Jean-Claude Van Damme teams up once again with DOUBLE IMPACT director Sheldon Lettich for this tale of adventure and intrigue. Reformed artifact smuggler Rudy (Van Damme) is forced to travel to Jerusalem and come to the aid of his museum curator father (Charlton Heston), who has been kidnapped by a radical religious group. After being framed for murder there, Rudy must enlist the help of a mysterious woman (Sofia Milos) so that he may find a sacred scroll before it falls into the wrong hands, thus starting Holy War.
Jean-Claude Van Damme is always consistent. Whatever the storyline, he'll perform the same specific kick-boxing moves and at some stage bare his super-toned chest. So it's no surprise that this tired action thriller incorporates both these trademarks, along with all the requisite chase sequences and explosions that similarly litter his films. The star also co-wrote the screenplay, in which he plays an artefacts thief who gets embroiled with a religious cult in Israel after the kidnap of his archaeologist father. It's tedious hokum, strewn with one-liners, but die-hard fans will no doubt lap it up, even if the “Muscles from Brussels” is not quite the visual dynamo he once was.
Radio Times
