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Released direct-to-DVD to international audiences in late 2001, and then to America in March
the following year, this action film somehow managed to earn around twenty million in rental
proceeds, against its estimated $12 million dollar budget. The plot follows Jean-Claude
Van Damme, a talented smuggler of historical artifacts who travels to Israel to search
for his missing father, and a lost religious artifact - encountering plenty of opposition
along the way. The martial artist defends his globe-trotting ***-kicking by saying,
"I did what I had to do because nobody else seems to give a damn!" His acting is somehow
worse than usual, even by his standards... but he's still the most talented member of
the picture, which is saying a lot. The legendary Charlton Heston is disgracefully wasted in
his final live-action film appearance, who is promptly killed by nameless thugs shortly
after picking Jean-Claude up from the airport. Sofia Milos, Brian Thompson, and Ben Cross
are the only other faces you might recognize here, but they too contribute little. While
some individual action sequences are decently fun and exciting - their best moments are
inherently stolen from better films - crashing through a truck of water bottles, or fixing
your enemies' dirty shirt after a messy fight. Commendably, the low-budget adventure was
filmed on-location in the middle-east, and many of the costumes seem genuinely authentic.
When done correctly, film editing is a thankless job that enhances the experience, while going
mostly unnoticed. When done poorly, as it is in this hurried 89-minute film, it brings
undo attention to itself, and becomes a distraction. The R-rated picture has some curiously bad
edits that never allow a scene to breathe... jump-cutting around with no sense of purpose.
As a result of this shoddy-style, JCVD is never given an opportunity to truly show off
his fight choreography, as every split-kick and face-punch is cut up into a half-dozen
separate angles. Speaking of poor editing, this movie is also of the few post-9/11 releases
to leave in shots of New York's Twin Towers. The goofy, unprofessional sounding music from
Pino Donaggio removes any sense of tension director Sheldon Lettich was attempting to
accomplish. It is however pretty amusing to watch Van Damme run around Israel masquerading
as
a Rabbi. After three consecutive duels during the drawn-out climax, our hero even manages
to once again have his clothes ripped-off. The movie then pads out its runtime with a
sort of clip show montage of the movie's fight sequences, for some foolish reason. Despite
all its flaws, this is an almost believable romp makes for good a "falling-asleep-while-you-watch-basic-cable"-type
movie. "The Order", "Unoriginal schlock, with okay action."
I'll rate this film a THREE on the rate-o-matic. While not totally awful, there still isn't
much here for me to offer a recommendation. But if you're a die-hard Van Damme fan, it
might be worth your time. I thought it was LAME.