Missionary Man

A mysterious biker (Dolph Lundgren) arrives in a small town in an Indian reservation for the funeral of his friend J.J. and discovers through his family that he was murdered by the men of the powerful John Reno (Matthew Stephens Tompkins). The corrupt businessman plans to build a casino in association with criminals from the North in the town and J.J. opposed to his intentions offering a better option to the locals. The lone vigilante decides to stay in town with his bible and drinking straight tequila and like an avenging angel, bring justice to people.

While watching "Missionary Man", I have immediately associated the story as an adaptation of "Pale Rider" and the character of Dolph Lundgren to "The Preacher" and also to "Billy Jack", and I found that others IMDb users had had the same impression. Like in "Pale Rider", the mysterious stranger leaves many open questions that may give a mystical interpretation to his character. In the end, "Missionary Man" is modern adaptation and very decent remake of a classic. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Missionário" ("The Missionary")

Dolph Lundgren stars as Ryder a mysterious biker who rolls into town (and bares an uncanny resemblance to Gary Busey) and defends an Indian reservation from the local mobsters and bikers that show up in the finale. Missionary Man despite what Dolph Lundgren fans will tell you, is not one of his best movies. Indeed in comparison to his last two directorial efforts this one is the weakest. The problem is that the action is badly edited, the bad guy bikers aren't written well and pose little threat and the film is all grainy and bled out of colors. (Why Dolph didn't shoot this in black and white is beyond me.) The climax has its moments and Missionary Man does remain somewhat watchable through Lundgren's typically commanding presence but with such craftsmanship shown in The Russian Specialist and The Defender one can't help but be disappointed with this one. Plus Lundgren borrows heavily from many superior films such as Pale Rider, High Plains Drifter and Billy Jack. The problem is that he just can't fuse enough novelty to distinguish his work. In the end though it's the sped up action and over-edited camera angles which render this one as a forgettable effort. Not a terrible movie mind you, indeed it is superior to most straight to video movies but Missionary Man is nothing special.

* * out of 4-(Fair)

I just saw the film. And seeing it it reminded me of the Clint Eastwood film Palerider. It was sort of the same story but in a modern time. Why I say this is because of so many similarities: - man presumed dead by the gangsters, hired gangster believes he killed him many years ago (just like in Palerider) - holy man with the bible (just like in Palerider) - alone against the gangsters (as many films)

The similarity is maybe to similar. Maybe too similar to call it written by Dolph Lundgren. More like partly written by Dolph Lundgren. The base of the story is 100% Palerider.

But the film it self is good. Like the modern twist of it. But it is Palerider.

This is Dolph in his best ever! For you that don't have seen a lot of Clint Eastwoods movies this is a (official or unofficial, don't know) remake of Pale Raider with a influence of High Plains Drifters. Take place in the modern world but with a western, outlaw feel to it.

A stranger drives in on his iron horse to the town in need of help.It's the classic avenger movie with all the ingredients that you would expect. You know what you gonna get and are NOT disappointed. Dolph really shows that he is qualified as a director. The angels are great,the photo of the film and the feeling, it all fits beautiful! I was really surprised at the quality of the picture and I can't wait to see if he can keep this up in the future!

I give it a 10/10 the best action movie I've seen in years!

The story here is actually a pretty good one, nothing new but still good.

The movie though has a couple of issues. The first being the fights, this is Dolph not De Niro, I'm primarily watching this for action. The choreography seemed to go out of the way to avoid displaying the fights?

Secondly, I'm not a cinematographer by any stretch, but the film seem to have been shot through a brown filter. So the colours were muted and the film looked dirty gritty and unclear, and not in a good way.

Otherwise its alright.