The peacekeeper - Il pacificatore

'Die Hard' clones are awesome. Dolph Lundgren is awesome. Therefore, 'The Peackeeper', being both a 'Die Hard' clone and Dolph Lundgren movie, is awesome. I dare you to find a flaw in my logic, I dare you.

Dolph plays Frank Cross, an officer in the United States Air Force. After dropping food to some refugees in Turkey, Cross is threatened with a court-martial. Gotta love how the U.S. military operates. However, he is save by the President's campaign team, who hope to use his mini-celebrity status as a public relations tool. Cross is given the job of guarding the Black Bag - the means by which the President can order a nuclear strike. Naturally, on Cross' first day, highly-equipped terrorists steal the bag and threaten to launch a nuclear strike at Washington.

Basically, 'The Peacekeeper' is 'Die Hard' in a nuclear missile silo. It is not as awesome as 'Die Hard', but its still pretty awesome. The plot is pretty similar to that of 'Under Siege' with a change of setting and a slight change of characters. In fact, the main bad guy (Lt. Colonel Douglas Murphy (Michael Sarrazin)) is suspiciously similar to Tommy Lee Jones' character from 'Under Siege'...

'The Peacekeeper' boasts some very cool action sequences. One early scene involves a car-chase along some city roof-tops, and while the movie peaks there and turns into a series of martial-arts and gun-fights for the next hour, this is still a well-done action movie, and easily one of Dolph's better efforts.

'The Peacekeeper' is a very good action movie. Fans of Dolph Lundgren (all five of us out there) should enjoy it, as should anyone else looking for a good action flick - 8/10

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.

The first thing that strikes you about the movie is the similarity of the title to the big-budget DreamWorks SKG debut movie [The Peacemaker] (starring George Clooney and Nicole Kidman and directed by Mimi Leder). Frequently movies with such cheap and obvious cash-in aspirations turn out to be: cheap, obvious and, of course, rubbish. This movie is a jolly exception. Don't be put off by Dolph Lundgren being in it, he isn't enough to undermine the movies good points.

High among those good points is the swift and exciting direction which is never better than during the spectacular roof-top car chase which occurs within the first twenty minutes. This chase is so good it could quite comfortably fit into a Bond movie featuring, as it does, eye-popping stunts, edge-of-the-seat excitement and ridiculous spectacle. While it does veer wildly into the improbable it never feels impossible and this aspect, for any action sequence, is of paramount importance. It is interesting to note that two key aspects of this chase sequence - the roof-top nature and the escape by getting out of the car just before it crashes through a parapet and down to the ground - also popped up in the same year's Bond adventure [Tomorrow Never Dies] (the motorcycle chase in Bangkok occurs partly over rooftops, the remote-controlled BMW car park chase ends by Bond getting out of the car just before it crashes through a parapet and down to the ground).

Another good point is the script. It's not consistently good but it is rather better than normal for a film that is not shown theatrically (it received it's UK premiere on Sky television not at cinemas). There are frequent one-liners which help push up the entertainment value while Roy Scheider and Michael Sarrazin share an unusual and thought-provoking plot line. Rather than demanding money and a plane to an extradition-free country, the usual demands of a nutball who has control of nuclear weapons in America (see [Broken Arrow]), betrayed Saddam Hussein-assassin Doug Murphy (Michael Sarrazin) turns up surprisingly alive though he was bombed by 'friendly fire'. His demands are for the President (Roy Scheider, the entire twilight of his career looks like it is going to be a series of DTV presidents) to commit suicide - to sacrifice his life for his country just as Murphy had (even though he had little choice about it and he survived) - on national television to stop a nuclear bomb going off in Washington D.C.

However, where this really scores over its pseudo-namesake [The Peacemaker] is that this movie accomplishes almost all it set out to, it is about as good as it could possibly be.

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)