5. Assassination Games (2011)

 

Starring:  Jean-Claude Van Damme, Scott Atkins, Ivan Kaye

Director: Ernie Barbarash

Two of the top assassins in the World are both hunting the same target. One for money and one for revenge. Little do they know that the job has been set-up by dirty Interpol agents looking to cover their own tracks.

 

More of a thriller than the pure action romp that I expected, this was apparently JCVD's first theatrical release in more than a decade, although I suspect it was a straight to DVD job in most of the World. I'd have enjoyed this more were it not for the ridiculous beige tint that the entire film was shot in. It genuinely annoyed me and took me out of the film constantly. Anyway, that aside this isn't bad stuff. Van Damme is icy-cold assassin and violinist Vincent Brazil who only cares for money until a hit sees him face to face with Atkins' hell-bent-on-revenge Roland Flint. At the same time a pimp and one of his girls, October played by Marija Karan, moves in next door. Vincent learns to respect Roland and is taught by October that there are more important things in life than the money. "All you need is love" says October. Or maybe that was John Lennon. I don't know.

This is fairly predictable stuff by fairly enjoyable nonetheless and is arguably a better film than it has any right to be. When I wasn't being distracted by the annoying beigeness I did spend some time initially working out where I knew Scott Adkins from. Yeah I had seen him in The Bourne Ultimatum and a couple of other films but that wasn't it. Of course, it is from Sky One's premier budget airline based masterpiece Mile High which had kept me and many dozen others nationwide thoroughly entertained throughout University. He's alright in this but it is a shame that he isn't given more action scenes to get his teeth into. There's a couple of fairly brutal scenes of violence towards the two main female characters in the film which have stuck in my mind in the few days since I watched it but I don't think there's much else here that I'll be thinking about in a couple of months time. that said, definitely worth a watch.