Assassination Games

Corrupt Interpol agents spring a powerful drug dealer from prison and put a hefty price on his head in hopes of luring out their former #1 contract hitman that they want dead. He also has a dark history with said drug dealer and with another elite assassin is in the mix, you know things are about to get ... complicated.

Jean Claude Van Damme, Scott Adkins in a film called Assassination Games and here's the rub. Its not the type of flick you're picturing in your head. Okay maybe that's a half truth. The prerequisite elements are within. Guns, death, fisticuffs and it gets off to a brief action start, but then slow city. Between Van Damme's detached, solitary arch of a (hit)man and Adkins broken past, there's a lot of drama and the pacing is monumentally slow. No wham, bam thank you ma'am. Its nearly two hours long.

Shot down & out in Romania, much of the film's backdrop isn't visually interesting. That doesn't mean it isn't well shot however. Watched in SD, felt like HD. Acting wise, the two leads acquit themselves fine and some of the supporting cast actually stood out. The story could be more exciting and/or shorter, but as it is, Assassination Games finds itself not at the bottom of either stars resumes, but hardly at the top neither.

"This is what he does best, and he is the best." A corrupt Interpol officer makes that observation about Roland Flint, the character played by Scott Adkins in the riveting "Assassination Games." It's an accolade that truly applies to the film's star, Jean-Claude Van Damme, who has translated his experience as a global superstar into becoming one of the globe's best actors. JCVD is Vincent Brazil, a professional assassin and loner whose profession has intensified his self-isolation. Flint and Brazil become reluctant partners in a cat-and-mouse game against both Interpol and the European mob. Along the way, an unlikely girl next door named October invades Brazil's carefully protected personal space and forces him to provide her refuge from a vengeful pimp (depicted with effective menace by actor Attila Arpa). When October thanks Vincent with a kiss to the cheek, Van Damme displays the hit-man's resistance to affection with an emotion that is both telling and heartbreaking. It is a rare moment for an action film and a testament to the brilliance of Van Damme the actor. The relationship of October and Vincent becomes an effective dramatic anchor for the movie's unrelenting mix of tragedy and revenge. Increasingly, as his films showcase his dramatic talents, Van Damme creates movies that are both character driven and visually stylish without resorting to CGI tricks or action clichés. Experience and talent have enabled the original "Muscles from Brussels" to evolve into one of the most creative and uniquely effective forces in film making today. "Assassination Games" is another great chapter in the career of a triumphant and supremely talented Jean-Claude Van Damme.

A small handful of better than average action sequences highlight an otherwise generic and trite tale of two assassins with different tactics and end goals searching for whomever set them up. Van Damme fans would be much better off watching JCVD for a good latter- day Damme flick. As he performance in here is good, but the movie is mundanely average at best. There's also a prostitute sub-plot that's admittedly pretty awful. As the movie wore on I found myself less and less interested in a film hat I couldn't help but believe I saw before in minor variations in the past. And better, in all honesty.

My Grade: C-

This Van Damme action picture displays lots of violence, action filled, thrills and fierce combats . It is entertaining , well paced and including interesting characters . It's thrilling and tense , at time suspenseful movie and the firepower, explosion, struggles, shootouts are very well done . It deals with two assassins agree to work together as one named Roland Flint (Scott Adkins who replaced Vinnie Jones) attempts to revenge his wife (Bianca Bree , also producer) and the other named Vincent Brazil (Jean Claude Van Damme) collect a reward for a job to kill a mobster (Ivan Kaye) which is backed by dirty Interpol Agents . Meanwhile , Vincent helps a prostitute (Marija Karan) but the events go wrong .

¨Assassination games¨ is one of Van Damme's better films . It packs violent action, suspense, shoot-outs, and martial arts fighting and results to be quite amusing . Entertaining movie , thanks to tight pace, skillful edition and well mounted combats . It's tense and exciting , at time lackluster action movie , but the struggles and fighting are well done . During the scene where Flint visits Polo's 'hardware guy', he utilizes a laser-guided gun to target him , the effects used for the mechanical movement is taken from Robocop (1987) . Suffering Van Damme plays finely an affected killer , acting similarly to 'Hard cops' . Enjoyable relationship among two rival assassins , nicely played by Van Damme and Adkins ; both of them form an uneasy alliance to take down a deadly target . Van Damme is good as action hero in this middling budget filmed in Bucharest, Romania and New Orleans, Louisiana ; here Jean Claude plays a hit man , confronting nasties and using his martial-arts skills . Long time ago he played big budget movies (¨Time cop¨, ¨Universal soldier¨ ,¨Double team¨, ¨Hard target¨), nowadays he makes low-medium budget and directly to video (¨Derailed¨ , ¨Wake of death¨ , ¨In hell¨) like in his first films (¨Black eagle¨, ¨Cyborg¨, ¨Bloodsport¨). Remaining cast though unknown make nice acting as Kevin Chapman , Ivan Kaye and special mention to Marija Karan as a beautiful whore mistreated by her pimp . This movie film results to be a standard actioner , but packs interesting main roles , atmospheric action set pieces and is fast movement . It's produced with middling budget by Van Damme and Paul Leonard ; being professionally directed by Bernie Barbarash (¨Ticking clock¨ , ¨Hardwired¨ and ¨Six bullets¨ , again with Van Damme) , though Russell Mulcahy was originally set to shoot . The picture is extremely energetic and to be liked for real devotees of main actor . It's a must see for Van Damme fans.

Well if you have been a fan of Van Damme since the start, like me, your favourite movie are probably gonna be Bloodsport, Lionheart and Kickboxer, the movies he got a big role from. A lot of other Van Damme production caught my eyes, Double Impact, Replicant, and Time Cop where some good strong movies in the actor gender combining action and plots. If you are a fan of John Woo and gun fights, Hard target was maybe more your think.

Then after that Van Damme did a lot of direct to DVD movies with minimal martial arts and more action parts with guns and all, some where pretty good, some where not, depending. But The Sheppard, one of his last movies was actually very strong having him with the very well balanced Scott Adkins that can fit any roles. And i loved it. So i was looking for this one a lot since it was the first true van damme movie in a LOOOONG TIME. Lets say i was please and yet disappointed a bit. For example i loved the story, all characters played well, it was a very cool movie, but at the same time i was expecting a bit more with a movie staring BOTH Van Damme and Adkins(Boyka from Undisputed) I dunno... maybe i was expecting the big martial arts blockbuster when this movie actually not even aim for that... But well... Lets just say this movie works well for what it tried to be.... an action movie with a strong plot and a dark feeling, with SOME martial Arts. Now i can wait to see The Eagle Path since i have been waiting for it for a long time.