The Order is one of those ‘popped out of nowhere’ movies that turned up on one of my watchlists the other day. It stars Jude Law and Nicholas Hoult.
Hoult has been having a great career for a while now and I wanted to see him play the bad guy.
The movie stars Law, Hoult, Tye Sheridan, Marc Maron, George Tchortov, Daniel Yip and Daniel Dohney. Justin Kurzel directs with Zach Baylin writing the screenplay, based on a book by Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt.
Kurzel was a little bit of a worry, he directed the Assassin’s Creed movie, which should have been a slam dunk, but wasn’t.
The Story
Based on true events:
A series of bank robberies and car heists frightened communities in the Pacific Northwest. A lone FBI agent believes that the crimes were not the work of financially motivated criminals, but rather a group of dangerous domestic terrorists.
It’s 1983 and Terry Husk (Law) moves to the Pacific Northwest to get away from it all. He wants a quieter life for himself and his family. It seems that the worst crime that goes on in this new town is people taking pies off windowsills.
It turns out that Bob Matthews (Hoult) is robbing local banks and seems to be building up money to build an army. It seems this Order is connected to white supremacists and is planning to start a race war in America.
The rest of the movie is a cat-and-mouse game as Husk tries to track down, and catch, Matthews. It’s not the most original of stories, but it’s well done with a good cast.
The Cast
A movie like this reminds me of a rom-com. I didn’t want to see Law and Hoult get it on, but ultimately it’s about the chemistry of the two leads.
The downside of pretty much every rom-com is you have *hot male lead* chasing *hot female lead* for two hours. You know they are going to get together, so it’s about them as a couple.
You know how The Order will play out, there’s no surprises in the story, but it’s about how Law and Hoult are in the movie, particularly with two British guys playing the lead in a very American movie.
Law is very good. I’ve not been keeping up with Skeleton Crew, it’s just not my cup of tea, but I know Law is a fine actor. The only thing that annoyed me about his role here was him chewing gum.
As I have said, I’m a fan of Hoult and I think the guy has been getting some great roles in some great movies. I haven’t seen Nosferatu yet, but looking forward to it. I can’t say much about the new Superman movie is blowing my skirt up, but I am looking forward to seeing him play Lex Luthor.
In The Order, Hoult is really good, with two different sides to Matthews. On the one hand, he’s a violent criminal with plans to upset America. On the other hand, he’s a loving family man raising kids.
Overall
This is one of those movies where it’s pretty safe, but interesting. It’s about the chase and characters. As I have said before, I didn’t find myself reaching for the phone, I was pretty hooked on what was going on and happy to enjoy the ride.
You might get different mileage out of it, but it was a decent movie. I found the end a little disappointing, but that was for my own reasons, which I won’t spoil here. It’s an overall satisfying conclusion, I just found it a little annoying.
The Order is a solid action movie, which is based on true events. I’m giving it a solid 3 out of 5 stars. It’s on VoD at the moment.
