by Nathan on 24 Jun 2012, 19:31
Been having a bit of a Dolph marathon recently, what with Silent Trigger, Bridge of Dragons, Sweepers, Red Scorpion and Hidden Assassin. I think I prefer that title, The Shooter is a bit cheap, whereas Hidden Assassin actually makes sense.
Love the locations in Hidden Assassin which I think, along with the gritty action scenes, make the movie. Especially the fights which are quite realistic, one punch to the gut type thing, a few scrambles. I can imagine the Cohen brothers directing something like this nowadays, a sort of cold, nasty spy thriller. It does have its downsides but all in all, one of the most serious Dolph movies. Still hoping one day that the super-douper length version is released in the UK. Hey, if Pentathlon eventually made it...
Looking back, I feel Dolph never really got the best chance. I mean, every single movie he made up until Universal Soldier, was practically plagued with issues beyond his control. Masters was released when the fad was over and Cannon were in charge, these days it would be a major, major studio backing such an adaption. Companies went bankrupt or lavish looking Lundgren starrers, ended up DTV when they shouldn't have. Red Scorpion had production issues.
Even after Universal Soldier, Joshua Tree and Men of War should have made it to the theatres. There is always something slightly missing. Like if you look at an Arnold movie, let's say...Commando which is the closest I can think of in comparison with Joshua Tree, it seems to have an advantage over it, and it shouldn't.
I can't quite describe it really. But yeah, I feel Dolph didn't get the chance, just bad luck for the most part. Now he has a better chance for more interesting parts, provided he can hold off on the awful DTV movies by now. With every poor release, the people who buy it will get less and less. But he is a better actor now, and in a better position than he was ten years ago.
"Are we having fun yet?" - Dolph Lundgren, Universal Soldier