There is something just a little bit… off about having a quote from Nietzsche (“The best weapon against an enemy is another enemy”) kicking off your Jean-Claude Van Damme whumpapalooza. The juxtaposition is an oddity; kind of like having Rob Schneider pen the Foreward to a collection of searing short stories by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Nevertheless, the quote is somewhat apropos of what’s to come, and the movie itself isn’t exactly what you might expect to be from its star attraction, so… I’ll allow it.

We open on a Russian mob wedding, whereat a bespectacled and mutton-chopped Van Damme, playing an enigmatic assassin named Vincent Brazil, who brings surreptitious pain to the father of the bride. Elsewhere, a catatonic woman is bathed lovingly by her bereft husband, whom we later learn is one Roland Flint (burgeoning British action star Scott Adkins), a former Interpol hitman -- wait: Interpol have those? -- who is the belated target of a cleanup attempt by some cops on the take, and whose continuing existence is pretty much the crux of the whole movie. Because Flint is still alive, a Ukrainian criminal is released from prison. Because the Ukrainian criminal is released from prison, a contract is put out on his life – a contract Van Damme accepts with alacrity. And then everything gets quite disturbing, and yet completely draws you in.

The main villain of this piece -- although there are many, the dodgy Interpol cops not the least of them -- is the sociopathic Polo Yakur (Ivan Kaye), the kind of guy who would gather together his minions and brutalize an innocent woman, forcing her husband to watch with a smirk on his lips and joy in his heart. No surprise, then, that he is the object of Flint’s rage and Brazil’s poison-tipped arrow. (An arrow? Really, dude? REALLY?)

Actually, assassin Brazil is probably the most interesting character I have ever seen Van Damme play -- a title that until now was probably held by the amnesiac GR-44 from Universal Soldier. His tasteful, high-tech home is hidden in a tenement building in a terrible neighborhood, and he is very particular about the placement of his valuable object d’art. He has a pet turtle, plays the violin and carries around antique dueling pistols for times when a little firepower might be required. It’s all very serial killer -- which I guess is what he is. He’s stone-faced and utterly ruthless (and no, I don’t think the former was entirely necessitated by Botox), a seemingly conscienceless automaton with no friends and no feelings, who seeks only wealth and sees himself as only a weapon.

Enter, then, the girl, October (Marija Karan), a vulnerable Slavic beauty and indentured sex worker, as well as the wronged Flint, hell-bent on revenge. Together, the two of them teach Brazil important life lessons, in between all the blood and carnage and casual slaughter of bystanders/bad guys. This is a very bleak, brutal and bloody movie, and yet it’s kind of heartwarming as well. How weird is that?

Van Damme looks aged and hair-plugged, but remains kickass and awesome for all that. His seemingly obligatory shirtless scene shows off a torso still, at 50, to be admired, and he does an excellent job of conveying Brazil’s heartless self-interest and gradual emotional awakening. Always at his best when he doesn’t say much in his films, his dialogue here is limited enough to destroy his hard man image, and he plays very well off Adkins, whose glowering, articulate intensity plays very nicely off Van Damme’s sullen forcefulness. There is a mild brothers-in-arms kind of bromance between the two that isn’t quite buddy-cop, but does have elements of the trope. They’re cute, and deadly. It’s quite a captivating combination. (Also, they both have those weirdly indestructible faces that can take a full-force punch from a seasoned opponent and somehow show barely a bruise.)

The acting otherwise ranges from decent to atrocious -- there’s this one callow youth, playing a villainous Interpol agent, who has a quiff to rival Wolverine’s and a screen presence about commensurate with that of your average contestant on an E! dating show -- with perhaps Karan, as the winsome October, the standout.

In all, Assassination Games is just way different than I thought it would be; for a start, it’s a pretty decent movie, and even gives a new spin on its often tired genre. For some reason, assassins are actually pretty fascinating specimens, for all that they are coldblooded and mercenary killers (think The Day of the Jackal, La Femme Nikita, Kill Bill, and even the hilarity that is Grosse Point Blank), and I am, for some unknown reason, a bit of a fan of the subgenre. Certainly, I have seen a lot of movies dealing with these elite guns for hire. And I would still have to say that Assassination Games is one of the most interesting and thought-provoking meditations on the subject that I have ever seen.

Yes, it’s thought-provoking and a Jean Claude Van Damme movie. Who knew such a thing was even possible?

   -- Rachel Hyland