There are bad movies and then there are BAD movies. "The Order" is one of the latter. It's like a low-budget, straight-to-video release that makes you wonder how an Academy Award winning screenwriter could make such a film that thrives on its own badness. Released last September in the U.S., this genre outing by Brian Helgeland ("L.A. Confedential", "Mystic River") is about a so-called "sin eater", a centuries-old man cursed with the supernatural ability to devour a person's sins at their death bed.
The whole thing is like a horrible "X-Files" episode. Peter Weller plays a cardinal who goes to New York and enlists the help of a young priest to investigate the death of an old friend. Heath Ledger is the priest who eventually confronts the "sin eater" in Rome. He's joined by his best buddy (Mark Addy) and a love interest played by the beautiful Shannyn Sossamon. Together they try to find and stop the "sin eater" of his unholy ways.
The movie itself doesn't make alot of sense and is more of a thriller than a chiller. Like a B-movie, it claims to be a horror movie with its spooky overtones and yet ends up being a ridiculous, talky show with cheesy special-effects. This is the second "horror" movie I've seen this week that could've been an intriguing film in the "Exorcist"/"Omen" vein, but ended being an excercise in silliness (the first one was "Godsend").
Oh, by the way, there's also just a smudge of 1986's "Highlander" in all this mess. Maybe Helgeland should just stick to adapting great novels into great movies.
The whole thing is like a horrible "X-Files" episode. Peter Weller plays a cardinal who goes to New York and enlists the help of a young priest to investigate the death of an old friend. Heath Ledger is the priest who eventually confronts the "sin eater" in Rome. He's joined by his best buddy (Mark Addy) and a love interest played by the beautiful Shannyn Sossamon. Together they try to find and stop the "sin eater" of his unholy ways.
The movie itself doesn't make alot of sense and is more of a thriller than a chiller. Like a B-movie, it claims to be a horror movie with its spooky overtones and yet ends up being a ridiculous, talky show with cheesy special-effects. This is the second "horror" movie I've seen this week that could've been an intriguing film in the "Exorcist"/"Omen" vein, but ended being an excercise in silliness (the first one was "Godsend").
Oh, by the way, there's also just a smudge of 1986's "Highlander" in all this mess. Maybe Helgeland should just stick to adapting great novels into great movies.