JCVD

JCVD is a fictionalized story built around Jean-Claude Van Damme, who plays a version of himself. His career has stalled, his finances are strained by legal bills, and he has lost a custody battle over his daughter. He returns to Brussels, the country of his birth, hoping for some rest at the family home. A stop at a post office to withdraw cash turns into something else when a robbery breaks out, and Van Damme is caught up in it, with the media soon treating him as a suspect rather than a victim.

The film, directed by Mabrouk El Mechri, was his first feature and the first of the two films he has directed, followed by The Cold Light of Day. El Mechri wrote the screenplay with Frédéric Benudis and Christophe Turpin. Alongside Van Damme, the cast includes François Damiens, Zinedine Soualem, Karim Belkhadra, Jean-François Wolff and Anne Paulicevich, among 46 credited performers. It was made for about 6 million USD and released in 2008.

With a worldwide box office of roughly 2 million USD, the film did not recoup its budget in cinemas, though ratings suggest a warmer response outside the box office: on IMDb it holds 7/10 from around 41,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.6/10 from 592 votes. A critics' rating of 6.7/10 from 107 reviews places it broadly in line with the audience scores.