For the last few year Van Damme hasn't had a hit to his name, and it doesn't look like that is going to change any time soon. The Order however isn't as bad as his last few efforts (Replicant, Desert Heat) which were, lets face it, pants. This film, though far from getting it's star back to his old level of popularity, does pass the time and is perfectly watchable if your not in too much of a serious mood. The plot is completely ridicules and minimalist to say the least, but the film is well paced and the action edited well enough to keep fans of in their seat for the duration. It's basically about a new age cult born from an original founding one, which after a change in leadership decides to blow up millions of people. The plot is as simple as it sounds but is made seemingly more complicated by the scatty script, which in an attempt to mis-guide the viewer just makes the film feel off balance. Charlton Heston makes a brief appearance, one he would probably rather forget as he really isn't on form at all. The fight scenes are well filmed and occasionally show flashes of Jean Claude when he was in his prime, but they are few and far between and he produces nothing we haven't seen before. The most puzzling part of the film is the introduction, which is supposedly set a few hundred years after the birth of Christ, it seems to play no part in the actual story of the film and apart from containing the same religious order which is in the rest of the movie, the first 5 minutes seems completely irrelevant to the tale as a whole. There are some genuinely funny parts though, the lines "Was that a gun shot I heard?"... "No, I farted!" are among a small handful of sniggering moments which when put together with the rest of the film make it pretty easy to watch. It's not good, but if you like a bit of Van Damme and you want to give him one more chance for a come back, this is the one to watch.

2/5