The blurb on the dust jacket made this veteran action fan do a double take – "Van Damme deserves not a Black Belt, but an Oscar" – TIME.
That's right, TIME Magazine.
Obviously, this isn't your average direct to video body slammer.
Sure, it's business as usual at the beginning of the pic with the Belgian beefcake kickboxing his way through a bunch of bad guys in a single take.
When the bored young Asian kid behind the camera yells "Cut!" and the star walks off the set the real movie begins.
Because in this surprising French language film from maverick Algerian filmmaker Mabrouk el Mechri, Van Damme plays himself (or at least a version of himself.)
Cut to a courtroom in Los Angeles where "Van Damme" is involved in a bitter custody battle with one of his ex-wives. His little daughter (Saskia Flanders) would rather stay with her mom because, as she tells the judge, "everytime my dad's on a TV show my friends make fun of me. And I don't want them to make fun of me anymore." Ouch! That's gotta hurt.
Broke, dispirited and suffering from jet lag, the actor returns to Belgium.
The predominant theme of the film is the tension between the illusion of celebrity and the grim reality of life offscreen.
Everywhere "Van Damme" goes he is treated like a national hero and yet with his credit cards maxed out and cheques bouncing like rubber bullets the actor has to phone his Hollywood agent (Jesse Joe Walsh) to ask for an advance on his next picture ... only to learn that Steven Seagal has replaced him in the lead. ("He promised to cut off his ponytail".)
Like the real Van Damme, the character here is trapped in an endless cycle of direct to video clunkers. Even his agent can't keep track of them.
JCVD: So what's next
AGENT: What's next? 'No Limit Injury'. It's about a Viet vet ....
JCVD: I've done this movie six months ago.
AGENT: We did?
JCVD: What's next?
AGENT: 'No Limit Injury 2' It's about a Gulf War vet who tries to pay for his son's education ...
Just when you think things couldn't get any worse for our beleaguered star, he walks into the local post office ("I'm here for a transfer. The name's Jean Claude van Varenberg, not my stage name Van Damme", he snaps at the cashier) and finds himself in the middle of a robbery/hostage drama. The robbers force him at gunpoint to negotiate with the police on the phone and the cops (and the media) assume he has had some sort of breakdown and is masterminding the heist.
Director (and co-writer) El-Mechri and his star use the situation to take some wicked potshots at the action movie biz and the people who work in it.
One of the gunmen, Arthur (Karim Belkhadra), turns out to be an avid and knowledgeable action movie fan.
Trapped in the bank with the other hostages "Van Damme" is as fearful for his life as any of them and yet Arthur persists in relating to him as the action hero he has seen and worshipped in countless films.
"He's the one who brought John Woo to the US," the gunman tells the frightened hostages. "Without him (Woo) would still be filming pigeons in Hong Kong. And then what? He drops you."
JCVD: "At least he did Face-Off".
ARTHUR: "So what? He could have picked you. On the other hand, when you see 'Windtalkers', there's a justice."
Speaking in his native French, Van Damme achieves an eloquence and an artistic freedom that his English language bust-em-ups never even hinted at.
At one point the actor floats right out of the set and talks directly to the camera in a Shakespearean-style soliloquy which – to quote the venerable show biz trade paper VARIETY - "must be seen to be believed. "
During the course of a six minute monologue (call it an out-of-movie experience) the actor goes from stoic to teary-eyed as he comes clean about his many marriages ("I've always believed in love"), his drug addiction ("I tried something and I got hooked ... I was wasted mentally and physically") and apologizes to his fans for failing to live up to his early promise ("You made my dream come true ... I promised you something in return and I haven't delivered yet. ")
Looking tired, haggard and desperate this is definitely not the confident young kickbutt star of 1993's "Nowhere To Run", 1994's "Timecop" and 1996's "Maximum Risk". (I am such a longtime fan I can still remember when Van Damme flicks opened in theatres rather than video shelves.)
Like Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (another fictional tale with real life roots) Van Damme goes through a startling and poignant character transformation in this film.
Okay, maybe an Oscar nomination was wishful thinking. But a Golden Globe would have been nice.
SIDEBAR: Hyperkinetic Hong Kong thrillers like "The Killer" (1989) and "Hard-Boiled" (1992) made John Woo a buzzworthy name in U.S. film circles but it was a Van Damme movie, "Hard Target" (1993) that first brought the filmmaker to Hollywood. Although Woo went on to make hits like "Broken Arrow" (1996) and "Face-Off" (1997) with John Travolta he never worked with Van Damme again. His Stateside career tapered off after "Windtalkers" took a critical and box office beating in 2002.
