action is kind of incidental.

Well, for values of incidental that coincide with marvellous. It's not a driver or a tool used by our hero, but shit sure blows up nice.

It's a good thing I have no cred to lose, but I liked many of Jean Claude Van Damme's action heroes. He saved the day in the end, but sometimes didn't get the girl (like in Nowhere To Run where he goes back to jail (after one of the nakedest sex scenes ever)) and is pointedly emotional in many, and not just angry and thirsty for revenge.

I loved the Russians in The Saint, and always love Rade Serbedzija in pretty much everything he's in (most of all as the crazy Russian in Snatch).

But really, The Saint falls apart not because of its actors (though there are plenty of bad performances). It falls apart because of the absolute idocy of everything else in the movie.

I liked many of Jean Claude Van Damme's action heroes. He saved the day in the end, but sometimes didn't get the girl [snip] and is pointedly emotional in many,

Oh no. You did not just bring Jean Claude's "LOOK AT ME, I'M EMOTING" face into this discussion, did you? Really?

I had to! Honestly, his (in)ability to act aside, his characters were interestingly defined and rewarded (or not).

I'll always be grateful to Van Damme for making Sudden Death, the Stanley Cup final-set action movie complete with a fight where he got his ass kicked by a female terrorist in a Penguin costume, and Luc Robitaille as a guest star.

Jean-Claude. Van Damme. Does not compute. I don't care if he can crack nuts with his buttcheeks; he canna act!!

after one of the nakedest sex scenes ever

Spoken like someone who has never seen a Bernardo Bertolucci picture. Let's just say I had The Dreamers out from Netflix, and saw way, way more of Eva Green than the Bond movie showed.

To see more of Eva Green (or any of the principals) than The Dreamers showed, the filmmaker would need to use a sigmoidoscope.

Hee on the Van Damme comments! I've never seen him except inadvertently while channel surfing, but I will say that his closest counterpart when it comes to lack of acting skills is Steven Seagal. The man almost ruins what is in actuality a damn good action film, Under Seige, simply from his very inability to portray anything other than Seagal-ness.

(most of all as the crazy Russian in Snatch).

YESS!

his characters were interestingly defined and rewarded (or not).

I really, really want to like Timecop in the same way I want to like The Saint. Actually, there's a couple of Jean Claude's I actually even like (such as Bloodsport, despite it being sillier than just about any movie we've mentioned here this morning, and featuring the worst examples of Jean Claude's Acting Face evar).