JCVD (2008)

Jean-Claude Van Damme gets involved in a bank robbery with hostages situation and reflects about his life during it.

Director:

Mabrouk El Mechri

Writers:

Mabrouk El Mechri (scenario), Frédéric Benudis (in collaboration with)

Stars:

Jean-Claude Van Damme, Valérie Bodson, Hervé Sogne

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jean-Claude Van Damme	...	JCVD
Valérie Bodson	...	Veuve Film Budapest
Hervé Sogne	...	Lieutenant Smith
Rock Chen	...	Réalisateur asiatique
Huifang Wang	...	Traductrice asiatique
John Flanders	...	Avocat ex-Femme
Renata Kamara	...	Juge Tribunal Los Angeles
Mourade Zeguendi	...	Client Vidéo club
Vincent Lecuyer	...	Vendeur Vidéo Club
Jenny De Chez	...	Taxiwoman JCVD
Patrick Steltzer	...	Policier 1
Bernard Eylenbosch	...	Technicien Telecom
François Damiens	...	Bruges
Pascal Lefebvre	...	Képi 2
Jacky Lambert	...	Képi 3

Storyline

Between his tax problems and his legal battle with his wife for the custody of his daughter, these are hard times for the action movie star who finds that even Steven Seagal has pinched a role from him! In JCVD, Jean-Claude Van Damme returns to the country of his birth to seek the peace and tranquility he can no longer enjoy in the United States.

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Plot Keywords:

filmmaking | entire title is capitalized acronym | actor playing himself | actor name in title | brussels belgium | 

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Taglines:

Be Aware

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some violence

Details

Official Sites:

Asmik Ace Entertainment [Japan] Atlantic Film [Sweden]

Country:

Belgium Luxembourg France

Language:

French English

Release Date:

2 August 2019 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ж.К.В.Д.

Filming Locations:

Brussels, Brussels-Capital, Belgium

Box Office

Budget:

€10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

€524,109 (France), 8 June 2008, Limited Release

Opening Weekend USA:

$20,119, 9 November 2008, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$470,691, 18 January 2009

Company Credits

Production Co:

Gaumont,Samsa Film,Artémis Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

97 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The whole scene in the taxi is completely improvised. Mabrouk El Mechri told Jean-Claude Van Damme to just be nice to the driver no matter what she said.

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Goofs

Towards the end of the movie, after JCVD is taken into custody and Bruges talks to the SWAT's chief, as the camera moves up we can see on the ground the shadow of a microphone.

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Quotes

JCVD: [out of breath] It's very difficult for me to do everything in one shot, you know? I'm 47 years old!

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Crazy Credits

The Gaumont logo has an animated Jean-Claude Van Damme appear in the logo and deliver roundhouse kicks to the boy and the sunflower.

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Connections

References The Sopranos (1999)

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Soundtracks

Hard Times
(Curtis Mayfield)
© Warner-Tamerlane Publishing
With Permission from Warner Chappell Music France
Performed by Baby Huey & The Baby Sitters
(p) 1971 Rhino Entertainment Co. for the United States and WEA International for the world outside of the U.S.
Courtesy of Warner Music France, A Warner Music Group Company

User Reviews

Spectacular

There's some word combinations that you simply can't envisage together. "Jean-Claude Van Damme can act" is one of them. Yet, remarkable as it may seem, the Muscles from Brussels turns in a truly career turning performance in JCVD.

Directed and co-written by Mabrouk El Mechri, JCVD manages to capably straddle art house, action and comedy genres as it captivates the viewer by laying bare the soul of the star of such DVD fare as Bloodsport, Streetfighter, and Universal Soldier, to name only a few.

Largely based on his real life troubles, JCVD unfolds as Van Damme retreats to his native Belgium in the wake of a losing child custody battle in a Los Angeles court.

Mounting financial troubles have left our hero with over-maxed plastic and debit cards that no longer yield ATM withdrawals. Forced to tap into his savings reserves, he makes a pit stop at a post office/bank to arrange a money wire transfer to pay his lawyer, only to discover that the bank is in the process of being robbed and he's stuck in the midst of the drama.

To make matters worse, the manner in which things have unfolded has caused authorities and media alike to believe that Van Damme is the mastermind, orchestrating the heist and hostage taking to pay his legal bills.

Segmented into chapters and shown out of sequence, similar to Pulp Fiction, El Mechri manages to deftly juggle laughs and tension to deliver a film that uniquely straddles several genres, including breaking the "fourth wall" with an eight-minute long monologue in the film's third act that sees the muscle-bound Belgian recap, with painful tear-inducing pain, his life of cheesy movies, women and drugs.

Think of Dog Day Afternoon in which Pacino gets to speak to the audience and lay his soul bare and you've got an idea of what's in store with JCVD, which, if there's any justice, will do for Van Damme's career what Tarantino did for Travolta's. Especially now that we know JCVD can act.