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'JCVD'

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BY RAFER GUZMÁNrafer.guzman@newsday.com

November 7, 2008

If you didn't think he had it in him, check out Jean-Claude Van Damme's acting - that's right, acting - in "JCVD," an offbeat, fun and very funny movie in which The Muscles goes back to Brussels and earns a whole new kind of celebrity.

Van Damme bravely plays himself, an aging action-star whose B-list status has fallen so far down the alphabet that he's losing roles to Steven Seagal. After a failed custody battle over his daughter, Van Damme takes refuge in his Belgian hometown only to stumble into a hostage crisis at the local bank. His cinematic moves are no match for real bullets, and to make matters worse, the police commissioner (François Damiens) and the gawking public believe he's the culprit, not the victim.

Written by Frédéric Bénudis, Christophe Turpin and director Mabrouk El Mechri, "JCVD" is more than a pop-cultural in-joke - it's also a gritty police procedural that recalls the '70s-era classic "Dog Day Afternoon." El Mechri ambitiously moves back and forth in time and juxtaposes wry comedy against some very brutal violence, much of it chillingly dispensed by French actor Zinedine Soualem as the robbers' ringleader.

In one remarkably surreal scene, Van Damme faces the camera and reflects on his life in an agonized, tear-streaked monologue that's nearly worth the price of admission. Seagal, it's your turn.

(R)

PLOT The Muscles from Brussels plays a washed-up action star who's drawn into a botched bank heist.

CAST Jean-Claude Van Damme, Zinedine Soualem, François Damiens

LENGTH 1:32

PLAYING AT Angelika Film Center and AMC Empire 25, Manhattan

BOTTOM LINE Part pop-culture prank, part gritty crime flick, this is an offbeat gem well worth seeking out.