WANTED MAN (Dolph Lundgren, 2023)

[Jox]

Korean trailer

[Jox]

UK digital release April 1 from Signature Entertainment
https://twitter.com/SignatureEntUK/stat ... 1447746975

[Nathan]

Thought Signature might pick this up. Not too long to wait either! They've cut a half decent trailer for it actually, reminds me of when they actually made the effort on DTV!

[Jox]

15 certificate from BBFC for "strong bloody violence, sex references, language, drug misuse"
https://www.bbfc.co.uk/release/wanted-m ... 0xmdiwmdi0

[Jox]

In Australia March 20 (DVD & digital)

Out today in Australia (DVD / digital), here are some promotional stills of DL and Grammer from the distributor's story
https://www.instagram.com/defiantscreenentertainment/
https://www.facebook.com/stories/101412961991990/
direct link:
https://scontent-ams4-1.cdninstagram.co ... R1AAAF.mp4


EDIT

[Churchman]

Great little film. Not sure why it got such a mixed reception. Action is really solid and the film has some things to say without being preachy. One of Dolph's better, recent films for sure.

[Jox]

Swedish interview with Christina Villa
https://www.chandler.nu/exklusiv-interv ... tina-villa

[Jox]

Guardian review (not so good)
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2024/m ... in-mexico-

[Jox]

Aussie ad
"From the producer of UNIVERSAL SOLDIER and the studio behind THE EXPENDABLES"

[Nathan]

Watched this last night. Oddly it isn't on Amazon UK yet, I had to get it off iTunes. Amazon are pretty useless lately in terms of getting things up on time.

It was a good watch, certainly miles better than any other solo Dolph films in the last few years - Castle Falls aside. For one he's actually the lead and so gets the majority of the screentime.

The script feels a little bit outdated but if it has been around since 2006, that makes sense. In fact it almost reminds me of The Shepherd with Van Damme or tonally a lot of the DTV movies from around that time. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing because it's a little nostalgic.

The plot is very straight-forward and you can kinda see the twist coming. The action is decent and the big shootout in the middle is probably one of the best in recent Dolph movies too. Dolph himself turns in a good performance, he should do more roles like this.

Kelsey Grammar and Michael Pare are a little underutilised but they both perform well. I get the feeling that the budget was the same as Castle Falls and that the film was shot quite quickly. It doesn't feel rushed but it is short and sharp.

As far as his directorial efforts go it is probably near the bottom of the pile but it does have some stiff competition. What I can't get is how it took them so long to get funding. The premise is simple and commercial and as a Dolph action movie I'd have thought distributors would see it as a no-brainer. Especially as it was around the time of Missionary Man etc.

[Jox]

I get the feeling that the budget was the same as Castle Falls and that the film was shot quite quickly. It doesn't feel rushed but it is short and sharp.

I have to check again but I think they had one more week to shoot on WM than they did on CASTLE FALLS.

What I can't get is how it took them so long to get funding. The premise is simple and commercial and as a Dolph action movie I'd have thought distributors would see it as a no-brainer. Especially as it was around the time of Missionary Man etc.

It's not that it took so long to get funding, it's more that a combination of factors played, and Dolph was going back and forth on it, and as we know he was also caught up in so many acting gigs post-EXPENDABLES.

Nu Image / Millennium was gonna make it circa 2009-2010 (as SKIN TRADE), then D no longer wanted to make movies for them (the EXPENDABLES sequels were the exceptions) so it turned around for a while... Then th focus was on SKIN TRADE. At some point, following ST, he wanted Ekachai Uekrongtham to direct it. Then a few years later we saw that CineTel (ICARUS) was pre-seeling it at Cannes... So all in all it's interesting that the project ultimately came back to Millennium...

[Nathan]

That's interesting that he didn't want to work with them, I didn't know that.

Skin Trade is definitely a standout from the last 10 years, maybe the best actually. You can tell money was spent on that. It stands up with his early 90's movies on the action stakes.

[Tom]

I wasn't overly keen on this one to be honest. If it were anyone else but Dolph directing I think I'd have dug it a little more but I feel like there's no growth from him as a filmmaker by doing a project like this that's so generic.

Yeah, it's better than 95% of the DTV action out there.
But it felt too dated for me. A lot of the drama is quite clunky, particularly in showing the growth of a character who borders on alt-right at the beginning, has a couple of enchiladas in Mexico and is cured.

It's not Dolph's best performance. Just in terms of the human side and the co-star, I preferred Castle Falls. Missionary Man and Icarus are both technically more flawed I'd say, and further away from what D envisioned, but I felt they were a little more interesting in what they were aspiring to be.

It's watchable, but probably my least favourite Dolph directorial effort. It feels too much like wanting to compete in a high jump competition and setting the bar at 2ft high. Distributors sadly dictate what he's able to do, but I'd much prefer Nordic Light, even knowing that's unlikely to ever get greenlit unless he has to make it under Steve Luke-level limitations.

I'd be curious if Dolph had aspirations to do something a little different, rather than repeating the modern western or revenge angle. Maybe more hi-concept, or artistic or dramatic. Showdown at the Grand is the type of the thing I'd like to see more of.

[Jox]

The way I see it, he's going back to one as if he had not directed anything before CASTLE FALLS, and within the context, simply content to just calling the shots.

I'm curious about that "dark comedy" he's talking about, which seems to be his next one behind the the helm, seems like he is trying to go for something different.