Jcvd

[MasterKiller]

Jean Claude makes a comeback

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dQ5ymyP0uI

[GeneChing]

First Seagal makes a hilarious self parody in the Onion movie (best part of an extremely mediocre and disappointing flick) - NOW THIS?!?

Surely these are horsemen of the apocalypse.

[GeneChing]

I gotta see this. Anyone seen this yet?

Jean-Claude Van Damme: Back with movie 'JCVD'
G. Allen Johnson
Thursday, November 13, 2008

After a week of missed connections, Jean-Claude Van Damme is calling from Bangkok, apologizing for the early hour in his instantly recognizable French-Belgian accent: "Please, call me J.C."

J.C. is excited about "JCVD," the most unusual film he's made - and the first to be released theatrically in the United States in 10 years. In it, he plays himself - Jean-Claude Van Damme, a 47-year-old washed-up movie star, losing roles to Steven Seagal, going through a nasty divorce and child custody battle, and trying to put years of drug and sex escapades behind him.

"So I did my own therapy in the movie," Van Damme laughed. "When you think about it, all these millions of euros for one guy to be cured!"

Things are actually going great for the Muscles From Brussels, the Belgian kickboxing champion who became an international martial arts star in the 1980s and spent a few years as a top box office star in films such as "Bloodsport," "Timecop" and John Woo's first Hollywood film, "Hard Target," all the while battling personal troubles. But as his career declined, he moved away from Los Angeles and cleaned up his act, including reconciling with his second wife, Gladys Portugues, who reprised her role as J.C.'s wife No. 5 in 1999. They have three children and live in Hong Kong.

"I enjoy life now. I enjoy the moment of being today, and it's the best time of my life," said Van Damme, who has directed his first film, part of which is set in Thailand, and is editing it now. "Hey, it's kind of cool to be able at 48 to still train like at 30. It's quite an experience to be young, going to the gym, knowing you're old. Ha!"

The mostly French-language "JCVD," directed by Mabrouk El Mechri, begins with a three-minute single-take filming of an action scene in which Van Damme becomes amusingly out of breath. After the shoot, he returns to Belgium and is caught in a hostage situation after a botched holdup. It becomes a media-fueled international incident.

Van Damme seems to be having fun with his image when, about two-thirds through the film, he makes eye contact with the camera and delivers a serious six-minute monologue, a touching confessional about his life's failures and successes.

It was his idea. "I said, 'We have one thing missing. In this beautiful loins, this piece of meat, where is the artery? ... Why not tell people what I feel? You think I'm a hotshot movie star? I tell you what, guys. What it is about achieving a dream, and girls and more and this, that (diabolical chuckle).

"I completely opened myself to a point where it was too much. I felt more naked than naked. When I saw the movie the first time I didn't enjoy the film. I was ashamed to open myself so much.

"I am actually shy and sensitive, hiding that with a wall of muscle."

Opens Fri. at the Lumiere Theatre, 1572 California St., S.F. (415) 267-4893; Shattuck Cinemas, 2230 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley, (510) 464-5980, www.landmarktheatres.com.

Movie review: Jean-Claude Van Damme's 'JCVD'
Mick LaSalle, Chronicle Movie Critic
Friday, November 14, 2008

POLITE APPLAUSE JCVD: Satire. Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme. Directed by Mabrouk El Mechri. In English and French with English subtitles. (R. 96 minutes. At Bay Area theaters.)

As a sophisticated moviegoer, you probably aren't thinking about seeing the new Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. But no. Really. Think about it.

"JCVD" is not an action movie but a shrewd satire about stardom and the cult of celebrity. It tells the story of an action star who is still famous, and yet something of a has-been. A man who still has fans, but who has serious career problems. A man who is recognized everywhere, but as much for his failures as his successes. A man who could probably spend the rest of his life making good money in pictures, but in low-budget, demeaning productions that are beneath him.

In other words, it's about Jean-Claude Van Damme, who is played by none other than Jean-Claude Van Damme, who does so with great self-effacement and a battle-scarred humility. Van Damme brings to the film a weary sense of humor and an emotional facility that we haven't seen from him before. Alert the media: Van Damme is an actor. Not just a muscleman, not just a martial artist, but someone with access to a rich internal life that's manifest on his once smooth and now rugged 47-year-old face. Seriously, if "JCVD" doesn't signal some kind of turnabout in Van Damme's career, there is no justice.

This guy always had potential. He started in the mid-1980s in low-budget action thrillers, and by the mid-1990s he'd become a major box-office draw, poised to cross over into mainstream movies. He was the star of John Woo's first American film, "Hard Target" (1993), and of Peter Hyams' "Timecop" (1994). But then, within a few years, it all seemed to fall apart. There were marital troubles, drug problems and career problems, and Van Damme soon fell off the Hollywood radar. He continued making movies, but of the kind that get big rollouts in Romania and go straight to video in the United States. He hasn't had a movie released here in a decade.

