Confession time, Father.

I don’t hate Jean Claude Van Damme.

Now when I say ‘I don’t hate’ the guy I’m not saying I’m a huge fan of his work – especially his recent work, he’s done some shockers – nor am I a fan of the pint-sized puncher’s off-screen antics (a bit of a sleaze apparently), but I have enjoyed some of his earlier flicks. I thought “Kickboxer” was great, I remember “Universal Soldier” being a real hoot, and I especially loved the films he did with Peter Hyams – “Time Cop” and “Sudden Death”. The muscles from Brussels was definitely on his way for a while there. Pity it all went to shit for him sometime between teaming up with Lance Henriksen for Universal’s blatant “Surviving the Game” rip-off “Hard Target” and coming to the realization that he might be able to direct a movie (which he couldn’t). Since then JCVD has been pushing dog after dog on us, just hoping to one day win a big studio or rather, big producer, back – and score himself something decent again.
To the guy’s merit, his last movie – though again a direct to video movie – a dark drama (yep, DRAMA – the boy puts story before spin-kicks) titled “Until Death” was quite good. Much better than anyone ever guessed it would be. It had me thinking that there still might be a few more miles left in the old Van Damme charger yet – if only he can find the right vehicle.
Personally, I say he should try and get a sequel up to one of his earlier movies – ask Sly Stallone, bringing back one of your earlier more popular characters is definitely the way to win your audience back.

JC was involved in a “Bloodsport” sequel there for a while, but it went belly up, as did preliminary plans for a “Double Impact” sequel. If he has an ‘in’, I’d say he should try and convince Universal to do a follow-up to “Sudden Death” – the entertaining “Die Hard” knock-off, set in an ice-skating rink – or maybe even “Time Cop” (they tried making it a direct-to-video franchise, with Jason Scott Lee starring, but it didn’t do too well… so that’s possibly out of the question). There’s always room for another “Universal Soldier” movie, too.

Or is JC going to work his way back all by himself?

A reader at the Van DammeFans.net forum says our friend is returning to the director’s chair for his new effort.
Called “Full Love” (hmmm), it starts filming in Bangkok around Easter, and is apparently based on an original screenplay by the ‘Muscles’ that's not so much a martial-arts action movie than it is a romance! But more so, we're told it’s a “small” film. Now that sounds like a small step in the right direction.

And how’s that for flogging a page from the Sly/Rocky book?

This time next year we could be talking about the amazing comeback of Jean Claude Van Damme. Or Not.