I went to see "The Order" written, produced, and directed by Brian Helgeland, the last film of which he did all three was "A Knights Tale", because I have this thing about freaky good vs. evil, Catholicism vs. everybody else movies. This can probably be traced to the fact that I still need to watch "The Exorcist" during a bright sunny day with all the windows open. Knowing that this was not going to be anywhere near close to "The Exorcist", I was still hopping for something along the lines of "Stigmata." Well my hope was dispelled almost immediately. Had I known ahead of time that Helgeland had done "A Knights Tale" (A movie I have not seen, nor do I wish too); I would have known immediately that this was a movie made just so that he and his buddies from "Tale" could do another movie. Three of the five main character in "The Order", Heath Ledger, Shannyn (why a Y) Sossamom, and Mark Addy, where all in "A Knights Tale." It's great to do a buddy movie when it's good, terrible to do a buddy movie when it blows.

The story basically is that the head of Alex Bernier's (Ledger) Catholic order dies under mysterious circumstances ruled a suicide. He is asked by Cardinal Driscoll (played by Robocop, Peter Weller), to go to Rome and investigate. Alex calls his friend and only surviving order member Thomas Garrett (Addy) who is in Paris, France, to meet him in Rome and to help look into his death. Tagging along with Alex is Mara Sinclair (ShannYn Sossmon), who escaped from a mental hospital where she was committed for attempting to kill Alex during her Exorcism that he performed. I don't want to give too much of the story away but the "good guys" come across William Eden who is the Sin Eater (played decently by German Benno Furmann) and try to discover if Eden is the bad guy or not and if not him who is and why. Along the way Alex struggles with his desire to be a Catholic Priest (Gee, we have never seen that in a movie before.)

The acting in the movie fit the script well, bland and uninteresting, although Furmann did the best job of all playing a tired character just interesting enough to make the movie bearable. On a freaky scale I give it a half only because the two little children in the movie provide the only scenes of shock and awe, what little it is. The sets are cool, taking place in Rome, with its old buildings. And the lighting is done with enough effect to provide an aura of creepiness that the script and the acting do not. Special effects don't really exist and those scenes that require special effects look like they have been done when the production was running out of money. But hey, it's a buddy movie, you do it for the fun not because of the money, I guess.

Overall, I give "The Order" 1 popcorn, and a small one. I would tell people to see this movie only if the have never seen "Stigmata" and "The Exorcist." It is a very easy way to begin your movie journey of the good vs. evil, Catholicism vs. everybody else. If you have seen the others, don't bother.

Brian - The Naked Gun