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Oh Jean-Claude Van Damme. JCVD was a once in a lifetime opportunity for you, and I’m afraid you’re screwing it in the ass.

Everything you’ve heard about JCVD is true (review here). A good and interesting film highlighted by an extraordinary performance from Van Damme. Funny, reflective, emotionally exposed, and self aware… he surprises with talent from beginning to end. The response to the film was his golden ticket out of direct to DVD hell and into Pawtucket Pat’s Patriot Brewery. ( Too obscure?) Well, ticket back to the big screen anyway. Sylvester Stallone offered him a role in his upcoming action extravaganza The Expendables, but Van Damme turned him down over character issues.

Instead, Van Damme decided to direct and star in his own film called The Eagle Path. Check out the following trailer and summation (both courtesy of Twitch).

A military veteran and former mercenary, Frenchy works as a taxi driver, hiding somewhere in East Asia, haunted by his past. After his driving shifts he often frequents the Eagle’s Nest, a seedy bar that houses a caged eagle. In the midst of the chaotic Asian traffic Frenchypicks up a beautiful female passenger who will change him forever. Driven by dark memories of his childhood, he becomes determined to improve her life and, without her approval, he embarks on a journey which proves to be more dangerous and complicated then he expected. After encountering a series of harrowing obstacles he calls in favors from his special ops friends who immediately join him. His military team engages in the biggest fight of their lives. War is hell, but nothing they’ve done could have prepared them for this. It’s an adrenaline-fueled, full-on, maximum firepower thriller, filled with the intense psychological conflict that Van Damme fans love the world over.

Sigh… Frenchy? A not-so subtly symbolic caged eagle that most likely will be freed by film’s end? And are Van Damme fans really known for their love of intense psychological conflict? As far as the trailer goes nothing here looks memorable, fresh, or different from any of his previous DVD releases. Although I am intrigued by Van Damme’s Kato outfit at the :52 second mark…

What do you think of the trailer and synopsis?