Insiders made a fuss about aging action star Jean-Claude Van Damme when his thriller JCVD premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. I thought they were nuts.

Who knew he was still alive, much less functioning?

Now, looking back over a tumultuous year in cinema, I realize what the fuss was about. The man we used to sneeringly call the Muscles from Brussels was as deserving of a best actor Oscar nomination as anyone who did receive one, including eventual winner Sean Penn. In a direct comparison with another nominee who shares his pain, Van Damme's "comeback" is as poignant, as affecting and as effective as Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler.

Now, with JCVD coming to widescreen DVD this week, check it out ASAP.

Van Damme plays himself, fictionalized. The film is a legit thriller, yet it sardonically comments on the genre and, in a great opening sequence, shows how absurdly fake fight scenes are in typical Van Damme movies.

We meet him at age 47 when his career and personal life are both in the toilet. He loses roles to Steven Seagal. His credit cards are maxed out. He is fighting a child-custody case. Exhausted and alone, he finds himself back in the sad, seedy neighbourhood where he grew up.

Then he makes a potentially fatal error. He walks into the Schaerbeek Post Office and becomes embroiled in the most terrifying "action" scene of his life. And life, we are reminded, is not a movie.

JCVD was directed and co-written -- with savage grace -- by Mabrouk El Mechir. Stripping the image of much of its colour, and reducing the film to its essentials by reconstructing reality from different points-of-view, El Mechir lets us peer directly into Van Damme's soul.

In one surreal monologue, the star addresses the camera like a mini-Christ hanging on the cross of his own disappointments. This is as powerful as cinema can be in its pure distilled form, when a human being is emotionally naked before the gaze of the world.

JCVD plays in both English and French (with English subtitles) in its original theatrical release version. On the DVD, there are also completely English and French and Spanish dubbed versions, each playing with partial subtitles. I recommend only the original version, because it feels more authentic.

The DVD itself misses an extraordinary opportunity. Not counting the digital copy for transfer to portable devices, the only extras are deleted scenes. DVD distributors Peace Arch and Gaumont could have expanded our understanding and appreciation of Van Damme with a simple interview. Clearly, watching the movie itself, he has something to say. I would love to hear it.

Bride Wars

There is nothing wrong with a good chick flick. Trouble is, Bride Wars is not good. It is all fluff, like a ball of lint from the dryer.

The flick does co-star two good chicks. They are just doing bad work for hack director Gary Winick. Anne Hathaway should not have to surrender her Oscar nom for Rachel Getting Married, but you suspect she lost votes when Bride Wars came out during her campaign. Kate Hudson, meanwhile, sheds her spunky ingenue persona, and that is unpleasant.

The two stars play best-friends-forever, both dreaming of a June wedding at Manhattan's Plaza Hotel. When fates conspire, they are both booked on the same Saturday. The war begins. And movie hijinks are unbridled. But it's so lame Candace Bergen is forced into a narration to save the flick -- and that just makes things worse.

The DVD is awful, too. As extras, there are three deleted scenes and a featurette that sucks up to designer Vera Wang.

You have to buy the three-disc Blu-ray to get anything substantial (using that term loosely). These extra wares include promotional interviews with Hudson and Hathaway, plus a pop-up trivia track. The Blu-ray set is also a combo pack that packages the standard DVD with the high-def version -- plus a digital copy.