WANTED MAN (Dolph Lundgren, 2023)

[GeneralMcFaiL]

I have to say that final trailer cut didn't look all that bad to be honest. Will definitely give this one a look and hopefully be pleasantly surprised.

[Jox]

Back in late 2009 on the French special features of COMMAND PERFORMANCE, I was theorizing about Dolph's directorial consistency with his first 5-6 films:
- with COMMAND PERFORMANCE echoing THE DEFENDER
- ICARUS echoing THE MECHANIK
- and WANTED MAN echoing MISSIONARY MAN as a modern-day western (WM was to be his next directorial project at the time)
https://vimeo.com/172742358

[Moltisanti]

In the States this is available to watch now on the Hoopla streaming service.

For the most part I enjoyed this. There isn't anything spectacular about it but the character is a good match for Lundgren at this point in his life. We need to make peace with the fact that he isn't gonna be mowing down 40 guys in a chop shop these days. WANTED MAN is a pretty basic story that doesn't really go anywhere you're not expecting yet I still appreciated the end result.

[savagesketch]

Agreed with Moltisanti.

This isn't anything new... It's a fairly basic, routine story that we've seen dozens of times before. But... Dolph manages to do a lot with a little, and the final result are things that we don't normally see in these smaller, indie action films -- multiple sets, real character development, and some strong acting. Who knows if it'll be remembered and talked about in a few years (with the over abundance of streaming content, I'm afraid that this'll get lost and forgotten among the shuffle), yet it remains a strong attempt to pump life into this genre, which I'm afraid may be on its way out (there's just no more money in these things; yet that's another conversation for another time). Overall though, this gets a solid pass.

Expect to hear more on an upcoming podcast episode!

[bomaz]

No insight on a french release ?
(I guess it's a given it will at least get a BR release by Metro Films, right ?)

Anyway, I was scared it wasn't gonna get any promotion in the US, but there was a fair amount of interview (even though question were relatively "seen before"). Too bad Grammer didn't any promo for it, it would have been good for the movie.

[Jox]

No insight on a french release ?
(I guess it's a given it will at least get a BR release by Metro Films, right ?)

I assume it will be released by Metropolitan, yeah, but who knows when...

The handling of Dolph's titles in France has been pretty terrible in the past years, a bunch of them never got released at all, some only discretely on DVD or VOD, and even the best ones like SKIN TRADE which got a Blu-ray were treated quite poorly and likely didn't do very well...

[bomaz]

Voices from The Balcony /Nerdly didn't like it. So did('nt) Movie Web.

[Churchman]

So is the running time 85 minutes or 81 minutes?

[Jox]

85 min with end credits.


According to this site, it's playing on 5 screens with 1 showing a day...
https://www.tributemovies.com/showtimes ... an/175966/

[bomaz]

So far, the Tomato score is weeeeell below Castle Falls (only 17%).

[Jox]

Rotten Tomatoes is such BS, it's misleading, lacking nuance, so to me it's not really representative of anything (except how the internet wants to categorize everything in simplistic, black and white terms)...

Also when I read some online comments that complain about it being "too slow" or not being action-packed, I can take them seriously...

[Churchman]

Yeah rotten tomatoes is just a haven for hipster wannabes that have no real appreciation for anything good.

[Jox]

In Australia March 20 (DVD & digital)




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[Leigh2704]

Still no UK release...

[Jox]

Tomorrow in Sweden on digital (before the BR/DVD on Feb 12)
https://www.moviezine.se/nyheter/digita ... wanted-man