Action Hero, Bloodied and Beaten

November 26, 4:53 PMLiterary ExaminerJohn T. Battaglia

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Action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, playing himself, is taken hostage in Mabrouk El Mechri’s docu-satire JCVD. The setting is Belgium. The scene: a post office/bank. The situation: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Belgium’s native son and now a penniless Hollywood has-been, finds himself caught in two battles: one for custody of his young daughter, the other for his own life. The story begins on a film set with Van Damme in violent form, taking on the bad guys with not only fists and feet, but with a steel pipe, a knife, and don’t forget the grenade. The villains are manhandled during the lengthy take, tossed into cars like putty and dying ignominiously in a variety of ways:  one unlucky chap is set aflame, for instance. When the take is complete, a worn-down Van Damme tries huddling with his young, dart-throwing director, telling him, “It’s very difficult for me; I’m forty seven years old; I can’t do shots in one take anymore.” The director couldn’t care less about Van Damme or his gripes. Sure, it would be easier to off the bad guys with a gun, but “not using a gun symbolizes the purity of the character,” according to the director’s assistant. And so Van Damme, once a big time box office draw who kicked butt with spectacular ease, is reduced to the small-time league of the bruised and beaten ‘B’ actor.