Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Jean-Claude Van Damme in “JCVD,” which stands for Jean-Claude Van Damme

  

Earlier this week, We Are Movie Geeks Dot Com featured a certain Belgian ass-kicker in the “Greatest out of work actor of the day† section of the site. The question was posed: What the hell happened to Jean-Claude? Yeah, he’s had his DTV’s, but he’s had theatrical releases†¦just not in this country.

Van Damme, you see, has gone and pulled a John Woo. Pulling a John Woo is a phenomena, wherein a foreign talent comes to the states and all us movie geeks are excited, but the output leaves something to be desired and, disillusioned, said talent bolts for the homeland. More often than not, said talent then flourishes.

What happened to Jean-Claude? He went back to Belgium, and is in cool movies like ‘Narco.’Â  

Just like how all Van Damme movies involve fighting and avenging something, now Van Damme is fighting his own shitty reputation, and avenging his career.

Van Damme stars in ‘JCVD,’ a kind of mockumentary wherein a group of filmmakers are producing a Van Damme biopic, and they’re trying their best to keep the muscles from Brussels out of the picture. Jean-Claude Van Damme will have none of that, mind you. Comedy ensues. Maybe a little ass-kicking.

The film is set for release in Belgium and France, no word yet on a US release, but keep your eyes open. Stranger things have happened.

Some side notes:

Remember ‘Cyborg?’ Did you know that movie only exists because of a last ditch effort for Cannon to make the money back that they spent on ‘Spider-Man’ and a sequel to ‘Masters of the Universe?’

Also, I mentioned ‘Narco’ earlier. It stars Guillaume Canet as Gus, a narcoleptic that dreams of superheroes. Canet is also in Vidocq (‘Dark Portals’ in the US), which you should make an effort to see. Really.