Men of War

I did not know what to expect of Men of War other than the reviews here. For the most part they are right. The movie is pretty decent and entertaining. The storyline and the actors do pretty decent jobs. This is pretty much a man's movie with fights,guns,topless women, explosions and lots of shooting. Charlotte Lewis definitely played one of the better looking, not to mention sexiest native women I have ever seen on screen. I just wish Catherine Bell would have had a nude scene too. Bell's role was pretty kick ass as well. I can see why they hired her for JAG. The only drawback of the film was that the bad guys were pretty much your stereotypical badguys. Trevor Goddard and Tiny Lister were the the worst of the bunch. They were so good at being bad, that you wanted to kill them yourself. The more interesting characters were the two men who decided not to stay around, Jimmy G and the guy who was looking for Jade. One stayed bad, Jimmy G. had the hots for Bell's character Grace and showed his good side when it mattered.All in all, this was a pretty decent action movie that really isn't that predictable. It's worth a look.

This is a really good story similar to Rambo or even Chuck Norris in Missing in Action being called to do some work in a foreign country. Only this time, he's hired to be the bad guy; they want him to go and nuke a village so they can have the land for mining. After sleeping with Charlotte Lewis (native girl) Nick decides not to nuke the village and to protect the people from the bloodthirsty miners. His group is split in half between those who will join him and those who will leave and fight with the miners against him. Good action in this movie combined with some nice on location native scenery and native people. Very enjoyable. Charlotte Lewis even flashes her wonderful large ripe all natural breasts a few times. Wow!!! She is a looker! Damn!!!

"What if they made a really good Dolph Lundgren movie and nobody came?"

Well, if they put it out directly to video, ... :-)

I saw "Men of War" on broadcast TV, so of course some of the nastier stuff was censored. Still, I think I got the idea. And it was a good idea! This movie continually impressed me with excellent dialogue, good character development, humor, and most of all a story that I actually cared about. Sure it was somewhat predictable, but there were some unexpected developments, mostly centering on the ability of the supporting cast -- and I mean way down the list to some of the bit parts -- to behave in ways not anticipated by the principals. This made for a rather unorthodox movie. I also really enjoyed the soundtrack; good music, well suited to each scene. Did I mention the dialogue? I did? Well, I'll mention it again, because usually that's the last thing I expect to like in a DL movie, but this one was smartly scripted.

My favorite character was Po, who was exceptionally well written and nicely played by BD Wong. It took all of about 15 seconds for me to like this guy; his intelligence and wit were quickly evident even through the language barrier. Actually, that's one thing that impressed me a lot: they managed to come up with broken English script that comes across as totally believable. If I were a mercenary in SE Asia, this is a lot like how I'd expect people might really talk to me.

I can't say this is a great movie; it has its shortcomings. The themes explored were already old hat by the time this film was made, and there is a strange schizophrenia to the film; it's half story-movie and half action-movie-with-big-hero-star-dude. But the strong points seem to carry it pretty easily, perhaps because the makers realized before/during production what we do when we see it, and compensated. For example, the film does visit certain cliches, but it doesn't dwell on them, expecting them to make a huge impression on the viewer. It's as though the makers realize that a given situation is old hat, and are almost apologetically including it simply out of necessity, then moving on to "what they REALLY wanted to show us". I think that shows respect for the intelligence of the audience, treating us as though we've actually seen a movie before -- imagine that!! -- and I appreciated it.

Since Lundgren is the "star" here, I guess I'll close by saying that he was very well used. The story is the real star, which is why this movie works so well. Lundgren has never been a top-notch actor, and isn't one here, but that's not important. This movie tells a story and it uses all of its assets, not just shoving big Dolph in our faces over and over again. When he says something, or does something, it's because it was his turn to do so. Really, I'm very impressed by how well this worked.

(BTW, lest you get the wrong impression, I actually like Dolph Lundgren, and have enjoyed some of his films, usually almost exclusively for the action. I just don't think he's Oscar material.)

Like many, I'm sure, I expected this to be cheesy junk when it came on cable late one night many years ago. I was probably reading or simply bored so I didn't bother to turn it off. After about a half an hour I realized I was watching a movie that was not only surprisingly well written (I didn't realize then that it was scripted by John Sayles) but was also very well directed and edited. The movie holds up all the way through, with some interesting twists along the way. I'm a film buff, I don't usually go in for dumb action movies, but this one really caught my eye (and that was before I even knew who wrote the thing). Probably the only Dolph Lundgren movie I can say with pride that I enjoyed.

Everything John Sayles does reeks of intelligence one way or another, and this movie tries to imply issues much more important than macho bravadura, "Broken Arrow"-like. I'll leave you to check those issues by yourself, since this wasn't intended to be a philosophy lesson in the first plane (and doesn't fall in Hemingway-esque clichés like "Sniper")but this one also features one of the greatest mug-catalogue since the heyday of Spaghetti-western (Too bas Danny Trejo wasn't on the boat !), including the charismatic English actor from "Mortal Kombat", who really, really shines in this one. I'm as tired of guns-and-explosions movie as the next guy, but this one is really worth a look, if only for its lush photography and elegant direction. Besides, the latest reel, chock-full of adrenaline, is really better than average. I'm glad I saw this one.