Direct Contact
When it comes to making the cheesiest, corniest action movies, nobody does it better than the European film industry. And when it comes to starring as an action hero in these same types of movies, nobody (except for the past his prime Steven Seagal) does it better than the one and only Dolph Lundgren, a guy for whom it can be said that even though most American audiences are extremely unfamiliar with the majority of his work, his name alone still commands such respect in most circles that he would easily find himself winding up on the roster for The Expendables movies. This 2008 release represents yet another one of his little seen projects on American soil, but despite the bad supporting actors (most of whom can barely speak English), ludicrous plots and various technical shortcuts, Lundgren with his commanding 6 foot 5 frame, believable ability at taking out bad guys whether through fist or firearm, and usually annoyed yet intimidating personality (never forget that he was Ivan Drago) makes it all go down at least halfway smoothly and also this time they got a more than capable name actor to play the main bad guy (Michael Pare, forever riding the B movie wave of greatness after his Eddie And The Cruisers salad days). The film opens with Lundgren doing time in an Eastern European prison (it could be in the Russian bloc but the film never completely identifies much in the way of locations), apparently being an ex U.S. Special Forces operative caught and convicted for smuggling weapons into the region. After beating the shit out of a small gang of prison bullies, he is approached by someone calling himself an American embassy attache (Pare) with an intriguing proposition: Rescue a young, kidnapped American woman on behalf of her family and receive your freedom plus $100,000 cash to walk away with in your pocket. After demanding (and getting) $200,000 instead, Lundgren takes the job and goes looking for the girl whom as it turns out, is being held at one of those Eastern European military bases where raids and purges on the local village people are a commonplace occurrence. After killing off a good number of these clumsy wanna be soldiers manning the compound, Lundgren finds and rescues the girl (Gina May) who soon imparts a stunning revelation to him: She had NEVER been kidnapped, but rather had allowed herself willingly to be hired on at the base as a doctor providing medical care. Lundgren becomes perplexed upon hearing this and when he contacts Pare for an explanation is told bluntly to just bring the girl in, collect your money and then walk away quietly unless he’s looking to be killed. When Lundgren rebuffs Pare’s offer, he finds himself subject to a long series of ambushes throughout the film (usually involving snipers), situations for which he always seems to find a way out of and get himself to a safe place with the girl still in tow (sometimes even out in the open) while several hapless innocent bystanders wind up becoming cannon fodder for the various bad guys and henchmen coming after them. It turns out much to Lundgren’s good fortune that this girl whom everybody is after is also a very beautiful and sexy baby girl at that, so despite a 20 year age difference (give or take), it isn’t long before she cutely melts into Dolph’s masculine embrace (no surprise since Lundgren having much younger leading ladies is commonplace in his films). Soon, we also discover the specific interest in her that has led to so much death and destruction: She happens to be the estranged daughter of a billionaire industrialist who has just died and left her everything, but her nefarious uncle has hired Pare to bring her out of the rustic military compound so that she may sign off the fortune (which she claims to have no interest in) over to him and failing that, having her killed so that he may inherit it himself. What’s even stranger is that the guy running the military compound who had hired her on as a doctor in the first place (despite dressing in all the finer fashions befitting a despot) is really supposed be a good guy while his second in command (a nasty piece of work who enjoys shooting civilians in the head for recreation) actually works for Pare himself! Why bother hiring Lundgren at all when the evil second in command can easily deliver her to you?? This nuclear size plot hole is more than enough to sink the whole enterprise far down beneath the sea in terms of credibility, but we still have to set up for the big finish where all interested parties convene inside an abandoned house which just so happens to be right next door to the American embassy (with American soldiers looking on in shock and awe!) although Pare at least is given the Emperor’s Package in terms of spectacular onscreen movie villain deaths while the others are subject to having to settle for either being shot or beaten to death by Lundgren. When it comes to the difference between American and European action movies, it really is all about the writing and stories that are coupled with the wild violence and this entry here truly magnifies that fact, having Lundgren manfully carry it through with presence and charisma but still falling apart structurally in almost every other way imaginable…
5/10