Inferno (1999)

In my quest to cover Jean-Claude Van Damme’s late 1990s period, and sift through the direct-to-video releases for any hidden gems, we ride into Inferno (1999), which works as Van Damme’s version of a modern western. He gets to rock a pair of jeans, wear a singlet, sport a straw hat, and wander through a […]

Knock Off (1998)

Director Tsui Hark’s gift to cinema: a POV shot of a foot going into a shoe. A knock off shoe that we receive extreme close ups of the wear and tear suffered as Jean Claude Van Damme pulls Rob Schneider on a cart in a competitive race through the streets of Hong Kong. And this […]

Wheels On Meals (1984)

I knew SBS Cult Movies screened Wheels On Meals (1984) occasionally on a Saturday night, much as they would any Jackie Chan Hong Kong martial arts flick from the 1980s, and all I recalled was that Jackie rode around on rollerblades. Turns out that was a false memory implant and that it’s a skateboard you […]

Hard Target (1993)

Retroactive Academy Award to Jan Alexander, credited Hair Stylist for Jean-Claude Van Damme on Hard Target (1993) and crafting one of the finest mullets to ever grace an action movie. Even though the theatrical release version of Hard Target, which I have watched countless times, is not John Woo’s director’s cut (apparently he was overruled […]

Nowhere To Run (1993)

I always thought Nowhere To Run (1993) was later in Jean-Claude Van Damme’s career but it was inbetween Universal Soldier and Hard Target (maybe my favourite all time JCVD film). I can imagine Van Damme saying about Nowhere To Run at the time: “This is a real movie with a human story with emotions”. As […]