Jean-Claude Van Damme Tagged Articles at Cinematical

It's time for the second feature written, directed, and starring the Muscles from Brussels Jean-Claude Van Damme. First we had The Quest, a story he whipped up with the help of Frank Dux (the man Bloodsport was based on). Now there's The Eagle Path. Once called Full Love, this sucker is all-out classic Van Damme with faux serious acting, violence, and of course, the potential love of a sexy woman -- and you can check out a trailer for the film after the jump, courtesy of THR's Heat Vision Blog.

Van Damme plays "Frenchy," a military vet and former mercenary who hides from his past by working as a taxi driver in East Asia. When he picks up a sexy woman one day, he becomes obsessed with the idea of improving her life and decides to do so without her approval. With help from his special ops friends, he sets out to "save" her, and as the official synopsis says: "War is hell, but nothing they've done could have prepared them for this."

From what you can see in the trailer, that "this" involves a bad*ss special ops friend in a wheelchair, some mustachioed undercover work, and a whole lot of action carnage. Oh, if only they could score this with some '80s music. It would be like going back to the good ol' days of Van Damme.

This weekend's success stories:
1. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (Miramax)
2. JCVD (Peace Arch)
3. I've Loved You So Long (Sony Classics)

The critical consensus on Mark Herman's concentration camp children's tale The Boy in the Striped Pajamas dropped a bit over the weekend (from 71% positive to 62% at Rotten Tomatoes), which didn't keep it from scoring a big win at the box office. Opening at 17 theaters, Striped Pajamas earned an estimated $15,000 per screen, according to Box Office Mojo. If you saw Striped Pajamas this weekend, are you recommending it to your friends? Is the holiday season the right time for a sober drama with (reportedly) a devastating climax?

Gotham moviegoers ignored minority sniping from several major publications and gave the reinvigorated Jean-Claude Van Damme a chance, rewarding Mabrouk El Mechri's action / comedy / drama JCVD with $23,300 in total estimated returns at the two theaters where it opened. JCVD is too self-satisfied and drenched in style for my taste, but Van Damme is great fun to watch and the film itself overcomes its limitations to deliver an entertaining experience. Are you planning to see it when it opens near you, or will you wait for the DVD?

Kristen Scott Thomas reportedly gives an award-worthy performance in Philippe Claudel's French-language family drama I've Loved You So Long. In its third week of release, the film saw an increase of 54.6% in earnings, despite adding just two theaters (still not in my area). That indicates very positive word-of-mouth recommendations. If you've seen it and encouraged others to see it, what in particular moved you or touched you? Was it because Thomas is good in it? Or is it just a strong movie overall?

By James Rocchi (reprinted from 09/07/2008 -- Toronto Film Festival)

All the world's a stage, Shakespeare tells us, but just imagine what kind of nightmare it would be if that were actually true. Jean-Claude Van Damme, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme in Mabrouk El-Mechri's JCVD, doesn't have to imagine if it were true, because for him it is; worse, he doesn't even get to pick the kind of stage he's on or the part he's playing. ... JCVD fakes you out from the jump and doesn't stop, opening with a one-cut action sequence set to the pulse and pound of Baby Huey's 8-track soul-funk version of Curtis Mayfield's "Hard Times: "So I play the part I feel they want of me/ And I'II pull the shades so I won't see them seein' me ..."

And during the opening, Van Damme, older and slower but still possessed of the skills to pay the bills, kicks and punches and shoots his way through a legion of stuntmen until everything goes wrong. And it's been going wrong for a while, and it's a good thing Van Damme still has the skills to pay the bills because Van Damme has bills to pay: IRS arrears, child support, court costs. On-set, he's getting no support from his director, a truculent young Hong Kong hotshot who doesn't want to hear Van Damme's complaints, insulting him in untranslated rants: "Just because he brought John Woo to America, he thinks he can rub my dick with sandpaper?" Van Damme needs this job; he needs every job. And so, the weary and aching Muscles from Brussels endures, bearing the heavy load of life like a '80s Atlas on unsteady ground in the new millennium.