That's right, TIME Magazine.
Obviously, this isn't your average direct to video body slammer.
Sure, it's business as usual at the beginning of the pic with the Belgian beefcake kickboxing his way through a bunch of bad guys in a single take.
When the bored young Asian kid behind the camera yells "Cut!" and the star walks off the set the real movie begins.
Because in this surprising French language film from maverick Algerian filmmaker Mabrouk el Mechri, Van Damme plays himself (or at least a version of himself.)
Cut to a courtroom in Los Angeles where "Van Damme" is involved in a bitter custody battle with one of his ex-wives. His little daughter (Saskia Flanders) would rather stay with her mom because, as she tells the judge, "everytime my dad's on a TV show my friends make fun of me. And I don't want them to make fun of me anymore." Ouch! That's gotta hurt.
Broke, dispirited and suffering from jet lag, the actor returns to Belgium.
The predominant theme of the film is the tension between the illusion of celebrity and the grim reality of life offscreen.
Everywhere "Van Damme" goes he is treated like a national hero and yet with his credit cards maxed out and cheques bouncing like rubber bullets the actor has to phone his Hollywood agent (Jesse Joe Walsh) to ask for an advance on his next picture ... only to learn that Steven Seagal has replaced him in the lead. ("He promised to cut off his ponytail".)
Like the real Van Damme, the character here is trapped in an endless cycle of direct to video clunkers. Even his agent can't keep track of them.
JCVD: So what's next
AGENT: What's next? 'No Limit Injury'. It's about a Viet vet ....
JCVD: I've done this movie six months ago.
AGENT: We did?
JCVD: What's next?
AGENT: 'No Limit Injury 2' It's about a Gulf War vet who tries to pay for his son's education ...
Just when you think things couldn't get any worse for our beleaguered star, he walks into the local post office ("I'm here for a transfer. The name's Jean Claude van Varenberg, not my stage name Van Damme", he snaps at the cashier) and finds himself in the middle of a robbery/hostage drama. The robbers force him at gunpoint to negotiate with the police on the phone and the cops (and the media) assume he has had some sort of breakdown and is masterminding the heist.
Director (and co-writer) El-Mechri and his star use the situation to take some wicked potshots at the action movie biz and the people who work in it.
One of the gunmen, Arthur (Karim Belkhadra), turns out to be an avid and knowledgeable action movie fan.
Trapped in the bank with the other hostages "Van Damme" is as fearful for his life as any of them and yet Arthur persists in relating to him as the action hero he has seen and worshipped in countless films.
"He's the one who brought John Woo to the US," the gunman tells the frightened hostages. "Without him (Woo) would still be filming pigeons in Hong Kong. And then what? He drops you."
JCVD: "At least he did Face-Off".
ARTHUR: "So what? He could have picked you. On the other hand, when you see 'Windtalkers', there's a justice."
Speaking in his native French, Van Damme achieves an eloquence and an artistic freedom that his English language bust-em-ups never even hinted at.
At one point the actor floats right out of the set and talks directly to the camera in a Shakespearean-style soliloquy which – to quote the venerable show biz trade paper VARIETY - "must be seen to be believed. "
During the course of a six minute monologue (call it an out-of-movie experience) the actor goes from stoic to teary-eyed as he comes clean about his many marriages ("I've always believed in love"), his drug addiction ("I tried something and I got hooked ... I was wasted mentally and physically") and apologizes to his fans for failing to live up to his early promise ("You made my dream come true ... I promised you something in return and I haven't delivered yet. ")
Looking tired, haggard and desperate this is definitely not the confident young kickbutt star of 1993's "Nowhere To Run", 1994's "Timecop" and 1996's "Maximum Risk". (I am such a longtime fan I can still remember when Van Damme flicks opened in theatres rather than video shelves.)
Like Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (another fictional tale with real life roots) Van Damme goes through a startling and poignant character transformation in this film.
Okay, maybe an Oscar nomination was wishful thinking. But a Golden Globe would have been nice.
SIDEBAR: Hyperkinetic Hong Kong thrillers like "The Killer" (1989) and "Hard-Boiled" (1992) made John Woo a buzzworthy name in U.S. film circles but it was a Van Damme movie, "Hard Target" (1993) that first brought the filmmaker to Hollywood. Although Woo went on to make hits like "Broken Arrow" (1996) and "Face-Off" (1997) with John Travolta he never worked with Van Damme again. His Stateside career tapered off after "Windtalkers" took a critical and box office beating in 2002.