Reviews (34)

A joke
If it's showing on TV and you want to laugh, watch it. Just don't spend any money on it.
The plot was ridiculously banal and was completely secondary to the whole thing. The movie is just a B-film action celebration, with stupid, overplayed "round one, fight!" streetfighter kinda sound effects for every geek to love and every normal person to have a ball laughing at.

Basically, fast forward to the last half an hour or forty minutes to listen to some guy announcing the different countries and to hear the gong blast before watching some silly but cool fights. I mean, they're all pretty lame because you KNOW that the obvious ending is to see the American Van Damme fight the heartless big bad behemoth, but it's always more interesting to see what happens to the OTHER fighters...
Who wins between Russia vs Spain (a great fight)? China vs Korea? Turkey vs Holland? All the fighters are portrayed as the stereotypical image of their country and it's really quite a blast. The stand-outs are the Turkish fighter (serious Ottomon savage), Chinese (monkey-acrobatics), Japanese (fat sumo), Korean (buff asian), Spanish (flamenco dancer who hits on the only chick in the film), Greek fighter (ethical) etc. Roger Moore's presence is a joke and yeah, only if it's on TV and you're bored.

Not the best Van Damne movie,but it was good
This movie was O.K,he fights in a competition and his friend dies by a big dude.

Very Good Flick. One Of Van Damme's Best!
One of Van Damme's best films, quite similar to the best film to Van Damme's name 'BloodSport'. The Quest was enjoyable and suspenseful. Great fight scenes, very cool final fight. I would recommend buying this film on DVD.

Van Damme needs Moore plot!
This film wasn't too bad considering it was directed and cowritten by star Jean-Claude Van Damme. The movie starts off in the 1920's with Van Damme dressed as a clown wearing stilts working with street orphans to steal some money from gangsters. He escapes from gangsters before being chased by the police onto a ship. The next morning, out to sea, the ship owners chain up the stowaway and put him to work. Shortly after the ship is ambushed by British cavaliers, led by Roger Moore, which free him only to bring him to an island and sell him to the Mutai to be a fighter.

The movie quickly changes from an adventure story to a video-game movie the likes of Tekken. All of the best fighters in the world are invited to fight in a tournament at the Lost City for the prize of Golden Dragon and honor. The fighters are acted by real fighting champions from around the world. Each brings his own fighting style resulting in some satisfying matches which is the saving grace of the film.

This film would have been much improved with plot twists and more attention paid the the back story of Van Damme's orphaned past to gain a better appreciation of why the fighting is so important to him.

Horrendously funny
In my life, I've come across a few movies that were so bad, so very bad, that they entertain through sheer ridiculousness. The Quest is one such movie. There are about 15 different subplots in the movie, each one lasting about 10 minutes and each one involving Van Damme wearing an outlandish costume. Every new subplot opens up another loose end, and the different subplots are only held together with poor acting (excepted by Roger Moore) and cheesy dialogue (exemplified by Roger Moore's character). The various subplots hang until the end of the movie, when Van Damme's narration simply dismisses them all. Then the entire movie turns out to be a flashback that is in turn encapsulated in a book. It's priceless. I highly recommend watching this movie at least once for a good laugh. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

BETTER THAN THE USUAL DEFINETLEY!
IN this movie Jean-Claude seems to have taken a different approach,which is a good thing and he needed to do it really.Instead of the usual moody same moves different haircut and cheesey dialog ,he has attempted to play a slightly comic character,who is a bit of a rogue and a bit of joker.Ok so he is no comedy genius,but the change works.He also meets up with a sexy feisty female cop who proves to be engaging and i thought looked slighly like madonna(a good thing).The plot revolves around his father's involvement with ancient artifacts and a mysterious cult etc but the locations look good and the action and fight sequences are nice and fast moving and energetic.Also,brilliantly there seems to be no sign of slow-motion repeating spinning kicks to the head that Jean-claude's previous movies seemed to make a cliche.So he needed to do something different.Legionnare didn't work,i would say this does.But bear in mind this reviewer is an on/off Van Damme fan.

Another silly Van Damme film, but fun...
Director Sheldon Lettich and Jean-Claude Van Damme are reunited in "The Order," a silly action movie that, despite a nice budget, went direct-to-video because, let's face it, Van Damme just can't get a box-office grab like he could with "Timecop" and "Universal Soldier." But the film looks nicely polished and it's pretty short, with action scenes kept to a maximum, just the way I like it. The plot is ridiculous, but most of JCVD's films are. This one has him travelling to Israel, I think, and doing battle with a cult that wants to destroy him and his father. Not a complete failure for Van Damme.

The Order: An Indiana Jones Rip-off, but still ok.
Synopsis:
Rudy Cafmeyer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is an international artifacts smuggle 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.

The quest continues...
By now, looking for a well-written coherent plot in a Jean-Claude Van Damme film is a bit like seeking the Holy Grail. The Order, insures that the quest will continue.

