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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
The Order: An Indiana Jones Rip-off, but still ok., January 12, 2004
Synopsis:
Rudy Cafmeyer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is an international artifacts smuggler whose father is a well known museum curator. When Rudy's father (Vernon Dobtcheff) goes missing mysteriously in Israel, Rudy embarks on a quest to find him. The end result is a confrontation with a lovely Israeli police officer named Dalia (Sofia Milos), the loss of a couple friends and being wrapped up in a religious conspiracy involving a strange middle eastern cult and a cultist (Brian Thompson) with nefarious plans.
About the Movie:
If you're looking for a well written, well thought out, well acted action flick, this isn't really it. But really, are we surprised? It has Van Damme in it.
In fact, The Order is something of a rip-off of the Indiana Jones movies. You have the archeologist father who goes missing, a son looking for him, a weird religious cult, and a lost religious treasure . . . Nothing new here, well, except for maybe the martial arts element.
But it's not all bad, making up for a silly, clichéd and completely unoriginal plot by having a few very enjoyable moments. Van Damme is an entertaining martial artist and while his fight scenes aren't as flamboyant or entertaining as, say, Jackie Chan's, he holds his own quite well. Van Damme even gets to engage in a sword fight in this movie, which is probably the first time I've seen him do that. I bet you can't guess who wins it.
The best scene in this movie, partly because the musical score adds so much to it, is the one where Van Damme is masquerading as a Hasidic Jew, with a beard, hat and curly hair, then has to run from the police through the middle of crowded Jerusalem. There's something very goofy about the whole sequence that makes it quite comic and a lot of fun to watch.
Charleton Heston has a cameo in this movie as well, both as the narrator of the opening teaser and in a role later on. Unfortunately, it has him dying rather senselessly in the first 3rd of the movie, wasting the talents of a great and notable actor. It would have been wonderful if Charleton could have played the role of Van Damme's father instead of Vernon Dobtcheff (who's put on accent was atrocious). Heston's such a solid actor, it was disappointing that he didn't have a more significant role.
The acting in this movie isn't great. Even Heston's role is a bit on the stagey side. And of course, Van Damme will never win any awards for HIS acting. But this isn't a movie you watch for the acting, and a lot can be forgiven since the attractive Sofia Milos plays the female lead and incidentally is probably the strongest actor in the film.
One strong point of this movie is the musical score (arranged by Pino Donaggio). It isn't on the level of top notch movie, but it's possibly better than many action movies have, blending humor and a real feel for its subject mater into what is at times, a masterful addition to the action sequences.
Overall, this is a brainless, sit down and have fun type of movie. There's certainly quite a few martial arts action movies of this type out there that beat this one hands down, but The Order has its high points and could be a lot worse.
About the DVD:
The Order comes in a plastic hard case on a double sided DVD with both fullscreen and widescreen versions in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. It has not been translated into any other languages besides its original English, though it does contain English and French subtitles. Both the video and audio transfer appear to be very good. Even on a high resolution screen, the video had only a little grain and few artifacts.
As far as special features, this movie has none except for three theatrical trailers, two being for other movies. It also has scene selections, though I don't count that as a special feature. Overall, this is a very basic, no frills DVD release.
Bottom Line: A unoriginal but somewhat entertaining film on a budget DVD release. 3 Stars.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Damme it! Another stinker from Jean Claude., April 2, 2002
I could not wait for this DVD to arrive. After how good Van Damme's pairing with director Sheldon Lettich went on WRONG BET (Lionheart) and DOUBLE IMPACT, I had high hopes for THE ORDER. But after only a short time of watching my heart sunk and I realised it was going to be like most his other recent films. Van Damme's charm as a person just didn't come through and they didn't exploit his skills as a fighter either.I just assumed after Sheldon Lettich's last efforts that the fights would be at least as well shot, well choreographed and well slow-mo'd as DOULBE IMPACT and WRONG BET. But no. What is it about late 90's and early 2000 action films!!! They just don't seem to be able to make a well structured, well paced, good old simple action film anymore(not including the obvious good few that have slipped in). I like to look at it this way. If you compare the final fight scene in DOUBLE IMPACT (between Van Damme and Bolo Yeung) with the final fight in THE ORDER, DOUBLE IMPACT's fight has them taking off their tops and comparing muscles (basicly), then they start with a few hits and jabs and such, with heaps of slow-mo, then they slowly amp up to Van Damme's comeback with 4 heli-copter kicks, all in ultra slow-mo, and the fight just makes you feel real cool and pumped up, and excited for his character, and because it's all been shot so clearly, you can really follow the fight and see whats happening. But in THE ORDER, the fight comes in fits and starts with no real structure, and no real use of Van Damme's skills, and very few defining moments, where you go "man that was cool!", it's sort of understated and unsatisfying. Which I find so surprising, considering SHELDON LETTICH is so capable at action. Maybe it's the editors fault aswell. Cause it doesn't have any of the triple cuts (showing the same move lots of times from different angles) like WRONG BET (Lionheart) had. As far as the plot goes, I think that's really irrelevant in a Van Damme film, really the plot is just a vehicle to get from one action set piece to another and in that sense it's fine. But it isn't very funny and he doesn't really have any one-liners either. To summarise, I just wish VAN DAMME would get back to basics and do a solid action film. We know he can fight and he's proved his "versatile" acting skills in REPLICANT, now he just needs a good plot vehicle, a good director (John Woo again would be cool) and a good editor, then maybe he could produce what myself and many other Van Damme fans are waiting for. A good old 80's style, well paced, "make you wanna do jummp kicks after watching it" ACTION film!
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Where To Begin?, April 7, 2006
Well, first of all the viewers of this movie should not take it seriously. It's not that type of movie. Its more of a campy/spunky type action film. Yeah, it is a lot like Indiana Jones, and isn't Van Dammes best, but still has many high points to it. If you want Van Dammes best acting DON'T start here; go watch In Hell, Wake of Death, Lionheart, or maybe Timecop for that. For his action/martial arts skills this isn't a bad place to go. It has quite a few good action scenes in it. Van Damme is always cool as hell and has some good lines. The ending is also pretty good as well. With the ending you get Van Dammes best kick(jumps and glides) out of all his movies he has ever done, even at his older age. The movie as a whole isn't nowhere near as bad as a lot of people think. It's just another action film that Van Damme fans and MAYBE action fans should love. But like I said its NOT TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.
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