When nothing could save Yancy Butler’s character in the ever-hard hitting Hard Target, then one man, street-hardened by life’s roughness did: Jean Claude Van Damme!
Similarly, when no one, absolutely no one could come to the rescue of Rosanna Arquette’s widowed character in Nowhere to Run, then one man, named ‘Sam’ in the film did offering quintessential butt-whipping rollicking action cinema. That man was Jean Claude Van Damme.
Now interestingly, when no one could offer any respite from the harrowing response generated by the barrage of quite a few Van Damme flops, then guess what, Netflix did.
It almost seems as though, online streaming services, including giants like Netflix have become happy staycations where films, that actually failed in real life, can overstay their welcome.
And it’s interesting, if not prophetic to say that, maybe there are movies that compel us to say ‘yucks’ the moment they are released but over time, we tend to warm up to them.
A case in point being- Owen Wilson’s Are you here, which also starred Amy Poehler and Zach Galifianakis.
Another one being Hugh Grant’s The Rewrite and perhaps even About a Boy, two movies that today have quite a fan following, which wasn’t the case when they released.
Similarly, for Belgium’s greatest export to the sizzling, heartachingly beautiful and stunningly heartbreaking world of Hollywood!
For it’s clear that Netflix has warmed up to Jean Claude Van Damme’s We Die Young, a 2019 and hence, pre-covid era release that has quickly amassed quite a fine following on Netflix, which is why it is being talked about.
And so much so that the three year old movie, that besides Van Damme, doesn’t even any A-lister from the acting world as such has quickly beaten some other mighty movies in terms of ranking that feature several big names, such as Kate Winslet.
Here’s what a popular entertainment website that particularly caters to Hollywood news and TV updates and the mass entertainment segment had to say about the Van Damme movie update:
In We Die Young, Jean-Claude Van Damme isn’t the cartoonishly bold martial arts master fans of his 1980’s action fare might be used to. Van Damme plays Daniel, a veteran of the Afghanistan War who suffers from PTSD. He’s also voiceless, having been hit in the throat with shrapnel during the war. Availing himself of the services of the young drug dealer Lucas (Elijah Rodriguez) to help ease his symptoms, Daniel ends up coming into conflict with the dangerous gang MS-13 when Lucas and his younger brother Miguel (Nicholas Sean Johnny) try to escape the gang’s influence.
While Lucas starts off as a loyal member of the gang, he’s insistent that his younger brother have nothing to do with with MS-13. After he receives orders to make a delivery outside the gang’s territory, he learns it’s a ruse to distract him as the gang initiates his younger brother. When he tries to run, the ambitious Jester (Charlie MacGechan) uses it as an excuse to pursue him, in hopes of getting closer to wearing MS-13’s crown. That’s when Jean-Claude Van Damme’s Daniel gets involved. The veteran is testing a car he just worked on when he runs into the fleeing Lucas and Miguel.
That being said, what’s absolutely true is that Jean Claude Van Damme, who believe it or not, is 61 as we speak, is still going strong. The famous Bloodsport and Kickboxer famed actor known for his resoluteness for doing action cinema that may fail on six on ten occasions, as an example, is still persisting with movies that today have better storylines and the quintessential Van Damme wham-bam action sequences.
Some things don’t change even with time, right JC?