The peacekeeper - Il pacificatore

I don't know who I felt sorry for more in this movie, Roy Scheider or Dolph Lundgren. Roy Scheider was a one time big box office star who's now appearing in low budget action films. Dolph Lundgren aspired to rise above B action movies and I heard he even quit movies a few years ago out of disgust, only to return to yet another low budget role.

Roy plays the president, and speaks in a delicate southern accent that seems completely out of character for him. Dolph plays the hero (natch) but he's showing his age and looks really silly when he runs.

The movie? Mix together the last several straight to video action dramas you've seen. Everything from the camera angle to the canned music soundtrack seems like stuff you've seen dozens of times. I'm beginning to wonder if movies like this don't all come from a parallel universe where things happen the way they do on screen, they all seem like they have interchangeable parts and were made by the same person.

Major Frank Cross faces a court martial for an act of mercy he showed to Turkish refugees. However the President intervenes and employs him to protect the black bag that contains the missile launch code for the US nuclear weapons. On his first day, Cross is attacked by terrorists and loses the black bag. He follows the terrorists to the silo and teams up with Kt Con Northrop to stop the launch. Meanwhile the President is on-route to meet the demands of the terrorist - however their demands are not ordinary.

Oh good - more `terrorists with nukes' plots, throw in a bit of Die Hard and we're away. The story here is really daft and has major plot drivers that aren't explained. It's not a bad plot overall - in fact the demands and the motives of the terrorists are quite clever and interesting. However it is a Dolph Lungren film so it's not going to be that great…..

The action scenes are OK but rarely believable, eg a rooftop car chase is fun but stupid! The terrorist's main demand brings the greatest tension, but their motives make them seem too sympathetic and when they become ruthless it is harder to accept. Outside of this `demand' I thought it was mostly poor, most of the plot seemed to exist to create action scenes that didn't deliver.

Lungren is as good as ever - ie, mediocre. He does his strong man stuff well, but he lacks charisma and relateability. Scheider is OK as the President and plays out his dilemma well - however the script lets him off too lightly. Chat show host Montel is actually OK as Northrop, but I just couldn't forget that it was Montel!

Overall this is bland video entertainment - it's not terrible, but it's not good either.

The Peacekeeper is an obviously familiar, but undeniably fun action vehicle for Dolph Lundgren. With the ever present 90s feel, the painfully generic title that would make Steven Seagal jealous, and enough entertaining action scenes to satisfy, The Peacekeeper is far from being the worst use of your time.

While it's an obvious Trappola di cristallo (1988) ripoff, I'd say it's a solid ripoff, and probably one of the better ones. It's Die Hard meets a Bond movie plot, with the setting of a missile silo being a little boring. The movie gets a little bogged down with its plot, but the action's loads of fun and Dolph is charismatic enough. The stakes are suitably high and the race against time didn't bother me.

Dolph Lundgren does a serviceable acting job and is helped out by Montel Williams, who gets a lot of screen time as the obligatory African-American sidekick that 90s action movies love (Die Hard - Duri a morire (1995), Trappola in alto mare (1992), Drive - Prendetelo vivo (1997), etc.) and he's pretty good.

The action sequences are the highlight. The long car chase near the beginning is actually excellent, and it's Bond film worthy. Definitely a high point, it may be the best action scene here. There are two or three brief shootouts and some small fights, with one long fight in a missile room being another highlight. Definitely loud, explosive, glorious B-movie action, and it's great.

One of Dolph's best 90s vehicles, this movie is underrated and is a great diversion. Seriously, name another movie that has a rooftop car chase. I wouldn't mind seeing Montel Williams again either.

Oh, and Dolph is chased down a large vent by an explosion. Things get pretty crazy.

This is the kind of movie you don´t watch for the great acting or great story. This is the kind of movie you watch for the great action. Having seen some of the recently released genremovies and being disappointed by most of them this one was a nice surprise. Great action sequences! Far better than the usual b-movie action. They really went for it this time thou they easily could have made just the ordinary type of action. One scene in particular is great. It´s a car chase on rooftops!So if you want to see a good lowbudget actionmovie see this one!

Dolph Lundgren stars as Major Frank Cross, a special forces soldier who is the very best in the army, and him and Lt. Northrop (Montel Williams !!!) are the only soldiers who can thwart "Cyclops" (Michael Sarrazin) from nuking Washington D.C, his demands by the way are forcing the president to commit suicide on live TV, suffice to say the peace is kept with an exchange of gunfire. The Peacekeeper is a modest take on Die Hard, with some suspenseful sequences, good action and a thrilling car-chase on roof tops. The Peacekeeper on all fronts is one of Dolph Lundgren's better films and features one of his best casts. Both Roy Scheider and Michael Sarrazin are always welcome presences to such an action film and Lundgren is in fine form. The main flaws is that use of too many scenes of bomb disarming which gets tiresome, also the movie has some plot holes and the film's beginning doesn't fit with the rest of the movie but as it goes the Die Hard route the film works and even has a great climax. Montel Williams is also none too convincing but once again the movie is a solid B.movie take on Die Hard.

* *1/2 Out of 4-(Pretty Good)