This time, Van Damme is Rudy Cafmeyer, jewel thief and smuggler. When his father, an archeologist, disappears in Jerusalem, with an ancient scroll, Rudy is off to the Holy Land to discover his fate. Before too long, Rudy has left a trail of destruction that has the police firmly agitated. Police Lt. Dalia Barr (Sofia Milos from TV's CSI Miami) is assigned to watch over Rudy, and before long, they are teamed in the quest to discover the secret plans of a mysterious religious sect known as "The Order".

The screenplay co-written by Van Damme, has massive credibility issues and many logical flaws. Rudy more than once, exhibits a remarkable ability to heal at a superhuman rate. How many undiscovered underground treasure chambers are there left in the world, especially one that is so conveniently well lighted? Credibility of course, is not the major reason to see a Van Damme film, and the action scenes in this one are not bad. His trademark kickboxing is frequently on display, and for the finale, Jean-Claude does battle with a broadsword. Overall, this average Van Damme film, is a slightly below average action adventure.

Charlton Heston contributes a crusty cameo, and some voice over work as well. Cyrus, the renegade leader of the Order, is your stereotypical religious zealot, and is played by the numbers by Brian Thompson. Ben Cross appears to be close to scraping bottom here, as a corrupt cop.

The Order starts out with some promise, but soon begins to unravel. Van Damme, will probably never be taken seriously as an actor. Often his most humorous lines occur when uttering a profanity. Jean-Claude still has some physical skills, and is capable of better work, however unless he gets finds quality material, his fans will be continuing the quest.

Van Damnes worst
Im a big fan of Van Damne,but when i saw this movie i was really disapointed,the setting is dull,the story is dull and the guy he fights dull.I love Van Damnes other movie,but this is the only one that sux. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

BETTER THAN THE USUAL DEFINETLEY!
IN this movie Jean-Claude seems to have taken a different approach,which is a good thing and he needed to do it really.Instead of the usual moody same moves different haircut and cheesey dialog ,he has attempted to play a slightly comic character,who is a bit of a rogue and a bit of joker.Ok so he is no comedy genius,but the change works.He also meets up with a sexy feisty female cop who proves to be engaging and i thought looked slighly like madonna(a good thing).The plot revolves around his father's involvement with ancient artifacts and a mysterious cult etc but the locations look good and the action and fight sequences are nice and fast moving and energetic.Also,brilliantly there seems to be no sign of slow-motion repeating spinning kicks to the head that Jean-claude's previous movies seemed to make a cliche.So he needed to do something different.Legionnare didn't work,i would say this does.But bear in mind this reviewer is an on/off Van Damme fan.

Another silly Van Damme film, but fun...
Director Sheldon Lettich and Jean-Claude Van Damme are reunited in "The Order," a silly action movie that, despite a nice budget, went direct-to-video because, let's face it, Van Damme just can't get a box-office grab like he could with "Timecop" and "Universal Soldier." But the film looks nicely polished and it's pretty short, with action scenes kept to a maximum, just the way I like it. The plot is ridiculous, but most of JCVD's films are. This one has him travelling to Israel, I think, and doing battle with a cult that wants to destroy him and his father. Not a complete failure for Van Damme.

The Order: An Indiana Jones Rip-off, but still ok.
Synopsis:
Rudy Cafmeyer (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is an international artifacts smuggle 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.

The quest continues...
By now, looking for a well-written coherent plot in a Jean-Claude Van Damme film is a bit like seeking the Holy Grail. The Order, insures that the quest will continue.

This time, Van Damme is Rudy Cafmeyer, jewel thief and smuggler. When his father, an archeologist, disappears in Jerusalem, with an ancient scroll, Rudy is off to the Holy Land to discover his fate. Before too long, Rudy has left a trail of destruction that has the police firmly agitated. Police Lt. Dalia Barr (Sofia Milos from TV's CSI Miami) is assigned to watch over Rudy, and before long, they are teamed in the quest to discover the secret plans of a mysterious religious sect known as "The Order".

The screenplay co-written by Van Damme, has massive credibility issues and many logical flaws. Rudy more than once, exhibits a remarkable ability to heal at a superhuman rate. How many undiscovered underground treasure chambers are there left in the world, especially one that is so conveniently well lighted? Credibility of course, is not the major reason to see a Van Damme film, and the action scenes in this one are not bad. His trademark kickboxing is frequently on display, and for the finale, Jean-Claude does battle with a broadsword. Overall, this average Van Damme film, is a slightly below average action adventure.

Charlton Heston contributes a crusty cameo, and some voice over work as well. Cyrus, the renegade leader of the Order, is your stereotypical religious zealot, and is played by the numbers by Brian Thompson. Ben Cross appears to be close to scraping bottom here, as a corrupt cop.

The Order starts out with some promise, but soon begins to unravel. Van Damme, will probably never be taken seriously as an actor. Often his most humorous lines occur when uttering a profanity. Jean-Claude still has some physical skills, and is capable of better work, however unless he gets finds quality material, his fans will be continuing the quest.

Van Damnes worst
Im a big fan of Van Damne,but when i saw this movie i was really disapointed,the setting is dull,the story is dull and the guy he fights dull.I love Van Damnes other movie,but this is the only one that sux. ... Read more