El arcángel

A mysterious biker (Dolph Lundgren) arrives in a small town in an Indian reservation for the funeral of his friend J.J. and discovers through his family that he was murdered by the men of the powerful John Reno (Matthew Stephens Tompkins). The corrupt businessman plans to build a casino in association with criminals from the North in the town and J.J. opposed to his intentions offering a better option to the locals. The lone vigilante decides to stay in town with his bible and drinking straight tequila and like an avenging angel, bring justice to people.

While watching "Missionary Man", I have immediately associated the story as an adaptation of "Pale Rider" and the character of Dolph Lundgren to "The Preacher" and also to "Billy Jack", and I found that others IMDb users had had the same impression. Like in "Pale Rider", the mysterious stranger leaves many open questions that may give a mystical interpretation to his character. In the end, "Missionary Man" is modern adaptation and very decent remake of a classic. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Missionário" ("The Missionary")

I just saw the film. And seeing it it reminded me of the Clint Eastwood film Palerider. It was sort of the same story but in a modern time. Why I say this is because of so many similarities: - man presumed dead by the gangsters, hired gangster believes he killed him many years ago (just like in Palerider) - holy man with the bible (just like in Palerider) - alone against the gangsters (as many films)

The similarity is maybe to similar. Maybe too similar to call it written by Dolph Lundgren. More like partly written by Dolph Lundgren. The base of the story is 100% Palerider.

But the film it self is good. Like the modern twist of it. But it is Palerider.

The story here is actually a pretty good one, nothing new but still good.

The movie though has a couple of issues. The first being the fights, this is Dolph not De Niro, I'm primarily watching this for action. The choreography seemed to go out of the way to avoid displaying the fights?

Secondly, I'm not a cinematographer by any stretch, but the film seem to have been shot through a brown filter. So the colours were muted and the film looked dirty gritty and unclear, and not in a good way.

Otherwise its alright.

only the last scene has real action(except in content and required mood), but because all the other elements are in place you might not even notice. for the general viewer, this is an interesting flick about and with MODERN native Americans and their way of life on the last reservations.from the way they educate the children, to interesting cultural aspects; well documented i actually felt like i learned something beside watching a "classic" revenge movie. "old school" clichés that never get old if done properly.

it is a classic suspense build-up plot; nothing special but simply can not find anything wrong other then being slow at times. however the movie has a lot of shots and visuals that contain artistic images that will not let you loose interest. all actors are decent and in some scenes really good.the best component, i would argue, are the costumes, and to certain extent the well chosen environment; it goes very well with crating the mood required to sustain the simple but effective plot.the biker's gang in the last 30 minutes is well done very menacing and looks real.John Enos III as their leader performs excellently.the soundtrack is nothing spectacular but fits properly as mood definer.

now about Dolph Lundgren; if you have grown up on such flicks as "the red scorpion" you might enjoy this a lot providing you not expecting any sgi fights. he aged decent and his "cold" tone got better and feels more "real". as a director he seems very decent will be checking his future productions hopefully will not be disappointed.he is way better in substance then Stallone is in his "rambo 4"(pointless action). seems like this project is dear to him from the way he handles dialogs, subject matter and the body language on display.

overall i enjoyed it. however i do not agree at all with any "Missionary" men especially "born again" Christians. from a vintage point of view i liked it, but in reality this only creates just yet another type of extremists/extremism.i do not find "cool" preaching the bible to the native Americans ,that got almost exterminated in the past because the "white man's God". however there are some details, for example regarding the facts of how the catholic church and "education" tried to forbid them speaking their own language(s) so they "convert" properly...

I've always been a fan of action movies having grown up in the 80's fed on a diet of Sly, Arnie, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme. These are the best of the best when it comes to kicking ass. I would include Dolph Lundgren is this category. Granted, he has been in some terrible movies like Cover Up and The Minion, but all the other big action stars also have movies on their CV's that they want to forget about! The thing that struck me about Missionary Man is that is was filmed brilliantly and had an excellent musical score to go with the usual Dolph Lundgren action we expect from him. He directed this movie and it is shot brilliantly. It reminded me of older Clint Eastwood movies, as Dolph plays a stranger in a small town who decides to help the townsfolk fight back against the greedy businessman John Reno and the corrupt Sheriff's Department. It is the closest thing to a modern western I've seen, and I really enjoyed it. Dolph is back people, and this is one of his best!