Direct Action

Earlier in the year saw the release of Dolph's latest movie, Detention. That was a disappointment to say the least but his next effort; Direct Action is far more like the good old days for any Dolph fan. Over the last 6 years Dolph has been starring in considerably cheaper and poorer movies than he used to. Aside from recent highlight Hidden Agenda it has been pretty much all poor. The thing is the producers have been tying to give him characters with a different dimension, with some more depth and not just a hard-ass. This is all very well and good but the films are trying too hard to move with the times and B-movies have a tendency to do things badly. Hidden Agenda was a good little thriller, nothing exceptional and Dolph was good, playing someone with some intelligence and a different kind of intimidating presence. It's been the only transition from all out action that has worked for Dolph in recent years. Now there seems to be resurgence in these brainless, guilty pleasure action fests in the vein of Sly and Arnold in the 80's, just look at the Rundown. This film is very much like the old Seagal films, you know that string of films he did in his earlier career that were violent and simplistic and almost all the same. The plot of Direct Action could almost be typical Seagal fodder from that period with corrupt cops and FBI officials and Dolph as the moralistic cop who'll take them down. This brought back good memories for me of films like Nico, Out For Justice and Hard To Kill. Simple story, plenty of action and a bad-ass cop who scowls throughout the movie (in fairness Dolph does more than that though.). This is miles better than Detention but what I did find with Detention in any case was that Dolph had a new found enthusiasm. After nearly 2 years rest from the business he came back leaner, more fired up and for the first time in years was doing his own stunts. Direct Action continues that trend and filmed a year after Detention, Dolph is further enthused and in even greater shape. He's a lot slimmer than he has ever been in his movie career, very svelte and has a more sprightly presence. He looks better than he has done in almost 10 years. Dolph seems to be having a new lease of life and while these last two films aren't his best they have bigger budgets and are more old style action than he has done recently. His next few are promising a good amount of action too and Dolph will probably be playing the tough man again, it does seem the way forward for the DTV action men, doing films they used to keep the fans happy. Hidden Agenda was good but it didn't sell, for the simple fact that if you are trying for something with depth and intelligence then there is little hope that people are going to look for a straight to video movie, whereas these brainless fist-fests still seem to sell. Van Damme is back to his revenge movie trademark and Seagal has left his eco warrior image behind for more conventional ideas.

The plot follows Frank Gannon, a veteran police sergeant who is to testify against his co-workers in the Direct Action Unit because they are being investigated for links to drug lords, extortion and murder. Gannon (Dolph) has seen this stuff first hand and wants to testify. On the day of the trial he is threatened and to make matters worse he has to take a rookie around with him all day (Polly Shannon.). Basically the film plays out with Dolph taking on his co-workers head on with help from his partner and the young rookie Billie Ross along the way. When they kill three cops in a bloody shootout, a failed attempt on Gannon's life Gannon is in trouble because he is wanted for the murders and now his word is going to mean little against the testimonies of the guys in the Direct Action Unit who have heroic reputations, despite the dark dealing in the background. There are the usual amount of twists and turns but there are no surprises. It all rounds off to an action packed climax rest assured though.

The action is decent. It's all shootouts or fist fights and while there are no really big set pieces the action is plentiful and nicely spread out. This is perhaps the most action Dolph has had in a movie for ages. Fistfights cost nothing but the time to make so they have put plenty in which is good. What is good is that Dolph gets to use his martial arts here. The action is similar to Seagal's was in Nico etc too, with plenty of throw movies and bone breaking. It is good to see Dolph using his Karate so prominently here. Dolph is really looking in prime action man form here and looks tough. The shootouts are okay, nothing great but at least there was money on them. Of course we have some explosions too.

The film has a smaller budget than Detention did, which was 10 million while this was between 5 and 8 million dollars but this looks far more polished and there is more bang for your buck. The key thing is that the action is far more imaginative and well handled. It is strange because almost the entire cast and crew of Detention worked on this and it was shot in the same place. Everyone does their job far better it must be said, particularly veteran director Sidney Furie who shows more flair and assurance in the action while he has upped his game on the more dramatic scenes too. A downer in the look of the film was the dull cinematography. The film looks drab and the lighting is poor. It is made to look cheaper than it is because Curtis Peterson has seemingly not even turned up to shoot it and left it to the camera operators to shoot it themselves without any lighting. He did a similarly no existent job in Detention. I know this is low budget but they could still make it look better, Hidden Agenda had very good cinematography. Another improvement though was the score, with Adam Norden taking over from the composer of Detention and doing a much better job. The score wasn't great but it knew the limitations of doing it cheaply and didn't try to recreate an orchestra on a computer like many DTV movies do, and badly. This is a synth score that acts like a synth score. The cast are good. Dolph holds the movie, his role is straight down the middle and simple but he does it with conviction and coolness. Polly Shannon is okay as well as Billie, she's pretty and gives a good enough performance. I also thought that Conrad Dunn was very good as Captain Stone, the ring leader of the corrupt cops. He has a slimy villainy that works well. He gives the role a conviction and classiness that none of the support in Detention did. All the returning actors from Detention are much better, particularly Alex Karzis who played the lead villain in Detention atrociously. Here he plays a good guy and does it well.

Overall this was a pleasing movie for me. It's the most pure and entertaining action movie Dolph has down since Peacekeeper and the best he has looked in terms of action since Silent Trigger. Dolph is looking cool and modern these days and I eagerly await his next two movies, Defender (with, get this, Jerry Springer) and Retrograde (with Gary Daniels), which fingers crossed could appear this year. That would be 4 new Dolph films I have seen this year and after a lengthy spell of nearly two years without one before that I'm a happy Dolphamaniac people. ***

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!

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

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.

Although I admire the ambition enough to give this 4/10 It is certainly not a 5/10 movie as IMDB has it listed.

The film is going for a grounded gritty take on police procedural akin to 'Training Day' it simply doesn't have the budget to pull it off.

At times it looks amateurish.

I dont want to be too harsh on it but some of the continuity problems pulled me right out of the movie completely... And I am not sure I even finished it.

It was ambitious and I think with a bigger budget and some reshoots it could have improved the movie.

I would probably rate it 3.5/10 I wouldn't reccomend it personally, but I do think there is an audience for this one...just not for me.