his, Sly's and Arnie's movies. The tough, violent and action packed high testosterone of his movies was simply tailor made for what us young men wanted from movies. And although I had seen many action sequences in movies before, I had never seen someone move has amazingly as Van Damme. He didn't need boxing gloves or a machine gun and hunting knife like Sly nor a robot skeleton like Arnie, Van Damme "WAS" the lethal weapon, using his whole body, legs, arms, knees, elbows and head, and most impressively and effortlessly lifting himself up six foot in the air and spinning around to round-house kick some poor schmuck in the face. It was amazing, It didn't even look possible, it blew me away. Van Dammage was awesome!

Now, nearly twenty years on and Van Damme has been reduced to a straight to DVD action star, along with another former 90's big action star Steven Seagal. As a dedicated fan of Van Damme's, I still make sure I get a copy of each of his straight to DVD movies, and each time they seem to get worse and worse. He had lived the American dream, arriving in the USA in the early 80's after leaving Belgium, hardly able to speak the English language he worked and worked trying to get noticed and materialize his childhood dream of become and international movie star and he achieved it becoming a house hold name world wide only to be seduced by the temptation of women and drugs and sadly let it all slip away far to soon. Now reduced to mega low budget production line action movies and seemingly trying his hardest to do the best he can with extremely weak scripts, incredibly low budgets and directors that couldn't direct them self down a straight road. But I still get something from watching these uninspired movies, each time it feels like I am catching up with an old friend, seeing how the years have treated him and remembering what I used to love about him so much. Always secretly believing that Van Damme was also far better than the tosh he had to work with.

As he never reached the dizzy heights and longevity of success that Sly or Arnie have enjoyed, the future was looking pretty dim for our Hero from Belgium. His private life had become extremely public at the end of the 90's as he famously become a drug addict and had several failed marriages and even remarried one of his previous wives. in recent years Stallone has made a big comeback in Hollywood with the Rocky and Rambo sequels and the forthcoming The Expendables looking to big quite a success too and it has become quite respectable to like Stallone again but I still had to keep my passion for Van Damme close to my chest, I mean, who would take me seriously as movie lover once I blurt out that one of my favourite movie stars is Jean Claude Van Damme? Well....2008 became the year to change that forever....

It almost feels like his born destiny to make this movie, as though all the movies he has made through the last twenty years was to serve to sole purpose to give this move the full impact it delivers. At a time where I am starting to grow sick and tired of so many movies being so unoriginal and complete clones of one other, and getting bored of knowing exactly how the movie will pan out by the end of the first act, JCVD is a sucker punch to the senses of a movie that kicks everything that could be mundane about a movie right into the sky! From the superb credits opening sequence, a one shot scene of Van Damme working his way through a host of baddies and saving a girl through a war zone and at one point facing the screen and looking bored and tired of this same old old, all set to a song that hasn't left my heads since, I knew this was going to be as special as the trailer I had come across on the Internet a few weeks earlier had made it look.

JCVD is pretty much a french language subtitled movie where Van Damme is literally playing himself, so painfully honest that a lot of the facts about him are mirroring his real life very closely. The basic lay out is that our washed up-has been action star has made his way back to Brussels to get away from things in the US for a while but has to stop into a local post office to wire some money urgently to his Lawyer as the cheque he made out to him bounced, unlucky for him, what seems like a menial choir is going to turn out to be one of the craziest days in his life.

The movie tilts, twists and turns with flashbacks and pulp fiction-esque out of order sequencing helping to make this more memorable and involving than your usual cinematic experience. The Director has admitted to the movie only being 70% scripted the rest ad libbed, giving it a very natural and earthy quality to the acting and just wait for the one take sequence where Van Damme is removed from the heart of the movie by being raised up out of the set and he pours his heart out to the audience bringing himself to the verge of tears with a monologue that is one of the most uncomfortably genuine and surreal scenes you are ever likely to witness.

JCVD succeeds on almost every level that it works on, from the brutally honest and sincere portrayal of it's lead that never shines an artificial or over flattering light to the laugh out loud very clever script and in jokes that are mostly at Van Damme's expense. Creating a tone that is lighthearted and fun yet bitter sweet and emotional, it is a movie that is a pleasure to experience. Virtually drained from any colour and given a gritty and realistic look along with some of the finest, smooth and adventurous directing I have seen in a long while, from writer, Director and long time Van Damme fan Mabrouk El Mechri. Clearly, this is the pinnacle of Van Damme's career, the finest project he has worked on and arguably the greatest achievement of any actor who had hit a rock bottom as hard as Van Damme had, my only worry is that it might not have the same effect it had on me to some one who has not not followed his downward spiralling career and been able to thoroughly be blown away by this refreshing fun almost mockumentary like movie that clearly looks set to earn cult status and be one of the most important movies of the decade.

JCVD remains involving and inspired until the very end, never retreating and following suite of the usual climax of a standard action thriller keeping it very brave and bold. Most importantly, despite sitting for 90minutes with my jaw virtually open at how much of a treat this was for a dedicated Van Damme fan, it lingered and grew in my mind immensely over the course of the following weeks. I can not praise this movie enough, for what it is and for what it stands for and for the brand new light it shines on Van Damme. I am thrilled it has received consistently positive reviews and Van Damme is being praised for his utterly convincing and heart string pulling performance, his comedic timing was spot on and his pure devotion to the role of himself let alone how much it tells us about the star for agreeing to star in a movie that at times gets close to virtually humiliating him, it fully proves how grounded and he has become and what I have quietly known for many years, he really can act.

So don't be majorly fooled that this is just your average run of the mill straight to DVD Van Dammage, this is a treat that you would be at an extreme loss to judge by the cover.

J.C.V.D "Van Damme's finest performance in a genuine, unique, fun and touching power house movie that is as refreshing as it is exhilarating to see Van Damme finally get the break he so clearly deserves." **** 1/2