Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Murphy Howard I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Ezmae Chang This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

jamariana The film is excellent. It features a matured Van Damme, who has finally become a decent ACTOR in addition to being a masterfully skilled martial artist. That may sound like an insult, but if you watch some of his earliest films, even the great action flicks Bloodsport and Kickboxer, his acting was very amateur. Fair enough, he had only just begun the craft. But now, he is a wonderful actor - so real, so inspiring, funny at times, and elegantly serious in other moments. He delivers a monologue towards the end of the film that is just superb. In the film, he is beautifully in touch with his emotions and makes the audience sympathise with him in a way we never have. Yeah, that sounds pretty cheesy, but I'm sure you'd share the sentiment if you watched the movie. The film has a great plot too. It's interesting, it's comedic, and action-filled too. Van Damme, clearly, is the best thing about the film. And he's still got it (all those cool moves)! The opening few minutes is an action scene shot in one take with Van Damme running, doing incredible martial arts tricks, and beating up the baddies. "JCVD" is one the best films of his career. Worth a watch.

cinemajesty "JCVD" gives homage to the actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, who's career kicked off in 1988 with an action movie called "Bloodsport". The film produced in season 2007/2008 in the actor's originated area Belgium has been given an art-house touch by director Mabrouk El Mechri, who is having fun with the written material, but is unable to make any statement that would stick with the audience after the movie runs out. In that sense the film stays a visual collage of arranged sequences in which the lead takes reminiscence to his past movies and signature action moves. Anything further in the script as sub themes from a custody court drama to a bank hostage situation is forgettable. The cinematographer wants to be innovative as Emmanuel Lubezki's orchestrated urban war sequence in "Children of Men" (2006) but only falls flat with no immersive push ins. So everything whats left of an indecisively directed wanna-be art-house film is the performance of Jean-Claude Van Damme, who uses the loosely connected scenes to show some personal character insides beyond the usual physical action.

asil-turun A very surprising movie by VD. Just came across on the telly and hooked up. The story is one that I have never come across, so full originality. The performance of Van Dam is extraordinary, and unexpectedly it is not the fighting, but acting! It is kind of a testimony if you will that includes serious social messages. I'm totally shocked that such a movie is relatively unknown and didn't achieve much in the box office (probably due to bad marketing). Maybe acting besides VD is a little weak as well, but it is still satisfactory. A better ending would have also done the film more justice. All in all, it shall be a serious cult contender for anyone if you ask me.

MBunge This film justifies the entire career of Jean-Claude Van Damme. All the crappy movies. All the tabloid nonsense. All the personal excesses. Without it, this movie could not exist. You couldn't make it with Stallone or Schwarzenegger. You couldn't make it with Seagal or Norris or even Dolph Lundgren. Van Damme had to exist in exactly the way he existed for this motion picture to be made. It's a great story. Too bad the storytelling isn't.As you might guess from the title, Van Damme plays himself as an aging action star reduced to starring in idiotic crap. He's losing custody of his daughter. He's running out of money. His chance at a comeback is going to Steven Seagal. On a return home to Belgium, Van Damme gets caught up in a bank robbery at a post office. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. I guess in Belgium the post offices are also banks or wire transfer stations like Western Union. Anyway, the authorities think Van Damme is the one robbing the place and keeping the people in the post office hostage. That gives the three real robbers inside the idea of making Van Damme play that part as they try to figure how to get the hell out of there. As the post office is surrounded by the police and the police is surrounded by the media and the media is surrounded by cheering Van Damme fans, a man who really was an international movie star has to find a way through almost surrealistic circumstances and come out alive on the other side.JCVD is an odd duck in that it is an absolute must watch without truly being a great motion picture. Let me get into why that is before gushing over everything else. This film looks, feels and even sounds too stylish. The subject matter and the performance of Van Damme is simultaneously raw and complex and needed to be presented in a gritty, unadorned way. Yet both the structure of the script and the visual style of director Mabrouk El Mechri is too flashy and works too hard at being clever. From a non-linear plot to title cards breaking the story into segments to an overly theatrical killing, JCVD too often seems more like a conventional action thriller or some pretentious art house flick instead of a brutally frank examination of a fallen star. Maybe mimicking a Tarantino-like comeback vehicle for Van Damme was an attempt to add another layer of "meta-ness" to the whole production. If so, it was one layer too many.For example, the highlight of the film is this tremendous monologue from Van Damme about his whole life and the things that animated his rise and then his decline. His performance throughout the movie is incredible and this monologue is his spectacular peak. But instead of having the monologue take place within the confines of the story, Van Damme is literally elevated up out of a scene into the overhead lighting, where he talks directly into the camera. It's a phenomenal bit of acting, and not just because of the low standards Van Damme has set, but it totally shatters the sense of reality the rest of the narrative hangs on.It's too bad because this is a near brilliant narrative that pits the truth of Van Damme (in the context of this fictional representation of his life) vs. his own self-image vs. the image others project onto him. It depicts the irrational appeal and the impossible demands of celebrity. It makes you feel sympathy for someone who's been vastly more successful than you and then foolishly wasted all that opportunity. It is a profoundly sad story, every more sadly being told by people more interested in looking "cool".If you've ever loved, liked, hated or mocked Jean-Claude Van Damme, you need to see this movie. If you want to see the mythology of the action star deconstructed before you eyes, you need to see this movie. If you want to see a much derided performer prove he honestly deserved his time in the spotlight, you need to see this movie. I don't think I've ever seen another film as well made as this where I so deeply wish the filmmakers had made different creative choices. Believe the hype. JCVD is that good.