El orden de la muerte

I've always been a fan of Jean-Claude van Damme, so I've been mad that his recent movies haven't got theatrical releases, while the latest Adam Sandler and the current breed of gross-out teen movies have. I'd much rather see van Damme on the big screen than another teen movie. Although THE ORDER is far from his best or my favorite of his films (those would be HARD TARGET, SUDDEN DEATH, MAXIMUM RISK, and LEGIONNAIRE), it's still pretty good, even if it does drag in some places and has some hard-to-understand accents. But you can understand enough to know the basic idea of the movie, so it doesn't really matter. Written by van Damme, the story moves had a decent pacer, but the direction could have been a little tighter in some scenes. Van Damme is particularly good, and though it's not his best acting (that would be MAXIMUM RISK), it's better than some of his earlier ones.

The film makes good use of its Israeli locations, sexy newcomer Sofia Milos makes a feisty heroine, and co-stars Ben Cross and Brian Thompson offer good support in roles that are smaller than they should be. Unfortunately, however, Charlton Heston is wasted. I kept saying to myself, "Why go to all the trouble to get a famous big-name veteran screen star to play such a teeny, tiny little role?" His part would have been better suited for the unknown who played van Damme's father, with Heston playing the father. That would have been much better. As I said, some parts tend to drag a little bit, but the action scenes are well-done, my favorite being the entire climactic sequence in the underground tunnel system. There's even some funny bloopers that run before the end credits, though only a few; some more would have been nice.

All-in-all, one of van Damme's better movies storywise, and though I'm not sure if I would actually buy the DVD, I would probably make it an occasional rental. Then again, I'm a big van Damme fan, so I'll probably buy it next time I see it just to have it.

I just finished watching this movie and I have to agree with one of the other user comments: Van Damme's acting is definately getting better. He can actually handle more than two words and some grunts. I think he's still got a lot of room for improvement, but the acting is definately not such a joke anymore. I also thought the action was good in this. One thing I didn't like about Replicant was the amount of action. It only had a bit at the beginning and end and they didn't do enough with it, it was too short. The Order, on the other hand, had plenty of action from start to finish. Definately the way to go for a Van Damme movie. I mean, isn't that why people watch them? Anyway, I gave this movie a six. I think it's definately worth more than the 4.6 it has now. As with all Van Damme movies, don't go watch it with high expectations, just sit back and enjoy it for what it is: brainless action. On that scale, it certainly delivered.

p.s. is it just me, or is Van Damme not as big as he used to be? Maybe it was just the lighting :)

This movie is an action comedy. I don't it really was supposed to be a serious action movie. Most people criticize the movie, claiming that it didn't deliver and the fact that it wasn't one of Van Damme's worst movie. In respect to the movie, it is a action comedy in a lighter aspect. I admit though, the movie did have its flaws, and some of van damme's dialogue was too simplistic and cheesy. However, the had its moments, and van damme is still in top shape. I also liked how Van Damme used some of his old co-stars from previous movies (The Quest, Cyborg). Overall, this movie should satisfy any van damme fan. This movie could've produce a lot more, and the Charlton Heston character was unnecessary.

Final Judgement: **1/2/****

It's with great joy I watched THE ORDER. Easily Jean-Claude Van Damme's best film since Universal Soldier (1992). The author Les Weldon also wrote Replicant (2001), where he also uses lots of clichés, but in this film they work much better. The direction of The Order (by Sheldon Lettich) is very nice, but some is lost in the very uneven editing. The main low-point of this film is the music, which is awful as best and extremely annoying at worst.

Fight scenes are few, but good, and it seems that Van Damme has tried to get more Jackie Chan looking feeling to this film than he is used too. There are plenty of rip-offs from both Indiana Jones-movies and Project A II (by Jackie Chan, 1987).

The plot is about an ancient Order with converted muslims, christians and jews. And this is not such a bad idea for a film. The Order is not all-bad, but the bad guys of course have the top-positions, trying to use the Order for their purposes.

This time Van Damme isn't such a brilliant guy as we are used to see him. On the contrary, he is actually portraid as a bit stupid, and sometimes even unlucky. This is very nice, since the co-stars - Charlton Heston and Sofia Milos - gets a chance to shine, which is rare in these kind of films.

This is also perhaps one of the more down-to-earth movies Van Damme made lately, and it has a really good setting and use of locations. Overall, this is an interesting and very good movie which I truly enjoyed watching. And as I said, this is perhaps his best movie since Universal Soldier, and I actually place it as the number 3 movie of all Van Damme's work.

I truly hope that a sequel comes out of this one, since they really put it that way in the ending! :-)

Great work - if you like Van Damme, you can't go wrong with this one!

I needed a DVD to test out whether the DVD reader in a laptop I was fixing was working, so I grabbed "The Order" out of a pile my father had left me to use. As I was playing the disc, I got hooked. I agree with the consensus of previous reviewers before me. This movie is nothing special, with thin plot, thin characters, and low-budget sets (when they're not using real locations). But what the movie has going for it is spectacular scenery, compliments of the Holy Land, decent chase scenes and stunts, and a very appealing Van Damme, probably at his most relaxed and confident. If you see it playing anywhere on cable, be sure to check it out. It's not cerebral, but it's entertaining and watchable (and short).