Jean-Claude Van Damme and metafictional gestures are not two things that one expects to find side by side, but that's just what JCVD offers, in a muted, uncategorisable movie featuring Van Damme playing a version of himself who gets caught in a real life hostage situation, including one extended scene in which the actor addresses the camera, and us, directly, musing on his life and career and perhaps presenting something that resembles the 'real' Van Damme in both the film's world and ours (or does it? etc, etc).