(from left to right) Fantastic Fest programmer Zack Carlson, Fantastic Feud co-hosts Devin Steuerwald and Scott Weinberg, and Not Quite Hollywood director Mark Hartley

With the weekend came no sure rest for Fantastic Fest attendees. Saturday kicked off with, among other things: a screening of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes shown from an HD master of a cut unseen in over thirty-five years; initial screenings of the very popular Tiffany stalker doc I Think We're Alone Now and the very anticipated Swedish vampire drama Let the Right One In (which can now fall firmly in the former category); and a boat party held in honor of Donkey Punch, in which several youthful types face some serious consequences after their high behavior on the high seas. Did life end up imitating art on that front...?

All the world's a stage, Shakespeare tells us, but just imagine what kind of nightmare it would be if that were actually true. Jean-Claude Van Damme, played by Jean-Claude Van Damme in Mabrouk El-Mechri's JCVD, doesn't have to imagine if it were true, because for him it is; worse, he doesn't even get to pick the kind of stage he's on or the part he's playing. ... JCVD fakes you out from the jump and doesn't stop, opening with a one-cut action sequence set to the pulse and pound of Baby Huey's 8-track soul-funk version of Curtis Mayfield's "Hard Times: "So I play the part I feel they want of me/ And I'II pull the shades so I won't see them seein' me ..."

And during the opening, Van Damme, older and slower but still possessed of the skills to pay the bills, kicks and punches and shoots his way through a legion of stuntmen until everything goes wrong. And it's been going wrong for a while, and it's a good thing Van Damme still has the skills to pay the bills because Van Damme has bills to pay: IRS arrears, child support, court costs. On-set, he's getting no support from his director, a truculent young Hong Kong hotshot who doesn't want to hear Van Damme's complaints, insulting him in untranslated rants: "Just because he brought John Woo to America, he thinks he can rub my dick with sandpaper?" Van Damme needs this job; he needs every job. And so, the weary and aching Muscles from Brussels endures, bearing the heavy load of life like a '80s Atlas on unsteady ground in the new millennium.

It was perhaps indicative of the demographic of tonight's Midnight Madness premiere screening of hotly buzzed JCVD that before the show, the line for the men's' room outnumbered the line for the ladies' considerably. But you didn't have to be a guy to enjoy the film, and especially the vibe of the screening.

Before the show we attended the Pre-screening party for JCVD at Century Club; the party, like most of the parties at big film festivals, was packed with folks vying for the free booze, but unlike a lot of fest parties I've attended, many of the people tonight were enthusiastically pumped up for the screening of a film that most of us knew little about, other than it played the market at Cannes, and garnered considerable buzz at that prestigious fest off its screening there.

Cinematical is very excited to bring you this exclusive clip from the new flick JCVD, which, surprisingly, has watched a tremendous amount of buzz build around it since it first screened at this past Cannes Film Festival. Now, as part of the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival midnight slate (it premieres tonight!), JCVD will receive a more proper introduction (or should I say, re-introduction) to the world. JCVD, of course, stands for our good friend Jean-Claude Van Damme, star of such action flicks as Kickboxer, Timecop, Universal Solider (first bootleg I ever watched), Double Impact, Death Warrant ... shall I go on?

From what I understand, JCVD follows Van Damme (who stars as himself) as he travels back to his home country in an attempt to find peace and tranquility after whatever was left of his career seemed to vanish. We'll have a review coming up very soon, but in the meantime check out this very funny clip below as it should give you an idea of the vibe this flick is going for. Dare I say this might be one of my most anticipated films of the fall season? JCVD will also play Fantastic Fest before arriving in theaters (in limited release) on November 7.

