Assassination Games (2011)

Posted in Reviews by - June 19, 2016
Assassination Games (2011)

Competent double-header which pairs Van Damme with The Shepherd co-star Scott Adkins. The duo take equal billing as conflicted assassins who must unite to bring down a Ukrainian criminal. There are shades of The Bourne Identity in a subplot involving a secret division of Interpol (which equates to three dodgy blokes with assorted accents working out of a cupboard) wanting to silence Adkins’ hired hitman over a stash of money. Meanwhile, Van Damme walks sullenly around derelict buildings in eastern Europe in a slightly absent trance, opening his cold heart to a neighbouring prostitute who initially disrupts his violin practice. “I’ve been doing this for a long time my friend,” Van Damme says to his British buddy, and judging by his career so far, he’s certainly not kidding. Director Ernie Barbarash doesn’t shy away from a few gruesome asides which slightly disrupt the otherwise steady tone, while the brief moments of physical action are delivered with great panache.

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Editor and creator of Kung Fu Movie Guide and the host of the Kung Fu Movie Guide Podcast. I live behind a laptop in London, UK.

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