'Assassination Games' Trailer - JCVD Fights Back (Against Good Filmmaking)

As baseline expectations go, I don't ask for much from action movies. Personality and action are all I really want. When something goes above and beyond (like, say, Die Hard) then it is a huge bonus. But give me Bloodsport, which has plenty of personality and action courtesy of two-fisted narcissist Jean-Claude Van Damme, and all is good.

A couple years back, JCVD properly tapped into the actor's talents and nearly relaunched him as a viable screen presence. But, like John Travolta in the years following Pulp Fiction, only in a more extreme manner, Van Damme has done everything in his power to squander that new beginning. Case in point: Assassination Games, a movie that stars Jean-Claude Van Damme and Scott Adkins as guys who kill other guys. Watch the trailer after the break.

There isn't much good to speak of here: flat delivery (-1 to personality), shoddy action, layers of post-production filters that seemingly seek to mask a cheap shot-on-video aesthetic, and a soporific narration. The best stuff here certainly comes courtesy of Scott Adkins, but I'm not sure he'll save this one. Stay awake, if you can, and prepare for the film's limited theatrical release later this month:

Rival assassins (Van Damme, Adkins), each of whom are masters of their respective weapons, form an uneasy alliance in their mission to take down a DEA-backed drug cartel.

[IGN]