The Order (2001) Reviews

• i actually liked it!

  siektwo2005-03-22

  I heard many bad reviews on this film, but i decided to "blind buy" it on DVD anyways (only five bucks). The story is cheesy, but different than the usual van damme fare. The setting was great, and some of the locations that the makers shot at were amazing to see. The action was great as well, and there were plenty of fight scenes to keep us van damme fans satisfied. after all, the fight scenes are what van damme fans are looking for in the first place, right? the fighting was well done, and van damme gives you all the classic kicks you can think of. For a DTV van damme action flick, you can do MUCH worse. I put in the movie expecting nothing, but after it ended, i had a smile. RATING: 7/10

• Van Damme's best film since Universal Soldier!

  Pingo-22002-03-22

  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!

• not Vam Damme's best, but still good

  MichaelM242002-04-11

  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.

• Underrated outstanding Van Damme direct to video action flick!

  ivo-cobra82016-01-09

  Disclaimer: If you are a viewer that mainly prefers art-house-type movies, then you might as well ignore this review. In addition, if you're not able to take a Van Damme underrated, good action flick from Sheldon Lettich, ignore this review, as well. We'll both be better off. The Order (2001) in my opinion is very underrated, hated and bashed Van Damme film. I love this flick to death and it is a not bad movie that was made. I love it, no matter what anyone says. This was a good action film a very underrated Van Damme film In my opinion The Order is so much better movie than Knock Off. At least I know about what is this movie about at all. I still don't know what was in Knock Off. This movie is Van Damme's last very fun/old school action film that is very underrated indeed! Brian Thompson and Abdel Qissi reprise their roles with a new characters and reunited 11.years later with Van Damme from Lionheart (1990). Here they are completely different characters since they were in that movie. I am getting this movie on Blu-ray disc in two weeks, I have pre order it and I will get it by my mail. I also have pre order it Cyborg (1989) another Underrated Van Damme film. Pino Donaggio the same music composer did made a music and edit it for The Howling and Carrie, so that's pretty cool. The effects in here are good and I have enjoyed them so much. The Order is one of my favorite Van Damme films. Far much better than Knock Off, Derailed and Inferno aka Desert Heat! It doesn't get the attention that it deserves, especially the fight choreography. The fight scenes are well executed and exciting. Van Damme actually looks like he's having fun. You can tell he had a ball making the film: it shows through his performance. Sadly, I don't think we'll ever see him in this type of role again. Love the comedy and action in this here. The new 'zombie' Pound of Flesh (2015) Van Damme sucks. Id love to see him go back to the happy-go-lucky Van Damme from the old days. It is a good movie to watch. This one was neutral...Not too much action, Not too much dialogue....but just right. If it were released in theaters, I bet it would have done well. This movie has a great soundtrack at the end to listen too. Van Damme is Rudy, a thief whose father has gone to Israel but disappears. Arriving in Jerusalem in order to find his dad, he must also find a sacred scroll before it falls into the wrong hands... I really have enjoyed watching this movie, I still think it is very underrated Jean-Claude Van Damme film! I don't understand why is the film so low, so bashed off and so hate it, I don't think it is a bad film! It is direct to video film, I think for the direct to video film, it is very fast paced, it is under 90 minutes. It has a lot of action, you have a car chase trough the runway airport, you have a motorcycle chase on the streets. You get a lots of fist fights, from old fashion Van Damme fighting style! You get even a small appearance from Charlton Heston for couple minutes. You have other actors and actress in here like are Ben Cross and Sofia Milos. Sofia also played in CSI: Miami as M.D.P.D Homicide - Robbery Det. Yelina Salas. This film was also directed from Sheldon Lettich who also directed Lionheart (1990) and Double Impact (1991). This is the third time Van Damme worked with same director from the previous movies they made together. They both later worked together on The Hard Corps 5.years later, another direct to video action movie that I like. For direct to video this is far entertaining, tons of action it has Jean-Claude Van Damme the last time, that you will see him acting like he a human been! What I mean by that is, he acts like he has a lot of life too,he is up beat, he is funny, he smiles, he try's to pick up on girls, like try to get their phone number. After this he played either a zombie and dead eyes or he will be very dark, depressed damaged person, he will be sad, crying or he be frowning or he will had that awful look. This is the last time, I see Van Damme been an up beat guy that has a life too, kind of, you saw it in Double Impact I miss that old Van Damme. He made a pretty good movies in the 90's than he does today. I know he had a problems with drugs and he wasn't in the shape anymore just watch Knock Off and The Quest those movie were terrible. There are a lot Direct to Video Van Damme movies that I have enjoyed Until Death, 6 Bullets, In Hell, Universal Soldier: Regeneration, Legionnare and The Shepherd: Border Patrol. This movie get's by me 8, it is my favorite direct to video Van Damme movie, very underrated solid action flick! Does not deserve to be hated. The Order is a 2001 American action film directed by Sheldon Lettich, and written by Jean-Claude Van Damme, who also starred in the film. The film was released on direct-to-DVD in the United States on March 12, 2002. 8/10 Grade: A Studio: TriStar Pictures Starring: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sofia Milos, Brian Thompson, Vernon Dobtcheff, Ben Cross, Sasson Gabai Director: Sheldon Lettich Producer: Avi Lerner Screenplay: Jean-Claude Van Damme, Les Weldon Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 29 Mins. Budget: $12.000.000 Box Office: $938,456

• Kinda Corny, but good action

  werd752002-04-19

  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 :)