QZ qz thoughts
a blog from Eli the Bearded

JCVD


Imagine Dog Day Afternoon with Jean Claude Van Damme, that's roughly what you get with JCVD. Van Damme is not playing some character, though. Van Damme is Van Damme, broke, frustrated with the job offers he is getting, depressed that he just lost custody of his kid (opposing counsel having made a big show of how Van Damme's complete works are child inappropriate in court), back in his native Brussels where everyone knows and loves him. And inside a bank with hostages.

The crowds don't cheer "Attica!" here, they do cheer "Jean Claude". Press is there with a massive crowd before the SWAT team arrives. And there is a bit of strangeness to this robbery, just like there was in Dog Day Afternoon (which appears to be deliberately referenced). I don't think the trailer gives away the twist, which comes out maybe a third of the way in, but other sources might. And the story is probably better if you don't know it.

Four five-minute single take shots out of five.

JCVD at IMDB

Dog Day Afternoon at IMDB

Final thought: right across the street is a video store, adding lots of movie refs here