"JCVD" acknowledges this. When he talks to his American agent, Van Damme tells him he doesn't want to work in cheap movies where his salary makes up two-thirds of the production budget. "I'd rather work for scale. Just get me in a studio." Meanwhile, he keeps losing roles to other actors - even Steven Seagal, who undercuts him by promising to lose his ponytail for the first time ever. Director Mabrouk El Mechri's camera searches Van Damme's face for clues to the mystery: What is it like to have none of the real advantages of stardom, such as the chance to do great work, while retaining all the disadvantages, like pushy fans and the loss of anonymity? Van Damme's face gives the answer: It's exhausting.

The exhaustion is physical, too. Take the movie's witty opening, in which Van Damme is seen on a film set. We meet him in the midst of a ridiculously long take in which he fights dozens of assailants and kills dozens more. And then, just as the shot is in its last seconds, a piece of the set collapses, and he has to start all over again. "It's very difficult for me to do everything in one shot," he tells the young, impassive director. "I'm 47 years old."

Aside from some flashbacks, most of "JCVD" takes place in Van Damme's hometown in Belgium. In the midst of personal turmoil and professional disappointment, he stumbles into a real-life drama straight out of one of his movies - a bank robbery that turns into a hostage situation. Suddenly the guns have real bullets, and the bad guys might win. Outside the bank, fans line up, chanting Van Damme's name as though it were a sporting event. "JCVD" is rich with the irony, distortions and various strangenesses of fame.

But the film goes deeper than surface irony. In one of 2008's single best shots, Van Damme speaks his inner monologue directly into the camera. He talks about what it's like to be a big shot, how that can distort a person. He talks about the allure of drugs and about having seen so much of life that he can't judge anybody - even though everyone can't help judging him. "JCVD" is a film that tells us that celebrities can be much more than the shorthand distillations we get from movies and publicity. But it doesn't only say it. It demonstrates it.

-- Advisory: This film contains violence.

E-mail Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com.

Note that LaSalle is S.F.s pickiest critic, and we love him for that.

[TaichiMantis]

"I am actually shy and sensitive, hiding that with a wall of muscle."

[SimonM]

C@ckpuncher still whups

And gene: good call on the onion movie. Segal is the only reason to watch it... the nasty pop singer and the anchor with the ethical dilemma... not as funny.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Those reviews make me actually wanna see this movie.

[jethro]

Gene do you know if I got my post deleted on this thread? I remember making a comment but I don't see my post. Maybe someone thought it was spam, but it wasn't. Or maybe we aren't allowed to make negative comments about Jean Claude on this forum After what he said on a French talk show about all HK movies having weak action, and what he did in his movies was really powerful action, I don't have any respect for the guy. i can't stand to look at him no matter what movie he is in, even if it's a good one. Alright rant over. If you want to delete this post at least tell me why this time please.

[GeneChing]

...we just did an update to our forum. It was some admin stuff, so I don't think you'll see the effect of it here (but you would if we didn't do it, believe me). If you post around the time when we're doing an update, sometimes those posts get fried. Sorry about that - your previous post was a web casualty. Post it again.

[jethro]

No problem, I probably should have pointed out I wasn't questioning you, I just thought that maybe some other mod that is a Jean Claude lover deleted it BTW do you know if this movie is a limited release, or is it going to be playing in all theatres?

[Jimbo]

I heard that before he hit it big, Van Damme had begged to be in a Jackie Chan movie but was rejected. Maybe his comments about HK movies is sour grapes.

[Hebrew Hammer]

This is a must see...I wonder if JCVD and Seagal had these egos before or after they became film stars...nevermind don't answer that...Martial Arts and Egos have been in bed with each other before the time of celuloid film.

[GeneChing]

makes me wonder what JCVD will do next...

'JCVD—: Jean-Claude Van Damme spoofs himself
By A.O. Scott
New York Times
Article Launched: 11/14/2008 12:00:00 AM PST

Steven Seagal is cutting off his ponytail. This bit of news — apocryphal, perhaps — has great significance for Jean-Claude Van Damme, the star, protagonist and leading ontological conundrum of "JCVD," as well as a one-time rival of Seagal's for the title of world's second-best second-rate action hero. Seagal's supposed sacrifice, a source of astonishment to this elfin Belgian muscleman, suggests a possible answer to the question posed in and by this odd, almost-clever film: What does an aging action-movie superstar have to do to keep himself in the game?

The real-world choices are limited. Keep going, oblivious to the ravages of time, in the pathologically stoical manner of Sylvester Stallone. Embrace self-parody and character roles in indie films, as Bruce Willis has so brilliantly done. Maybe become the governor of a large state or, failing that, a tough-talking cheerleader for Mike Huckabee.

