>Richard Corliss of Time magazine named Van Damme's performance in the film the second best of the year (after Heath Ledger's The Joker in The Dark Knight),[7] having previously stated that Van Damme "deserves not a black belt, but an Oscar".
Was he right?
it was a damn great movie
I don't know if it's that great but, yeah, it's a prety damn great performance. The movie itself is good fun but nothing too special beyond the premise.
He might've been able to get more traction if it wasn't the same year as The Wrestler. Mickey Rourkenwas already getting all the "holy shit that past his prime guy that no one thought could really act can act" notices.
The film was great. That scene where he breaks down felt so surreal. You could feel that he was actually letting it out, and not simply acting. Itwas simply brilliant an dbrought m eto tears. I felt bad for him. I always thought he was a decent actor in his Martial arts flicks like The Quest. I wish he was given a good role in a movie after this one, but it never came. I've met him and he really is a sweetheart.
Heat Ledger's Joker performance is overrated, and I think it may be due to his sudden and tragic death. I just thought his American accent was terrible and the role just felt overly hammy. He did a great job if being really intense though. Might sound like I'm talking shut, but I liked him. Two Hands is still one of my favorite movies of all time. He was stellar in it.
>The Wrestler
Whoa that was out too?
2008 was really good, it slipped my mind.
I wouldn't say Heath's performance as the Joker was overrated. It was genuinely brilliant. He was enigmatic and terrifying, and he always stole the scenes his was in.
>dat soliloquy as he raises into the sky
Genuinely surprised by this movie.
Cyborg will always be GOAT van damme core.
>I wouldn't say Heath's performance as the Joker was overrated. It was genuinely brilliant. He was enigmatic and terrifying, and he always stole the scenes his was in.
They're both true. He was genuinely brilliant in the role, and it deserved the praise. He made the movie what it was. But it was still overrated. Critics were calling his performance like it was the second coming of the messiah. It's all relative.
Not sure, 2008 was a competitive year. But Van Damme was great in this, no argument there.
The scene where he imagines kicking all the bad guys' assessment and then it cuts back to reality where he dives for cover when the cops rush in hit me so fucking hard
It's like that beta feeling you get when you imagine how things could have gone transcriber to film, but closer to being possible for someone like him.
>Two Hands
Great taste.
I think because nobody expected him to give us what he did. You could argue it got blown out of proportion after his death but all the accolades it received before his death were 100% earned. It really was a stellar performance nobody saw coming.
>assessment
>asses
Outed myself as a phone poster, fuck.
The fact his court case with his cunt wife was real hit closer to home for me. I grew up absolutely loving him and watching his decline in the movie to that moment actually made me cry as a man.
Yeah I think everyone can relate to that. It's great.
Yeah he deserved all the praise. It was the best Joker performance ever in my opinion. Arguably better than Jack Nicholson's which was also great. Michael Keaton is still the best Batman though.
Nothing wrong with phoneposting as long as you're not shitposting.
sage only for being off-topic
Everyone goes on about the scene with his close-up but during the whole movie you could tell it was how he actually felt about his life up to that point. As someone said earlier I actually also met him at a hotel in Germany once (it was 2003), and we actually had a drink and I told him how his movies got me from being bullied to actually getting into shape and taking responsibility for myself. I'm not fucking lying I actually brought a tear to his eye. We had 2 glasses of scotch and he left, and I went back to my wife in the hotel room and never shut the fuck up about the experience. Lost my photo with him which annoys me.
tl;dr - having met him and telling me how hard it is to balance real life with riches/fame fantasy was fascinating. He said at one point he lost control of it all. This movie was a godsend He really is a great guy, and I wish I had my copy of No Retreat No Surrender for him to sign.
The opening sequence that's all one shot in an action movie is stellar. I did the monologue for this in high school theatre (pretty autistic, looking back)
What did this lose the Oscar to? Milk?
Sorry it wasn't 2003, I think it was 2005. Anyway, he's my favorite type of celebrity. Someone who's not up their own arse, like most Hollywood actors. Kinda like how cool Keanue Reeves is IRL.
Damn dude. Was the rapid loss of wealth true in his life or was it exaggerated?
Exaggerated, but not untrue. He struggled with substance abuse for a while.
Actually every actor in it was great, Van Damne just took everyone by surprise by stealing it all with that scene of his breakdown which felt frightfully real. It made me feel bad for the washed up 90s martial arts stars. Except Seagal, fuck him.
>Except Seagal, fuck him.
Conversation in the movie I loved.
>Steven Seagal got the part.
>Steven Seagal?
>Yeah
>You're ten times better!
>It's his ponytail..
I like how Jon Woo loved the banter regarding Van Damne making him in the movie.
kek
Joe Pesci tribute?
I loved this character's respect for Van Damne.
Music was great. The jazz trumpets syncing with a car horn perfectly was top notch.
Were those his actual parents in the movie?
>creepy crim was a childhood friend
The thing about him stealing to eat is legit. A guitarist I love Yngwie Malmsteen lived in the US and worked at a fucking McDonalds and stole stock to live off. Then he ended up crash Lambos like nobody's business. Fucked his hands up and had to relearn guitar.
bump
I really liked this movie and his monologue brought me to tears. It seems like he can be a good actor in French.
>No Retreat No Surrender
my nigger
Yakuza is great.
>I wish he was given a good role in a movie after this one, but it never came
Me, too. For a while it seemed like his career was going to go new places, and it's really disappointing he's still making dumb action movies.
That being said, I thought he was surprisingly great in Welcome to the Jungle. You can tell he was enjoying playing against type. And the movie he directed that's been in development hell sounds like it's supposed to be good, too.
It was the performance of a lifetime.
An 80's action star who started doing utter Cannon schlock like Cyborg had no business portraying a washedup movie star as well as he did. His performance was perfect, he hit all the right notes, he really had it down.
If anything it proved he was a more capable actor than everyone gave him credit for, maybe even himself.
>If anything it proved he was a more capable actor than everyone gave him credit for, maybe even himself.
This is why it's so sad there hasn't been a dramatic movie where he could use his physical ability at the end.
Fuck yeah he was, Van Damme acted extremely good in this, he did several objectively good performances shortly before and after JCVD. Until Death was an extremely well made Cop Movie and the both Universal Soldier Movies are unique arthouse Action in a very decent way (US 4 is probably one of the best movies in the past 5 years). Too bad he felt down to his old pre Until Death movie quality, Van Damme tries still to give a good performance, but Movies like Pound of Flesh are just straight up garbage.
But yeah, he deserved an Oscar for JCVD like Rourke did for The Wrestler. Too bad JCVD is not a US production.