Direct Action

Most action films do not have great acting. I kinda took a liking to this film for some reason. I should really have rated it a 6 but something about it made it stand out I would watch it again

I like my action films people, I like them fast, loud, and violent and the king of Swedish ass-whoopers, Dolph Lundgren is someone who I enjoy watching. I ain't a huge fan but I have to say I really enjoyed his early work, Punisher (The newer one sucks), I come In Peace (that was freakin cool movie, with the deadly CD's and the giant Aliens.) and Red Scorpion but a lot of his recent movies didn't do it for me. When I rent a film with this guy I want guns and fists and feet flying all over the place, and you get that here. I have seen a few of his recent ones, Stormcatcher (Bad!), Jill Rips (Boring!), Sweepers (Wha?!), and Hidden Agenda (good fights, too much damn talking!). Direct Action has a simple idea and leaves Dolph to look a bad-ass mo-fo. Dolph is a good action man, he has presence, he's cool, and unlkie Fatboy Seagal, he has stayed in great shape. I used to be a big Seagal fan but he's let me down. On the evidence of this movie, if Dolph keeps this kind of thing up then he's got himself a new fan. This has plenty of action. You have good hand to hand fights, okay shootouts and plenty of it. 7/10

In Direct Action Dolph is an LA cop about to expose the rampant police corruption that surrounds his precinct every day.Before he can testify his fellow cops decide he is better of sleeping with the fishes,which puts Dolph into survival mode and on the run.Will he survive in the end?I think we already know that.

Direct action is the 2nd pairing of Lundgren and veteran Director Sidney J. Furie.Both quite capable here.The plot has been done countless times.The supporting cast is okay.Polly Shannon does pretty well here.But what nearly sinks Direct action is over-Ambition.The budget for this was clearly too low.The movie ends up looking way TOO cheap for its own good.The script while okay,has its fill of clichés and twists that you can see coming a mile away.

On the plus side,Dolph gets to demonstrate more of his martial arts prow-less.The fights are pretty good.

I think some producer should put up about 10 million or more for the next Lundgren flick.He cannot keep making them so cheap.After all the good things I had heard about DR,It came off as a major disappointment.

Its still better than the latest Steven Segal trash.

5/10

Given that I had read several positive reviews on this movie and that it comes from the hands of Sidney J Furie, a veteran for over 40 years responsible for 1960's spy thrillers like The Ipcress File and The Naked Runner and has also delivered some very slick direct to video action movies such as Top Of The World, The Rage and Hollow Point as well as the largely underrated 1991 theatrical release The Taking Of Beverly Hills. Furthermore, he also did Detention with Dolph Lundgren which was by no means great but I enjoyed it a lot more than many others did. Given that the general opinion of this was "a step up from Detention", I couldn't wait. Well, having seen the finished product it doesn't really surprise me it's been shelved for so long. It isn't bad, but it could be so much better.

None of this can be blamed on Lundgren or any of the cast really for that matter, as much of them deliver acceptable to good performances. Lundgren especially deserves credit as he is in excellent shape and does very well in the action scenes. The film has a good sense of pacing, never letting up enough for the action to stop and plot itself is fine for the type of movie.

What really lets this down is the very poor production values - it looks extremely cheap. No better than a Roger Corman produced Bloodfist film for example. Automatic weapons are fired at cars in the line of fire and they don't receive one bullet hole and no glass breaks. We just get a couple of very simple CGI sparks. This happens way too often, and becomes very hard to ignore. There is also some incredibly bad editing. Weather will change from clear Sunny skies to rain and back in seconds. And there's no interesting locations. All you'll get is residential areas and some abandoned factories. The budget of apparently 5-8 million certainly hasn't been well spent. Of course none of this really makes the movie any less watchable, but it's all those little touches that make a movie all that more enjoyable to watch.

Overall, this is a decent, entertaining action picture with all the visual flair of a TV drama but it's worth a watch once and for Dolph Lundgren fans it will be a must. I would probably have enjoyed it more with lower expectations, but the overall low quality of the movie is something I just couldn't ignore. Sorry.

Dolph Lundgren is one of my favorite B movie actors, so when I got a chance to see his movie "Direct Action", you can be sure that I took it. In this movie, Lundgren is in fine form, giving a likable and relaxed performance, and giving it his all in the action sequences. Unfortunately, the script and direction he was working with are disappointments. The script has a number of plot holes (if Lundgren's character wants to testify, why doesn't the prosecution give him some protection?), and has a number of twists and turns that will be very familiar to those well versed in B movies. And while Lundgren gives it his all in the action sequences, the action is directed and edited in a way that never rises above routine. The most striking thing about the entire enterprise is its strange setting. While Canadian director Sidney J. Furie makes no attempt to hide Canadian license plates as well as Canadian businesses like Mr. Sub and Swiss Chalet, at the same time there are a number of references to American things like the FBI and the CIA!