Dvd
JCVD
JCVD is an edgy, often funny mix of true life and movie life, craftily directed by a 30-year-old genre fan around the personage widely known as The Muscles from Brussels. Jean Claude Van Damme brings battle-worn charisma and amazing frankness to the eponymous role of an aging, perpetually derided action star. He also brings the addiction issues, the bitter custody battles, the money problems, the lousy roles in straight-to-DVD movies, and the scrambled zen philosophizing that have made him a national joke in his native Belgium. When he’s taken hostage in a hold-up there, all and sundry assume that he’s the perpetrator, finally gone completely psycho. As the media circus amps up, action guy confronts the meaning of life: can he kick his way out of this mess without a script? [source: World Cinema Showcase 2009]
Starring Jean-Claude Van Damme, François Damiens, Zinedine Soualem
Directed by Mabrouk El Mechri
Written by Frédéric Bénudis, Mabrouk El Mechri, Christophe Turpin
Drama, Crime, Comedy | 1hr 37mins | Rated (M) | contains violence, offensive language | Origin: Belgium, Luxembourg, France | Language: French and English, with English subtitles | Official Site »
- Trailers
- Reviews
-
- SHARE:
- SHARE:
The Talk
10 votes / 1 comments
Flicks review
-
4
Forget Micky Rourke ‘wrestling’ with his demons, this is the comeback of 2009. For too long, the fallen star of Street Fighter and Time Cop - Jean-Claude Camille Francois Van Varenberg has been ‘starring’ in D-grade direct-to-DVD action movies shot in places like Bulgaria. Amazingly, this not only proves he still has the moves but also the nous to go with it. Writer-director Mabrouk El Mechri allows the muscles from Brussles opportunities to pack an emotional punch as well as uppercuts and haymakers. Whether it’s his insistence that he was the one who gave the West John Woo, claimed that he never killed an Arab onscreen (unlike his rivals) or his regret at being a former prima donna of the penthouse, Van Damme's confessional and self-deprecating demeanour is likely to win him a whole army of new admirers.
As well as slickly choreographed action scenes and a surprisingly unglossy palette, El Mechri makes great use of hand-held cameras to add realism and creates a slightly fractured narrative (the same pivotal scene is seen from different points of view a la Rashomon) to heighten interest. Then there's the rich vein of black humour running through the movie - one of the highlights being the sight of the cops arguing in their temporary base in the adult section of a video store.
Justly Causing Volte-face Decisions about the big fella's career.SHARE:
The people's reviews
4 reviews
Press Reviews
-
Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
Van Damme says worse things about himself than critics would dream of saying, and the effect is shockingly truthful.
Read full review -
Empire (UK)
4
Seems like a spoof at first glance but this proves to be a compelling Post-modern thriller with gumption.
Read full review -
Hollywood Reporter
JCVD should entertain both movie and action buffs. Van Damme proves once and for all that he's not just a set of glistening pectorals. However, he's still in no danger of being asked to play Hamlet.
Read full review -
Los Angeles Times
The giddy near-brilliance of its central conceit is squandered by flat execution.
Read full review -
New York Times
Some of this is affecting, some of it tedious, and the film's inconsistencies of tone are made more glaring by its peculiar look.
Read full review -
NZ Herald (Russell Baillie)
4
Confessions of a former action hero has plenty of punch.
Read full review -
Total Film (UK)
3
Directed with pace and a little too much surface gloss by Mabrouk El Mechri, JCVD works less as a suspense thriller and more as a treatise on celebrity, a confessional for its star.
Read full review -
TV3 (David T Hay)
Even with these faults, this film moves along at a good pace, with originality to spare, and provides a compelling look inside the life of a fallen star.
Read full review -
Variety (USA)
A French-language meta-movie parody par excellence, constitutes the headiest stretch of the beefy star's career since, well, ever.
Read full review
View more trailers close window
-
Loading the player ...
Search For a DVD
I beg your pardon?
- Flicks.co.nz is serving the great nation of NZ with all things cinematic. Question about a movie or cinema? Thoughts on the site? Quips, gripes, advice for our own personal self-development?
- Get in touch with us by email at ED@ FLICKS.CO.NZ,on TWITTER oron FACEBOOK.
Want to see it
What say you? Yes No
Manav
awesome..
1 of 1 - View all
View all comments