Bullet Points: Assassination Games
If you are in the mood for some action then you can do a whole hell of a lot worse than Jean Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins. That isn’t to say that this movie doesn’t have its flaws cause it definitely does. It is, however, a fairly enjoyable movie with a decent enough plot to keep you engaged and not surfing through the channels on a Thursday night.
The Gist: Flint (Scott Adkins) was the best assassin on the Interpol payroll but now they don’t need him anymore and he is the only man who can bring them down. In order to get to Flint they first need to draw him out. To do that they release the criminal who put Flint’s wife into a coma and stole his life from him, Polo Yakur. But with such a large price on the head of Polo, it draws the attention of veteran hitman Brazil (Jean Claude Van Damme). Now Brazil and Flint find themselves facing off to kill the same man.
Brazil is all about using non-gun weapons to kill his targets.
The Cast: The cast is pretty stellar as far as the main crew goes. Van Damme gets both of his children involved in the film and his comatose daughter plays her role better than the 20 minutes of Kris Van Varenberg we are forced to watch. Scott Adkins is pretty much the lead guy but he doesn’t get to kick ass as much as he should. Van Damme plays the same character that he’s played in 8 out of his last 10 movies. I like it, don’t get me wrong, but I would still like to see me some classic Van Damme from the early years. The hooker was wicked hot but I had to look up her name on IMDB cause I didn’t remember it. I’m kind of surprised they didn’t throw in a gratuitous boob shot or something.
I think that if in the course of the movie you can get JCVD to handle both a set of Old West six shooters and a classical violin, then you have an interesting movie on hand.
The Villain: Polo as the villain was a real asshole. We don’t know much about his past other than his ties to the Russian Mob but they rape Flint’s wife silly and put her into a coma which is pretty horrible. Later they even threaten to do it again, which is just creepy. The pimp who lived next door to Brazil was also a bit player villain. Pimping ain’t easy, but neither is F*cking with Van Damme. That’ll get you killed in a bad way.
The Action: The action is fast and brutal in some parts but part of the reason it works is because there isn’t much of it. Way less than any fan of Adkins and Van Damme would hope for. The only hand-to-hand fight of note is between JCVD and Scotty when they first meet. That is the problem of having both Martial Artists in the movie on the same side, there is no one else for them to fight. There are a couple of decent gun battles but even though the finale is pretty cool it still felt kind of flat. We didn’t get to see the usual Adkins awesomeness or any JCVD spin kicks. Plus, no splits….bummer.
It would have been nice if there was someone else to fight. Literally anyone who could even throw a punch at these two.
Take it Home:
- Family Affair: Scott Adkins’ wife is played by JCVD’s daughter Brianca Bree and his son Kristopher Van Varenberg plays Schell, the Interpol agent.
- Intro: “The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy.” Friedrich Nietzsche…or so says the very first thing in the movie.
- Imagine that: The hooker was able to get the turtle to come out of its shell, just like Brazil!!!!
- Favorite quotes: Brazil was going to throw a grenade into the house, “I guess I’m not too good with hostage situations.”
- Pissed me off: Van Damme has two sweet antique six shooters but he never fires them once….not a single shot. Pissed me off.
Rating: 3/5
