I Come In Peace aka Dark Angel
If there was ever a surefire candidate for the most underrated action star of all time, there is no doubt that Dolph Lundgren would be considered as that guy and most likely in a landslide. After his career broke wide open by playing Russian boxer Ivan Drago in Rocky 4, Lundgren proceeded to carve out his own path in the film industry, starring in scores of action films produced under the radar via mostly low budget, independent production companies in America before taking his career completely into the European market with plenty of quality films made there that in many cases received little to no American distribution.  This 1990 release (made at the absolute peak of his career) is as good an example as any of the style of action film which Lundgren excelled in, showing that he could have easily played any of the good guy ârogue copâ roles that were a staple of both Stallone and Schwarzeneggerâs careers.  Directed by Craig R. Baxley (a guy who also directed two other undisputed action classics in Action Jackson and Stone Cold before being relegated mostly to TV work), this film intrigues the viewer in its opening minutes by seeming to tell two different, disparate stories. The first involves the arrival of a mysterious alien (Matthias Hues) who immediately kills the first human he sees with some kind of a killer CD disc. The second story features two daring criminals staging a heist on a police warehouse center, specifically that of a big bag of heroin after which they prove themselves to be bold enough to actually blow the place up as well. Turns out that these criminals belong to an organized crime outfit dubbed The White Boys, a group of white (obviously), entitled yuppies who seem to be conducting their criminal activities more for fun rather than profit. On their case is Jack Caine (Lundgren), first seen staking out an undercover operation where his partner is conducting a drug buy with their leader when (wouldnât you know it) two drugged out punks with shotguns decide to rob the liquor store which is just across the street. Lundgren leaves his post to take out the two punks, during which time the leader of The White Boys announces to his undercover partner that he knew about him being a cop the whole time and then shoots him dead. Suddenly the mysterious alien shows up on the scene, kills the remaining people in the room and then absconds with the big bag of heroin as well. As the film goes on, we witness the alien kill several people by purposely overdosing them with heroin before sticking a needle in their forehead to extract the brain endorphins produced by the paralyzing high caused by the dope. Why?  It turns out that these endorphins (which are produced in overdrive by the human brain from the euphoria caused by a fatal overdose) are actually a valued and priceless drug on the alienâs home planet and (as related to the main characters by an alien cop counterpart who has also come to our planet to track the criminal) if his mission proves to be successful, then whole entire hordes will come to our planet to cheaply and easily load up on the drug through killing humans by the truckload based off the results of this âtest caseâ, meaning that this guy must not be allowed to leave the planet with his cargo. Lundgren is stunned by his partnerâs death, but it isnât long before The FBI gets involved, assigning as a new partner to Lundgren one of their own as played by Brian Benben (whose characterâs name is literally âAgent Smithâ) and THIS is where the filmâs true inspiration really comes from. The buddy cop pairing of the towering, imposing Lundgren and the scrawny little runt Benben (who at the time had proven himself to be a gifted comic actor by singlehandedly carrying the groundbreaking HBO series Dream On, a show with a flimsy premise that nonetheless was anchored almost entirely by Benbenâs goofy charm and which because of the showâs popularity opened the floodgates for more HBO Original Series which in turn led to The Emmys finally considering cable TV series for their awards) turns out to be genius, not to mention comedy gold as Dolphâs rogue cop appears at first to have little tolerance for Benbenâs painfully by the book FBI agent (not an original idea in and of itself) but thanks to Benbenâs clever sense of comic timing and ability to react to many off the wall situations, the two work up a strong camaraderie and establish a great chemistry in playing off of each other, leading to unexpected bits like when they find themselves in a shootout and Benben not only pulls out an enormous cannon, but even manages to take out the bad guys with it which comes as more of a surprise to Dolph than anyone else. But then there are equally funny bits like when Lundgren slaps Benben around for going back on his word that when they go to their superiors to explain that theyâre up against âalien drug dealers from outer spaceâ, Benben would back him up on that story only to weasel out and deny having any knowledge because heâs more worried about his career which leads to the slapping around. In a lot of movies a rigid prick of a character like this would seem destined to be a sacrificial lamb whom most viewers wouldnât really miss, but in Benbenâs hands he actually manages to become endearing, a guy who sees himself as a team player which is better for him than being a lone wolf with little to no backup or support which puts him in direct contrast with Lundgren who is no less likable or easy to root for either.  In between random encounters with various members of The White Boys (who themselves are trying to find out who took their heroin) and roughing up a stool pigeon played by Michael J. Pollard in a surprise cameo, they continue to bicker and argue about the methods that Dolph employs which donât sit very well with his little twerp of a partner (with the over the shoulder camera shots of Dolph looking down at Benben who is half his size being a comic highlight). Meanwhile, the alien drug dealer and his alien cop counterpart are waging their own private war across the city of Houston (which is where this film was shot and is also set, thus proving that not all big city films need to be made in New York and LA) using guns that when fired, literally blow up their target to smithereens. The film does suffer from leaving one too many loose ends (including the unresolved fate of the particularly nasty leader of The White Boys) and even more unanswered questions (like when some government officials who are unknown even to Benbenâs FBI agent show up out of nowhere and start closing off crime scenes to the pair where the two aliens have just done battle which indicates some sort of a Men In Black / X Files type connection). The film also gives Lundgren a very loosely developed love interest (Betsy Brantley) who also happens to be the county coroner but their somewhat estranged relationship (which we are told was caused by Lundgren disappearing for eight days straight the reasons for which are never properly explained) is merely an unneeded distraction from the real narrative force which is the mismatched partners searching for the alien drug dealer with the so called White Boys organization coming into play now and again throughout the film (a halfway successful concept that if developed properly could have carried a whole entire action movie on its own). The most intriguing thing about the film though is the idea that even an alien species (which we presume are more evolved and technologically advanced than ourselves not to mention more enlightened) would themselves find their own societies plagued by the evils of drug addiction along with the money (or whatever currency they would use) to be made from selling those drugs to the population of their given planet. Even the alienâs oft repeated catchphrase (âI Come In Peaceâ) which he usually utters before killing another innocent person comes across as being more creepily ironic than anything else. At least the final battle that sees The Alien vs Lundgren with Benben in tow has some real tension to it and doesnât feel like just another requisite showdown scene (perhaps because we cannot wait to see THIS alien bad guy actually die) and Lundgren even pulls out some choice one liners for the occasion (âFuck you Spaceman.â). Overall, this is just some good, dumb fun that scores with a couple of original ideas and an inspired teaming of two completely dissimilar actors who both manage to shine while carrying this movie all the way throughâŚ
7/10