JCVD (Van Dammage) (2008)
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 102
Fresh: 85 | Rotten: 17
JCVD is a touching, fascinating piece, with Jean-Claude Van Damme confounding all with his heartfelt performance.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 29
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 6
JCVD is a touching, fascinating piece, with Jean-Claude Van Damme confounding all with his heartfelt performance.
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Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 21,547
Movie Info
Jean-Claude Van Damme plays himself in this meta-crime comedy that finds him garnering mores headlines than he's had in years after stumbling into an in-progress bank heist. Down and out, with only straight-to-DVD titles under his belt and a recent job lost out to fellow has-been Steven Seagal, the aging action star returns to Belgium a broken man fresh from losing a custody case for his daughter in Hollywood. Upon his arrival, the bad news continues with a disastrous ATM encounter that leads
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All Critics (103) | Top Critics (29) | Fresh (85) | Rotten (17) | DVD (1)
Unpredictable, engaging and even challenging, 'JCVD' is an intriguing oddity.
Top CriticVan Damme is so good, and El Mechri's storytelling so entertaining, that JCVD takes its place alongside The Wrestler as one of the unlikeliest but most welcome comeback vehicles in ages.
This is not only a Van Damme movie that will make you laugh -- on purpose -- it could very well make you cry.
If you know Van Damme's work in the least, if you have any sympathy for the plight of the third-rate action screen hero whose days come to an end, JCVD will amuse and touch you.
There's something seductively clever about the way French director and co-writer Mabrouk El Mechri has fractured chronology (à la Pulp Fiction) to examine JCVD's plight from various perspectives.
It's hard to resist: Here's a battered superstar who has occupied so many fantasies, but in his fantasies he's just like us.
Think of it as Sunset Bloodsport with Jean-Claude as Norma Desmond.
It's a watershed moment in Van Damme's career; the moment you realise the crazy bastard really can act. It's a tragedy of sorts that most of his fans won't even care.
Turns out as bad as the star's recent string of dreadful films except for the fascination to look at it as one would a car crash.
It has ensured JCVD will be remembered as an introspective, thoughtful and altogether more profound individual than anyone who ever watched him split a skull would have thought possible.
For all we know, it's just a big show, a put-on for our entertainment -- but what matters is that it's really quite convincing. You do want to believe this is Van Damme.
a bold attempt to humanize Van Damme, not by trying to ignore his personal and professional pitfalls, but by reminding us that behind ever movie star, loved or loathed, is a complex human being
...not your usual Van Damme movie...and a refreshing change of pace for the actor.
If you thought that Mickey Rourke had the market cornered on comebacks with his transcendent performance in Darren Aronofsky's masterpiece The Wrestler, then think again.
It's fun as far as it goes, and for the most part quite well made, but in the end it's really not about very much at all.
Mechri allows the verbally challenged action star dignity and, with this, the film works. Maybe next time he could bring Jean-Claude and Mickey Rourke together. Now that would be a movie.
...reveals ... a supple and engaging actor with a sense of humor and a rare kind of self-recognition. Van Damme knows what we think of him and understands why.
Van Damme has never done work like this before, and he's supported by the director's unique vision for the film
It's clever and unexpected, this confluence of dramatic fiction and real life that finds action star Jean-Claude Van Damme playing a version of himself in a heist movie
A real departure for Van Dame, but it ought to help his career. Who knew he could act?
[Van Damme] brings a kind of weary dignity to the role, and a surprising self-awareness...
It's as if he's trying to reach through the screen and show us the real guy behind the image he's spent a lifetime creating. I'm not sure if he's successful, but the attempt is fascinating.
His face has a Bogart-esque haggardness, and his speeches about his life and career have at least a semblance of painful sincerity. This spectacle isn't enough to keep the film from dragging, but it certainly has curiosity value.
It's fun, and moderately well handled by a young French director.
An existential-heist thriller with moments of dark comedy, JCVD is decidedly different and has its moments but you probably have to be a diehard fan to really cherish it.
Will make you see the Muscles from Brussels in a new light.
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Movie: ID: 770783657 Title: JCVD (Van Dammage) Release Date: 2008-06-04 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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Foreign Titles
- JCVD (DE)
- JCVD (UK)
The best thing is indeed Mr Van Damme who does really serve up a slice of true inner acting from the heart. It does come across as a kind of ego trip for Van Damme as he seems to want us to feel sorry for him, there is one moment where he does seem to crack in front of the camera which is a very strong moment but it does come across as wanting sympathy, hard when your a big movie star.
Still he does prove he can act seriously and could make better films, although he does sound better in French than English haha
The start of something more interesting than martial arts maybe.