TITLE: JCVD
DIRECTED BY: Mabrouk El Mechri
STARS: Jean-Claude Van Damme

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Jean-Claude Van Damme, washed-up action star plays ... Jean-Claude Van Damme, washed-up action star. Trying to deal with a career in decline and various personal crises, the Muscles from Brussels stumbles into a bank robbery -- and has to explain to everyone around him that life is not, in fact, like the movies.

WHY WE'RE EXCITED ABOUT IT: Believe it or not, this was actually one of the most buzzed-about films in the marketplace at Cannes this year -- and the idea of Jean-Claude going meta and post-modern can't help but bring a smile to anyone with memories of the actor's '80s heyday. Plus, JCVD's also the opening film for Midnight Madness -- and sounds like the perfect pick for the maniacs who stay up late at Toronto.

Back to the TIFF Preview Page

The Muscles from Brussels ... goes meta? JoBlo.com has posted the trailer to the upcoming action-showbiz-comedy J.C.V.D., starring semi-washed-up '80s action icon Jean-Claude Van Damme as ... semi-washed-up '80s action icon Jean-Claude Van Damme. Apparently, the film sees a down-on-his luck Van Damme not just reduced to lame film projects and enduring a tiresome separation, but adding insult to injury, embroiled in a bank robbery gone wrong.

His glory days of Time Cop and Hard Target are, frankly, long past; Van Damme's output in recent years has been sketchy, sporadic and straight-to-video. And while the idea of seeing a Jean-Claude Van Damme project may have been off my radar for the past two presidential administrations, the tone of the trailer above -- self-deprecating, self-aware and goofily good-natured -- may, in fact, compel me to care about him again for the first time in almost two decades. Of course, if the film's long on maudlin moments and short on mockery, that'll be another story; I just hope we see more of the irritated, frustrated Van Damme dealing with fans and hangers-on and less of bad dad Van Damme regretting his mistakes.

Our own Matt Bradshaw does a great job of compiling and commenting on the latest and maybe not so greatest for Cinematical's Trailer Park, but what if you want to see trailers for movies that are not coming soon to a theater near you? What if you have a hankering to see Jean Claude Van Damme speaking Japanese, or the latest North Korean action movie, or a jeans commercial by an acclaimed Thai director? Then you've come to the right post, my friends. Dive into a collection of clips that are nothing but silly movie-related fun.

• Rumble Boy came and went in the Philippines earlier this year without causing any kind of international, er, rumble, but I dig the vibe: Fast and the Furious meets Final Destination 2 meets special effects that were state of the art back in 1987. Check out the trailer: "It's showtime!"

• Who knew North Korea was producing action movies? Watch this clip, taken from a Japanese news program; the action looks fairly decent. Then read the accompanying post, in which it's explained that the film is evidently "an anti-Japanese propaganda epic" which appears to demonstrate that "Kim Jong-Il really wants his people to dislike the Japanese." Oh. Maybe the movie's not so cool after all. (Via Japan Probe)

• Jackie Chan may not have understood the "American humor" in his Rush Hour films, but that didn't keep him from cashing his paychecks. Perhaps he understands Japanese humor better? His latest commercial for a vitamin company translates well, even if you don't speak the language. (Featuring the very cute Aya Ueto; via Japan Probe)

• Jean-Claude Van Damme may or may not be heading into the world of biopics, but I can confirm that he is a spokesman for a chewing gum company. Watch and enjoy this compilation of three short clips -- it's the only way you can hear the beloved "Muscles From Brussels" speaking Japanese. What a versatile guy!

• And now for something completely different. Released earlier this year, Yellow Tears featured five members of the pop band Arashi in the adaptation of a manga classic by Shinji Nagashima. Young men in 1960s Japan cross paths and "forge a unique bond while pursuing their individual dreams." The trailer is relaxed and refreshing. (Via Nippon Cinema)

• Acclaimed Thai director Wisit Sasanatieng has made delightful films that burst with color (Tears of the Black Tiger, Citizen Dog), but he is also capable of making snazzy commercials: here's one for jeans and here's another for bicycles. (Via Grady Hendrix at Kaiju Shakedown)