JCVD is an edgy, often funny mix of true life and movie life, craftily directed by a 30-year-old genre fan...
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]
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82 %107 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® rating
74 %22,533 reviewsAudience score rating
"A French-language meta-movie parody par excellence, constitutes the headiest stretch of the beefy star's career since, well, ever."
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Variety
Variety"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."
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Total Film
Total Film"Some of this is affecting, some of it tedious, and the film's inconsistencies of tone are made more glaring by its peculiar look."
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The New York Times
The New York Times"Van Damme says worse things about himself than critics would dream of saying, and the effect is shockingly truthful."
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Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert"Confessions of a former action hero has plenty of punch."
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New Zealand Herald
New Zealand Herald"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."
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Newshub
Newshub"The giddy near-brilliance of its central conceit is squandered by flat execution."
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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times"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."
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Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood Reporter"Seems like a spoof at first glance but this proves to be a compelling Post-modern thriller with gumption."
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Empire Magazine
Empire MagazineJCVD | Details
- Rating
- M,
- Runtime
- 97
- Genre
- Comedy, Drama
- Country of origin
- Belgium, Luxembourg, France
