JCVD's new role as interactive DVD salesman

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 22 November 2010 17:01

Your IT - Entertainment

Meh or moolah? Martial-arts, sci-fi and action movie star, Jean Claude Van Damme (JCVD) is using his ongoing fame, acclaim and some B-Movie shame to offer a $5 bounty on unneeded DVDs, but to get this 'generous' offer, you have to buy a new Sony movie, fill out a form and wait for a $5 EFTPOS card. Whoop-de-doo.

JCVD, who is not to be confused with Japanese electronics manufacturer, JVC, has joined with Sony Pictures Entertainment to sell more Sony Pictures Entertainment movies this Christmas and get consumers to freely send their supposedly 'unwanted' DVDs from the collections of DVD hoarders - all as part of a 'Great DVD Amnesty'.

In return for sending your unneeded DVDs to Sony, and providing proof including the receipt from a new Sony movie DVD or Blu-ray purchase of the selected yellow bordered 'JCVD' kickback movie collection, and fill in some other codes into the DVD Amnesty site, send in your DVDs (which you are really giving free of charge to Sony) and wait for a $5 cashback on your DVD or Blu-ray purchase.

Um'¦ is this for real? If you were going to give them away, you could give them to the Salvos or some other charity, to anyone else that wanted them free of charge, or you could even make money on them via an eBay sale, a garage sale or a stall at the markets.

Sure, to sell them will take more effort than 'simply' buying a new Sony movie and sending in your 'unwanted DVDs', although the terms and conditions only specify needing to send one 'used' actual movie (not burned, promotional etc) with a copy of the receipt for the new movie purchase, and only being able to claim two $5 cashbacks per household, with a maximum of 200,000 cash-backs offered.

The only 'cool' thing about the promotion is Jean Claude Van Damme himseld, which is obviously why he was chosen. It's probably the best thing JCVD has done in the last few years, where a website makes JCVD an 'interactive' on-screen intro-ad coupled with brief fight-scene clips from his hit movies, which then segues into JCVD at a desk, typing on the keyboard.

The twist is that he is 'interactive' - making martial arts moves and sounds if you click him, he tries to catch the pointer at one point, and he has a mischievous smile on his face like he knows it's all a bit of fun.

Given B movie flops like 'Second in Command' than went straight to DVD, JCVD lost some of his shine as a bankable action star, and presumably is the reason why he's had to agree to doing these kinds of 'promotions'. It's a shame - if someone put JCVD in an excellent action blockbuster'¦ people would go and see it!

JCVD was supposed to be in The Expendables with Sylvester Stallone, as reported over at Softpedia, but it appears his desire to avoid doing movies for good money without knowing what his character would be stopped him from getting involved, even though Stallone said there'd be a lot of fighting!

As we know, The Expendables was a hit, with word of a sequel already planned - and talk that JCVD might be in it. The oddly named but legitimate entertainment news site Worst Previews quotes Stallone saying during "The Expendables" premiere that: "Van Damme was a little busy [to be in the movie], but I talked to him yesterday. I said 'I told you.' He goes 'I know, I know.'"

Continued on page two, please read on!