Agent Red - Ein tödlicher Auftrag

I am assuming that the 2000 action thriller "Agent Red" (aka "Captured") was a straight to video release. Regardless, while I did know that the movie existed, I actually never had a chance to watch it before here in 2025.

Was I harboring any grand expectations? No, not particularly. Why? Well, this just oozed low budget action movie from Dolph Lundgren, and God knows he has been in more than his share of such movies. But still, I opted to give directors Damian Lee and Jim Wynorski the benefit of the doubt.

The storyline in the movie was straightforward, though a bit on the generic side. Sure, it was a watchable enough movie for the generic action thriller type of entertainment that it was, so I suppose writers Kevin Bernhardt, Steve Latshaw and Damian Lee did a fair enough job with the script.

The acting performances in the movie were fair. The only familiar face on the screen, though, was Dolph Lundgren.

There is a fair amount of action in the movie, which definitely helped to keep the movie afloat; pardon the pun.

Watchable, sure, but hardly a movie that warrants more than a single viewing.

My rating of "Agent Red" lands on a generous four out of ten stars.

I rarely comment on movies in this space, but this one was so bad that I felt it my duty to do so. The plot premise is OK, it was just treated with utter lack of and contempt for realism and accuracy. I'm a big fan of military movies, and I just couldn't get past the constant technical gaffes in this film. F-16s and Mirages flown from a US aircraft carrier? The scenes on the "Ohio Class" submarine look like they were filmed in an oil refinery, complete with concrete floors. Much of the footage was stock footage or footage I recognized from other films. I actually turned it off during the final action scene. If you don't know an F-16 from an F-14 or a hot water heater from a missile tube, you might be OK with this. If you do, forget it!

Another Cold War Red-movie, so popular in the 1980ies and 1990ies... And a tough guy in a limited space and time trying to prevent a major disaster and succeeding just before the final countdown, leaving behind tens of kicks, bursts and dead bodies - familiar, isn't it? The plot is very predictable and consequently rather horrible, but thanks to Lundgren the slightly more than 1,5 hours do not pass totally wasted or tediously. There are some funny lines and word plays (however, most of dialogs and events are rather artificially constructed), and even the bad guys are there not for money, but more sublime ideas - overshadowed by revenge, though.

The thrill is not there throughout the movie, but if you have nothing against Lundgren, it is watchable in a male company. Much worse movies have been made!

Maybe a 3.5 just for Meilani Paul

Part 6 of the Dolph-a-thon and I came across 'Agent Red' on a streaming site. Never seen before. Will never see again.

This is terrible. It had a low rating of 3/10 on IMDB so didn't expect much. It lived up to its billing!

The only plus point was Meilani Paul who looks fabulous.

Dolph is playful enough but this seems beneath him.

This plays out like a Sci-fi channel movie. Do you remember those?

Really cheap CGI and lots of stock footage It's very cheesey and cheap looking and leans more into the so bad it's good vibe It reminded me of those Die Hard knock offs that would have David Hasselhoff in!!!

I, personally can not recommend it Its poorly made and after a brief look online I saw it was filmed a few years prior to 2000 and shelved as it was not deemed good enough for release

Should have stayed shelved!

1/5 stars. Avoid.

This is probably Dolphs worst film besides Stormcatcher, and although i was expecting something bad i was pleasantly surprised, in that it had some good moments. I am not a fan of Damien Lee he is not a director who is likely to produce anything above the average, but this film was better than i thought, they do take that old action film cliché of the bad pun to new heights where every sentence by one person is replied sarcastically by another and some times to funny effect but the dialogue is an exaggerated version of an Arnie script. Damien Lee's direction of the action scenes is annoying at times with shots so close up it ruins the fights, but there is an attempt at some Woo'esque action but it must be pointed out that the best action scene was borrowed from Stormcatcher, they actually took out a whole scene and in Stormcatcher the bloke in the scene was not Dolph but it is supposed to be him in Agent red (all of a sudden Dolph is about 5ft 11 instead of 6,5.), and it must be pointed out that Tony Hickox is a much better director. Basically this film is a very cliché action film that is not in anyway stylish or well scripted but it is funny, notably the bad Russian accents and the puns, one of which had me in stitches when Dolphs sergeant is briefing him on his mission saying "have you ever heard of agent red" and Dolph replies " it sounds like a bad action movie", so at least the makers of this new they were not making a classic, overall this is not horrendous but is still pretty bad,you could quite easily stomach the full ninety minutes on a good day, if only for the hilariously cheesy dialogue but if you have a choice between this and an earlier Dolph flick theplace this nicely back on the shelf. This is a tragic low point in Dolph's career. *