If like me, you were a child of the 80's and 90's, it would have been impossible to get into movies, without watching the films of 'The Muscles From Brussels'. Bloodsport, Kickboxer, AWOL, Cyborg, Double Impact, Death Warrant - these were all big hits on the burgeoning home video scene. Low on plot, but high on cool karate and charismatic characters, they were an essential part of any movie education. Then Hollywood came calling.
Starting out with Universal Soldier, Van Damme was being tailored for the big screen. Executives seeing him as a smaller but more flexible version of Arnie. Here was a karate champion, someone who could do all his own stunts, but had already proven that his name could sell a movie in the home market. UniSol (don't movie executives love shortened versions of movie titles?) performed well, and so it was onto his next project - bringing John Woo to Hollywood. Hard Target was the result of their collaboration. For me, this is a ridiculously underrated movie. Effectively a modern western, it traded on the theme of man being the toughest prey. There were kick ass karate sequences, cool slow-mo car chases and pigeons aplenty. It had all the hallmarks of a John Woo classic, yet it did not exactly pack them in at the movie theatres. However it did take almost $40,000,000 domestically against an $18,000,000 budget, so while it wasn't the hit they had hoped for, it was onto the next project for Van Damme.
That next project turned out to be Timecop. An adaptation of a graphic novel long before they were fashionable, it concerned Gabe Walker, a cop who is able to travel through time. Unfortunately, it's not just cops who have access to this technology, and therefore time itself has to be protected. This was bigger in every way than Hard Target, a full $10,000,000 higher budget, special effects, futuristic sets and vehicles. This was the movie where Van Damme was to have arrived. Again, it did not perform as well as expected, though it did make $44,000,000 domestically. Whilst not at an accelerated rate, Van Damme's audience and appeal was growing.
At this point, I'm going to ignore Street Fighter. Without a doubt the worst film in Van Damme's catalogue (though Derailed does run it close), it broke even, just about making its budget back.
So it was time for Hollywood to throw their entire weight behind Van Damme, leading to his biggest theatrical release in Sudden Death. In it he plays a fireman who, after a traumatic day where he loses a little girl in the middle of a rescue, has chosen to lead a quieter life as a fire marshall at a sports arena. Said sports arena is then taken over by terrorists, as they hold the vice-president hostage and demand a huge ransom. So in other words, it's Die Hard in a sports arena. It had a well known actor as the villain (Powers Boothe), a reputable director in Peter Hyams and effective action set pieces. Without doubt the standout of these is where he fights a woman who is dressed up in a Pebguin suit (trust me, it makes sense within the context of the movie!). It was a big hit. Worldwide it more than doubled its budget. Van Damme had truly arrived. Surely the only way was up.
But with the success, brought the temptations. Van Damme slipped into a serious drug habit and became uncontrollable. He entered a month long rehab programme but lasted merely a week. By 1997, he was divorced and the reasons given alluded to abuse of his wife and drug addiction. It was around this time that his movies were no longer released theatrically, and he was seemingly condemned to straight to video hell. This would continue for 10/11 years, with a serious of low budget action films. It was not hard to see that Van Damme was simply working for the paycheck and brought next to nothing to his performances. As well as suffering a creative vacuum, his health was deteriorating by the day. He was diagnosed with rapid cycling bipolar disorder, and had become suicidal.
It was the only unexplored role for Van Damme, that would ultimately be his saviour. He would have to play himself.
Here, at last, was a movie where Van Damme could actually show some emotion. Show that he was more than just high kicks and bad jokes. And it is fantastic. I recently watched this on blu ray for the first time in over a year and it has lost none of its freshness. It is by turns darkly comic, and unflinchingly real. Apparently, Van Damme was wary of parodying himself, and thought the project was a bad idea. It was only when he read the script, and learned that there would be a scene where he would 'break the fourth wall' did he agree to do it. Said scene happens around 2/3 into the movie. Van Damme is raised up to the rafters, and away from the fictional story being told. He addresses the audience and talks about all his mistakes, how Hollywood corrupted him, and how life for him has been by turns both exceptionally hard and exceptionally blessed. It is extremely moving and unflinching, leaving no punches pulled (bad pun I know) and showing Van Damme in his most fragile, human state.
If you have not yet watched JCVD, I highly recommend it. And I challenge you, once it is over, not to be in the mood to watch Bloodsport, or AWOL. I went for Bloodsport myself...........
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