Direct Contact

DIRECT CONTACT surely is a bad movie: the plot is generic, the direction is laughable, the editing sloppy, the acting aside from Lundgren terrible. Furthermore some scenes are taken from earlier Nu Image-movies like U.S.SEALS 1&3, OUT FOR A KILL or DERAILED. Despite these facts DIRECT CONTACT is a highly entertaining piece of B-movie as it manages to keep the pace high and fills 80 minutes with as much senseless action as any sucker for this kind of movie could hope for. Lundgren kicks ass, and anyone who was disappointed with the lack of solid action in MISSIONARY MAN can rejoice. Although the violence often looks ridiculous (blood spurting from hats, etc.)it's fun watching Dolph doing what he's best in, and despite his age he really delivers. Danny Lerner on the other hand should finally finish his attempts to be a director, in more competent hands this movie could have been a b-action-gem since the budget is moderate, the visuals nice, the score okay, unfortunately the many flaws make this movie just another case of trashy but at least amusing guilty pleasure.

There's a smell-a-brewin'. It's the sweet, sweet, smell of a brand spanking new, Dolph Lundgren kickathon. "Booyah bitch" I hear you cry. The coming year marks a real mouth watering feast of Dolphage. There's Command Performance, then Icarus. Two Dolph helmed picks that promise plenty of action. Then there's Universal Soldier 3 and most exciting of all, The Expendables, a compendium of action man badasses, all under the direction of Sly Stallone. Following that, there's the possibility of the interestingly titled, The Throwaways, again directed by Dolph. The somewhat forgotten pre-cursor to all those, is Direct Contact. That hellish, long, drawn out wait to see these awesome flicks, is somewhat eased with the arrival of Direct Contact. It's your typical spec-delivered DTV star vehicle. A paycheque special, which may just be, Dolph's very last spec film. He now seems more intent on directing his own films, and with two big budget films on his plate, he may garner enough clout to be able direct his own films, without having to do one of these suckers in return. Direct Contact is in existence, so that Command Performance could get made. Simple as that. A scratch my back, I'll scratch yours scenario with Nu Image. As such Dolph's involvement begins and ends with the acting and ass-kicking in this.

Direct Contact is sadly one of Dolph's worst films overall. It's pretty bad. First big problem? The direction. Flatter than Holland, more text-book than a text-book factory, and with as much flair as Stephen Hawkins doing the Tango. Dialogue scenes are given the daytime soap treatment. It's all mid-close, close-up shots, cutting between the two actors. There's no two shots, no energy, no reactivity. You get no sense of the actors working off each other. This is particularly annoying when Dolph and Michael Pare share the screen. They could easily have filmed their parts on different days for how the film has been shot, and cut. No chemistry, no cohesion, no energy, and that's no just because Pare and Lundgren are both going through the motions. The other main problem is the narrative. The story is thin, but the narrative is incredibly lazy. Nothing gets set-up, then plot elements just get glossed over. Everything outside the action seems like an inconvenience to the film-makers. It's just rushed through, with no respect for story telling, interest, energy.

As for the cast, it's pretty bad. Dolph seems un-interested. I'd guess he spent most of his time between takes, in his trailer, planning Command Performance. I'll forgive him that, because CP looks like it'll deliver. It better do, because people will pay good money to watch DC, and it's his name on the front, above his picture. Pare, likewise seems bored. In Pare's case, he's become a support player in recent years. He's done a lot of un-inspiring garbage. Once again he's here with very little to do, and very little to engage him. What could have been a great pairing on-screen, falls flat. Any geeky hopes of something cool in this film, will be dashed. Beyond that, Gina Marie May is atrocious and Dolph's pal, James Chalke gives quite possibly the worst performance in the history of film, theatre, anything. He's abysmal. He's clearly no actor, but he was not too bad in Missionary Man. Again, the diabolical acting must rest on Lerner's shoulders. Okay it's not the greatest calibre of cast, but all of them are well below par.

In terms of the action, it's positive and negative. On the positive, this film is loaded with action. It's packed solid with car chases, gun-fights and fist fights, and has tons of explosions. Seriously there's a lot of action, on quite a scale and of good length. There's a fair bit of help from the stock footage vault though, it must be said, which also leads to continuity problems. The vehicle chases are pretty long. The best parts, are the fights, which are tightly filmed and pack a punch. Though disappointingly, Dolph's face-off with Pare is limp. The concepts for the action are good though. The delivery not so good. The action is poorly filmed, and the editing is terrible. The car chases completely lack energy too. As well as that they've been sped up, because of lacklustre stunt work. It's all a bit Benny Hill to be honest. Truly for the amount of action, the scale, and the concepts, this film criminally wastes nearly all of it. It does give hope though for Command Performance. If it's as action packed as this film, it will doubtless be far better delivered. It could be pretty kickass.

Overall Direct Contact is simply a new Dolph film. It'll calm those cravings for a little while before the potentially cool films on the horizon. Aside from an intermittently decent score from Steve Edwards, and some decent, but wasted photography, from Ross Clarkson, this film is almost entirely technically mediocre. It's got enough violence, enough action and enough badness to satisfy lovers of watching bad movies while intoxicated, but otherwise, I think action fans will be a little let down. However it's short and also action packed enough not to get too boring. **

The worst move ever shot in Bulgaria probably since I didn't watched many. Poor acting, poor stunt, poor effects many mistakes. Not very convincing story. Too much blood and unnecessary show of that. In that cheap movie you can see cars that you cannot see in this region from many years -like Trabant, Moskvich, Lada or GAZ. You can hear moaning in many languages like Russian, Bulgarian or some mix, but nothing sounds like real. I am sorry that I have spent so much time for that stupid film. There is really no point in that movie that I could like, sorry. Although I like good actions.... The only reason for watching this movie was the play of Dolph Lundgren. He act normally, not bad but that cannot compensate the lapse of a logical reasons for his hero's acts. The only real chance for some romance thread was missed in the worst not convincing way.

Dolph Lundgren hits us with another by-the-numbers straight to DVD action fare set in Europe where he plays an American ex-marine turned arms smuggler who's spending time in a Russian prison, that's until he's given his freedom in exchange for the rescue of an American heiress who's being held hostage by some Russian criminals and rogue soldiers. But what he is to believe is not quite the case and it triggers a domino effect of violence and destruction. The action clichés come fast and furious, but these formulaic staples offer up plenty of carnage; metallic and flesh. It's speedy, swift and frenetic. Onslaught after onslaught. Chase after chase. The blood simply flows, numerous splatter on show in the many glorious shootouts, explosions and thank god no CGI is used either way. Director Danny Lerner does a competent job. Predictable, but workable even though it might get repetitious and a touch clumsy in the jaunty fight choreography. The locations add to the spectacle too. Lundgren is on cruise control, but still looks good kicking ass. One man, well equipped and going it alone. Michael Paré and Gina May also shows up.

"Do not shoot the girl!"

It is a mediocre B-category movie, nothing more... The plot lacks reality and is full of goofs, supposed moments, shootings at random and product placement (especially cars). Almost all the locals (incl. police) are blunt and bloodthirsty; the events take place clearly in Bulgaria, but the US Embassy is in Luka for some reason.

Lundgren looks tired and old already, May is just-another-thriller-chick, but Chalke as Trent Robbins is really awful. His lines are just for show, his character is not truthful (especially in final scenes).

Watchable for those fond of chases, explosions and shootings, but even Lundgren has starred in much better movies. If you have a choice, pick something else to watch.