The Shooter

Hidden Assassin (its proper name is The Shooter) is not just another mindless Dolph Lundgren actioner. It's a fairly well-plotted and exciting political thriller with some fine acting and great action sequences. But the real best thing about this movie is the setting. Filmed on location in Prague, the film looks beautiful and often stunning. Dolph plays a US Marshall (surprise, surprise) who is sent to Prague to find the assassin who killed the Cuban ambassador. Detmers is a beautiful bisexual assassin who Dolph gets caught up with, and before long the two of them are walking on dangerous ground while trying to stay alive the whole time. The suspense is always growing, as we never know who the killer is, wondering if it's Dolph's boss or even Detmers herself... I really like this movie. It's entertaining to watch and full of twists and surprises. Overall, I would probably recommend this one over some of Dolph's most well-known movies (Red Scorpion, Universal Soldier). Though without it's share of plot-holes, this remains a fun and very enjoyable romp.

It's really hard to believe that this movie was directed by the same person who directed FIRST BLOOD. I was expecting top-grade action, especially since Lundgren was the star, but the movie is a real bore. Oh, there are shootings, hand-to-hand combat, and chases, but all of this is presented to come across as just as unexciting as the rest of the movie. The script is (mostly) unsurprising, containing a major plot twist that you'll see coming from the first few minutes of the movie. (Though I admit the eventual plot turn concerning the female lead did give me a surprise.) Movie is also badly photographed, with muddy colors throughout. Lundgren tries, but is pretty overwhelmed, and the best performance turns out to be by John Ashton, playing Lundgren's buddy. Recommended only to die-hard (and very forgiving) Lundgren fans.

I quite like watching Dolph Lundgren movies that are high on atmosphere. One of my favourite movies is Silent Trigger, which is just gorgeously shot. So I read reviews of this one as being also beautiful, and there's sniping in the movie too, so I went with it.

I'm not going to make a huge fuss and tell you that the movie is Barry Lyndon, but it really is purty. I'll get to that after a brief round up of the plot.

So the Dolphage here is US Marshal Michael Dane, who has been sent abroad to kidnap Simone Rosset (Maruschka Detmers), a sniper who is accused of assassinating a Cuban official in New York, and bring her to trial. I don't quite know how controversial such an extra-jurisdictional kidnapping is, there are documented cases of the US doing it, but I wouldn't have thought the US Marshal service would have been employed. It's morally wrong, as Rosset says in the movie, if the Czechs abducted a US citizen from Pittsburgh for trial in the Czech Republic, that would be a huge international incident.

Thing is she may not even have done it, and Dane (like Waxman in Silent Trigger) has a troubled conscience. Rosset has been in retirement for at least a decade and is now running a restaurant in Prague with her lover Marta (Assumpta Serna), their world is not just a little intoxicating to Dane. You get a sense, when he sees Simone's expressive dancing in a lesbian night club, that it's an image that will be engraved into his mind for the rest of his days. Assumpta Serna's presence is welcome, she's an unbelievable sauce who actually appears to have more sexual power 10 years later in the Quay Brothers' superb movie PianoTuner of Earthquakes at the age of nearly 50.

Purty places include the fabulous Czech restaurant, which I suspect is probably a little more touristy than the movie suggests (you can see Alphonse Mucha designs on the backs of the menus - famous artist of Prague). There's also a lovely wine cellar, and Marta's flat is quite beautiful. Something I harp on about a lot is the transformative quality of interior design in movies, it really does help if you have good diegetic lighting and plush dream apartments in movies. Marta has candles a plenty, cushions on the floor to lounge on, and lovely greenery everywhere, cheese plants, mimosa, and the like. Marta and Simone, one gets the impression, are experts at living.

Although others have said that the special effects are not all that, I think there's a couple of pretty cool ones, take the leap to the metro car for example. It's true that the movie is a cheapie compared with modern stuff, but I don't think a few cases of movie explosives were going to make this one better.

The plot is fairly much all over the place, and the Cuban officials in the movie a big annoyance, the fact that Dolph is basically the adopted son of one of the spooks comes off as pretty silly, as does the major plot twist. Despite what is also a fairly ludicrous ending, there are very cool parts to the script, such as the observation by Alex (the adoptive father), that the only time self-doubt is useful is when you're playing Hamlet on stage. There's also a kind of strange beauty to the fights between Dolph and Simone, in that he's more than twice her size, and yet she has enough nouse to make them last out.

The lasting value is in the film's aesthetics, and the haunting of Dane, as well as the occasional fairly cool special effect. It joins my list of flawed but very purty and lovable movies that were made during my childhood, alongside the likes of Albert Pyun's Cyborg, and Wes Craven's Shocker.

Although this film is not interesting for its acting or its story line, you must see it (even with the sound off) if only for the absolutely gorgeous set design, lighting design, and cinematography, which combine to make this film an eye-popping piece of eye candy. It helps that the filmmakers had the beautiful old city of Prague to film in, with its rich architectural history, romantic interiors, cobblestone streets, etc. I wanted to print out almost every scene in the film and then frame them for my walls, so gorgeous were almost all the frames of film. Try it for this! You'll love it!

'The Shooter' (aka 'Hidden Assassin' which I find much cooler title) is quite trivial on the plot wise - special agent goes to Prague to catch supposed assassin, but things aren't like they seem. But the movie is well shot - bleak and cold cinematography creates nice '90s Eastern-European vibe, and somehow manages to feel artistic. By the time of filming this movie Dolph Lundgren's acting range had improved a lot and he is not as wooden as in some of his earlier movies. Heavely flawed, but still enjoyable time passer.