JCVD (2008) (Blu Ray) - 8/10

Movies that have actors playing themselves are a tricky thing to pull off, sometimes it seems to me that they almost come off as too self reflexive to the point where it's trying to change my view of that person in real life, even though I know they're still just reading their lines. JCVD is better though, a bold and interesting little film that takes a look at how we as the public view Jean Claude Van Damme the actor and the struggles he has feeling trapped in the same roles his whole life. Showing the toll age has on his endurance during fight scenes and the financial crisis he has to deal with on a daily basis, the movie turns from being a documentary about people taking pictures with him into to a post office robbery gone bad where JCVD gets taken hostage and then has to convince the cops he isn't in on it. What's cool about the way the movie is structured are the disjointed time lines, showing us the end of the movie then explaining how it gets to that point only to come back to the present and finish off with an emotional breakdown that really proves he can act. I specifically liked the way the criminals idolized him within the hostage situation and how they made him do tricks from certain movies , bagging on the directors he worked with. Overall, the blending of JCVD's emotional struggle to expose his true side with a fictional robbery scenario that he has to resolve made this movie original enough to recommend, especially if you grew up on his movies. It was nice to see an actor break down and analyze their career in a negative light instead of using the medium to justify the the drugs, crimes, and arrogant accomplishments.