You could always go back to Belgium — an option that works only if you came from there. This is what JCVD (as we'll call the character, to distinguish him from the actor, Van Damme) decides to do, fleeing Hollywood in the wake of an ugly custody battle with his ex-wife and landing in his blue-collar, red-brick hometown outside Brussels. He may be seeking a simpler, more authentic way of life, but Mabrouk El Mechri, the director (and, with Frederic Benudis and Christophe Turpin, the writer) of "JCVD," has other plans. A botched bank robbery traps poor JCVD in a tense hostage drama, caught between a motley, semi-incompetent gaggle of crooks and the cops who think he's one of the bad guys.

Will this lurching, small-scale thriller blossom into a full-blown action picture, with Van Damme's fists, feet and elbows enacting righteous payback on the villains? The possibility is teased whenever the tension starts to flag, but "JCVD" more often aims for a knowing, cerebral mood, allowing its hero moments of moody contemplation, during which he reflects on the strange, lonely life of a middle-aged, globally known martial artist.

Some of this is affecting, some of it tedious, and the film's inconsistencies of tone are made more glaring by its peculiar look. Everything seems to be shot through a gold filter, making Van Damme look like an Oscar statuette in a jaundice ward. The metallic visual texture is not only obtrusive but also baffling, since it undercuts the pseudo-documentary touches that are central to the conceit of pretending to show a "real" JCVD in his real homeland. If he had wandered into a movie by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Belgium's masters of no-frills proletarian realism and hand-held camerawork, now that might have been something to see.

Still, as a foray into self-mocking, self-aggrandizing career rehabilitation, "JCVD" shows some promise and holds some interest. It would hold more if Van Damme were not so fundamentally lackluster a celebrity, with a string of negligible movies to his name. While the filmmakers — and the star himself — gamely make fun of this legacy of mediocrity, they cannot quite escape it. This may well be the most memorable Jean-Claude Van Damme movie ever, but I'm afraid that's not saying much.

"JCVD"

H*1/2

Rating: R (for language and some violence).
Cast: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Herve Sogne, François Damiens, Norbert Rutili and Karim Belkhadra
Director: Mabrouk El Mechri
Writers: Frédéric Bénudis, Mechri and Christophe Turpin
Running time: 1 hour, 32 minutes

[GeneChing]

JCVD is astonishing. It forced me to totally reappraise my opinion of JCVD.

This is not really a martial arts film. There's a nice opening scene - a remarkable continuous single shot no less, although JCVD does throw a major airball punch about midway through - and two other rather short sequences, but the action choreography is not the reason to see this at all.

It's cut from the celluloid cloth of French film, which I generally detest, but somehow, it really worked for this. There's a classic rewind sort of scene where the film is pulled through the reel, which was just so French. The film is mostly in French with subtitles, which makes JCVD sound more genuine than his ridiculous accented action film dialog. There's some top notch cinematography like long complex single shots, remarkable displays of technical skill and directorial timing. The entire film is slightly over exposed, turning all light into a harsh and hazy filed of bright white. The film is developed with the weight towards yellows and greens, giving a lot of the scenes a sickly pallor, but it totally works for the mood they evoke of Brussels. There are many funny bits, scathing self satire, and surprisingly poignant moments. It's daring filmmaking for any martial artist, especially JCVD who has built his career on caricature machismo. It's way out of the box for most martial arts aficionados (remember Maggie Cheung's Irma Vep?) but an absolutely fascinating for anyone into film.

When it comes down to it, it's all about JCVD confession scene - a classic French film moment where they actor breaks the framing of the film and discusses the process of filmmaking itself in that weird recursive French film artsy ****sy way. It's a long single shot and JCVC nails it emotionally. It's an amazing moment in film. The confession is heartfelt, so it's not so much stellar acting as it is brutally honest. JCVD lays it out, bares his soul, and surprisingly, it's sympathetic soul. It's a truly captivating scene, a triumph for JCVD that I would have never seen coming in a thousand years. There's hope yet.

A French-style artsy ****sy film showcasing JCVD and I really enjoyed it. Who'd a thunk? I wouldn't recommend this to people who are just into kung fu action flicks, but I do recommend pursuing it if you have any interest at all. It's so out of the box for JCVD, for martial arts related film in general, and you just got to respect that.

Now I'm even more curious to see what JCVD does next.

[brothernumber9]

The word is, and I don't have the working title, that JCVD and Seagal are doing a movie together, perhaps as a sort of "we'll show you" to Sylvester Stallone for not casting them in 'The Expendables'.

[doug maverick]

actually both were offered parts in the film and both turned it down. as well as jurt russel, and according to sly both dont like each other.