Pentathlon

While at the Olympics, Eric Brogar (Dolph Lundgren) escapes communist West Germany & flees to America. But after hearing that the no-goodniks have killed his father, he starts on a downward spiral until Creese (Roger "T.C." Mosley), his burger manager, starts training him for the Olympics again. Then Mueller (David "Hutch" Soul), Eric's commie former-trainer shows up. Will Eric prevail and find true love with Julia (Renee "Evil leaper from Quantum Leap" Colemen)? This film was overall enjoyable to me for some reason. Not great, mind you, but enjoyable as a time-waister. The acting's servicable enough.

My Grade: C

Where i saw it: Showtime beyond

Once, a young athlete Eric Brogar lost a running competition. And then he mentally promised himself that he would continue to achieve victory at any cost and devoted his life to the pentathlon. It was only thanks to such perseverance and determination that he got into the German Olympic team. For Eric, sports became the meaning of life, he devoted himself to hard training. And now, unexpectedly for him, he found himself in a situation where he had to choose-an important victory or a free life. It happened after the tragic death of his father. Eric is simply convinced that the famous Stasi is behind this tragedy. At the same time, he has a serious conflict with the coach, which becomes the last straw...

After a brilliant victory at the Olympics, the athlete decides to take a desperate step - he runs to America. Teammates detain his pursuers and thereby give him a chance to escape. But once in the States, Eric realizes that he is not an Olympic champion here, but only an emigrant, of whom there are thousands here. The people who now surround him do not care about his past records and awards. Now he needs to learn how to survive in an alien world surrounded by indifferent people. Will he be able to rebuild his life without help and support?

Things got even more complicated when Eric was discovered being followed. He realized that he was being hunted, since his country does not intend to forgive such a betrayal. There are only two months left before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the athlete is well aware of this. Will his champion skills help him save his own life?

As someone who's seen almost 30 of Dolph's movies I have to say this is one of the standouts from his filmography. Most of the movies he makes are quite entertaining and simple, mostly existing for Dolph to kill a bunch of guys and save the day. This one is quite different as it's probably the most ridiculous movie he's ever made. It's even more ridiculous than Bridge of Dragons which exists in some weird alternate fantasy universe where all the countries in the world have merged. In Pentathlon Dolph is an Olympic athlete who competes for East Germany and after certain circumstances force his hand, he flees to America. However, despite him trying to get away from everything and start a new life his communist coach has other ideas in mind and tracks Dolph with the intent of killing him! If that doesn't sound amazing then you should skip this movie. But if it does sound great you should give it a watch as the movie gets even better later on, especially in the last act which is absolutely incredible in its absurdity.

This has to be one of the worst films I ever watched. Actually, it was so painful, I could not bear to watch it all the way to the end. Now I know where Americans get the grey image of "communism" from. A completely unrealistic portrait of what life was like in East Germany!!!

Guilty pleasure, all the way! I can't put down this movie cause it was a lot of fun to watch it, the director kept it simple, with some wrong doings but those can be excused. It's generic and almost dumb but you'll feel good through the whole thing.

"Pentathlon" transforms Dolph Lundgren (oh, in the 1990's, the best of times to watch him!) into a super gold medalist during the Cold Era who defects from East Germany to the U.S., much to the anger of his demanding coach (David Soul), during the Seul Olympics. Living in America, he's a complete nobody, working as a cook but with the help of his boss he has a chance to return to his passion: being an athlete But after the collapse of the Soviet regime and the reunification of Germany, the coach - now allied with a Neonazi group - goes to America to join Nazi group in America, and if possible, to recruit his former athlete to the cause (terrorism, obviously).

I think you've already drowned into the amount of absurd throw in just this basic plot line, but to hell with it. As an action flick is quite good, except for the insanely goofs here and there (the one with the gun is amazingly laughable, with the bad using a Walter PPK-like pistol that sounds like a revolver and with a silencer that doesn't work), and some shameless plot holes as well - what bothered me the most was the inconsistence concerning David Soul's character. How in the world someone so loyal to the Communism becomes part of a Nazi group? Nevermind. Works better as a comedy vehicle with positive scenes with Dolph's boss turned to coach, played by Roger E. Mosley. Laughs are granted with this dude. And if neither that can help you, at least the movie offers a quality camera work capturing the splendid and hunky leading man.

A severe case of a movie so bad that it's good. Enjoy it. 6/10