JCVD[3] is a 2008 satirical black comedy crime drama film co-written and directed by Mabrouk el Mechri, and starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as a fictionalized version of himself: a down and out action star whose family and career are crumbling around him as he is caught in the middle of a post office heist in his hometown of Brussels, Belgium.

The police mistakenly identify Van Damme as the robber when he is forced by the actual perpetrators to move a cabinet to block the window.

Van Damme finds himself acting as a hero to protect the hostages by engaging with the robbers about his career (one of them being a fan of his), as well as both a negotiator and presumed perpetrator.

The narrative continues to shift to show the media circus that develops around the post office and video store, which the police use as a base of operations, enhanced by the involvement of the actor.

Archive footage showing him talking in a typically weird and cryptic way during French language interviews are shown on TV, to Van Damme's dismay.

In a notable scene, Van Damme and the camera are lifted above the set, and he performs a six-minute single-take monologue, where he breaks the fourth wall, addressing the audience, or God, or both, with an emotional (but characteristically cryptic) monologue about his career, his multiple marriages, and his drug abuse, connecting his reflections with the current hostage situation where he is afraid of dying in such an absurd manner.

[citation needed] El Mechri, who was influenced by Jean-Luc Godard,[5] offered to write a draft, and the producer asked if he would direct it as well.

In real life, Van Damme had troubles with cocaine during 1995, entering a month-long rehab program in 1996 but leaving after just one week.

His performance in the movie, and the sequence in particular, were unanimously praised by critics and audiences as well as fellow actors like Nicolas Cage[6] and Anna Kendrick.

The website's critical consensus reads, "JCVD is a touching, fascinating piece, with Jean-Claude Van Damme confounding all with his heartfelt performance.

[13] Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 stars, noting that the movie "almost endearingly savages" Van Damme, who "says worse things about himself than critics would dream of saying, and the effect is shockingly truthful".