The peacekeeper - Il pacificatore

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.

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.

A surprising assemblage of talented actors came together to make this not unusual Dolph Lundgren military thriller. The story tells a neocon version of Dr. Strangelove with hints of The Rock. Rather than lampooning military paranoia, dysfunction and bureaucracy, The Peacekeeper presents us with a psychotic ex-military man who is hell-bent on personal vengeance against the president of the United States. How? by wiping out a third of the U.S.' population.

Lundgren is charged with protecting the 'black box' - a briefcase which controls the launch of a massive nuclear arsenal. On his first day on the job, the briefcase is stolen and he begins a chase which will comprise most of the remainder of the film.

Not surprising considering the cast - The Peacekeeper is better-acted than one would expect given the average quality of the script and the rather redundant and silly story. Lundgren, rarely challenged, gives the film his standard performance, Scheider and Montel Williams are very good, and Sarrazin plays the heavy well. But the entire production is hamstrung by the weak script and not very believable storyline.

The cinematography is above average for this sort of film. The directing is OK.

Recommended for Lundgren fans and fans of military fantasy.

I'm a big fan of B movies, just interests me what the producers can pull off with limited budget and what kind of stock footage they steal, or the obvious video game cgi thats overlaced into the video.

This movie however has something that other B movies lack. A fairly descent and slightly more believable plot then the recent James Bond movies. Lundgren somewhat performs much better than his other features. It's fun to see Montel in this type of role. Keep an eye out on the dramatic Bruckheimer-like ending sequence, they pulled it off quite well.

Other than that, its definitely worth a watch if you're a fan of action movies, B movies, or Lundgren.

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!