1. Jean Claude Van Damme in JCVD
If you have yet to see JCVD, then this is your homework assignment for tonight. The Muscles from Brussels, a critically acclaimed and unfathomably deep actor? The guy from Bloodsport and Street Fighter? No way. Jean Claude Van Damme is one of the quintessential action stars in cinemas history. The 80s and 90s marked a time where action films starred men like Steven Seagal, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Dolph Lundgren, among others, and they refused to hide behind CGI. With assistance of stunt doubles or not, everything they did was real. Some even fought professionally at some point, and Jean Claude Van Damme was no different. As a result, nobody ever expected the man the exchange his fists for his heart when JCVD was out. The film received a lot of buzz, and unless you read reviews or watched the trailer beforehand nobody really could calculate why, especially when remembering all the tripe defecated by Van Damme the last few years. Was it revolutionary action scenes? No, the budget was too low. Could it be the rise of a new, endowed director, then? Yes, partially. But it was mostly Van Damme, and I instantly forgave him. His acting peaks with a surreal and touching confession most likely occurring within the shadiest areas of his mind. His chair elevates him to the ceiling, and this shatters the fourth wall as camera shooting lights are suddenly visible. This signifies that the audience is no longer a member of a fictional story; this is the real JCVD pouring his soul and his past sins upon us, his entrusted witnesses. Everything else is a movie. Not this. This will be the closest Van Damme will ever be to embracing Stanivlaskis method, and it feels like a public apology regarding his former drug abuse, his failed love life, and his regretful celebrity lifestyle. Remarkable, Jean Claude. Simply remarkable. What do you guys think? Is anybody missing? Please let us know in the comments!