Ultimate Dolph

Posted: **13 Jun 2011, 18:25**

It could/should have been way more fun than it is but it's just badly put together and edited (even in scenes where I know they had better coverage they didn't use the best shots). And I can handle stock footage in STORM CATCHER but here Danny Lerner really outdid himself (when he didn't need it because they actually shot a lot of action and stuff)! Sure it's way better in the end than DIAMOND DOGS but the bad taste and choices makes it pretty bad overall still unfortunately. But I'll always keep good memories from it because this is when I first met Dolph in person and I had such a great time on the set.

EDIT:
Review
http://www.stalepopcorn.co.uk/reviews/d ... t-contact/

Posted: **13 Jun 2011, 22:41**

Jox wrote:It could/should have been way more fun than it is but it's just badly put together and edited (even in scenes where I know they had better coverage they didn't use the best shots). And I can handle stock footage in STORM CATCHER but here Danny Lerner really outdid himself (when he didn't need it because they actually shot a lot of action and stuff)! Sure it's way better in the end than DIAMOND DOGS but the bad taste and choices makes it pretty bad overall still unfortunately. But I'll always keep good memories from it because this is when I first met Dolph in person and I had such a great time on the set.

EDIT:
Review
http://www.stalepopcorn.co.uk/reviews/d ... t-contact/

I watched this today and yeah it is great fun, with more time for filming they could have had longer fights because the fights and the explosions were the highlights for me. The endless stock footage and sometimes awful editing is so bad but and the script could have done with some better lines for Dolph. All in all though, a quick 80 minutes for when you don't have the concentration for stuff like Hidden Agenda.

Posted: **15 Jun 2011, 13:57**

The director and producer, Danny Lerner, is an Israeli-born filmmaker who has produced over 80 films including The Mechanic (2011) and Conan the Barbarian (2011). In 2003 he founded Tosca Pictures with his long-time friend and collaborator Les Weldon, who co-wrote Direct Contact with Lerner and is credited with the screenplay.
This film is uninspiring and generic, and at times it feels like you’ve seen it all before (some of the scenes feature stock library footage that has been edited in from other movies). The cast seem uninterested and the direction is flat, with no sense of excitement. The film is loaded with action but fans of Dolph Lundgren’s films, and action films in general, are likely to be disappointed with Direct Contact’s lack of energy and enthusiasm.

http://flickfeast.co.uk/reviews/dvd-rev ... tact-2009/

Posted: **18 Aug 2011, 14:38**

Sec wrote:Australian two-disc edition out April 1st for $14.99 AUD.

Apparently (from the back cover) the Australian edition also features the making of, sound bite interviews and photo gallery.

Posted: **20 Aug 2011, 19:55**

Here's a little exclusive folks, 16 minutes of behind the scenes I had filmed in Sofia

Posted: **21 Aug 2011, 11:43**

Niiice! Hope you'll have this oportunity on The Expendables 2

Posted: **23 Aug 2011, 08:09**

So awesome, thanks for the treat Jox!

Posted: **15 Feb 2013, 09:58**

Posted: **15 Feb 2013, 14:45**

Ha ha! Was just gonna post this but the J man's too sharp for me!

Incidentally, my bro is doing a re-edit of some of the Sweepers action too. D.A and Sweepers work well for re-cutting because they kind of had a budget in them, but we're really poorly paced. Everything was dragged out too much, and there was no urgency or energy to them.

Posted: **16 May 2013, 12:23**

454,000 viewers yesterday (not in prime time) on French cable channel D17, that's a pretty high score
http://www.toutelatele.com/la-journee-r ... gren-49485

Posted: **18 Sep 2013, 11:48**

DP Ross Clarksson on DC:

That was Dolph Lundgren doing Die Hard. Blow up everything. It had a lot of scenes from other movies. I shot all the other movies. (Laughing.) There’s a taxi chase from Derailed. Bits and pieces.

http://www.outlawvern.com/2013/09/18/in ... d-j-moore/

Posted: **20 Oct 2013, 17:50**

I knew there was a lot of stock footage but I just watched this again and damn, they didn't even bother to disguise it at all - 75% at least of the chase scenes have been taken from other movies, the stock footage most of the time doesn't even mix (Dolph goes from wearing an olive green parker to being dressed entirely in black) and they haven't even colour graded it so that the scenes match (the colour grading is appalling on most of the scenes anyway) and what sucks most of all is that they probably had a decent amount of action without adding in all this other shit. Although, take out the stock footage and I reckon you'd lose ten minutes of the movie easily. This could have been pretty good. The script sucks, Dolph is believable but can't do much with a poor character, the villains are so one-dimensional and uninteresting but the fights are pretty neat and lengthy for a Dolph movie and they seem to have been shot nicely without all that close-up/fast cut nonsense. It's a pity they butchered this one, it could have been a really nice piece of popcorn cinema with two people outrunning enemies at every turn. They should have made it a little more "in on the joke" though, like - we know how awful this shit is, but at least it's good fun. The most ridiculous and uneccessary stock shot was the guy at the start who was stabbed in the eye in the prison, it just didn't cut whatsoever with what was a fun fight. Avi Lerner and Danny Lerner are responsible for some seriously shit movies and it's unfortunate Nu Image were in charge of The Expendables movies, as opposed to a company that would actually try and make them stellar action thrillers as opposed to a Bulgarian filmed movie masquerading as a blockbuster. They still have that DTV inclination in some cases. Now if Dolph had directed Direct Contact, we would have had a better end product.

Posted: **20 Oct 2013, 17:58**

Nathan wrote:(Dolph goes from wearing an olive green parker to being dressed entirely in black)

I haven't watched in a while but in the car chase scenes, really? Because I was there when the green screen part with Dolph and Gina was shot in a slow afternoon and there was no wardrobe change, but they might have tricked with the lighting or colors (or messed up with defective film stock).

Posted: **20 Oct 2013, 19:37**

A slow afternoon? No, it was during the bike chase when the tanks were supposedly shooting at him, (the whole sequence must have been lifted from another movie because Dolph ends up blatantly dressed in all black (obviously it's from another movie) - but the car chase you speak of (ripped almost entirely from Derailed - did they shoot any of it at all outside the studio?) has Dolph firing a gun out the back window - it cuts from the close-up against the green screen, then when he turns round to fire out of the back window it is Van Damme's hand and an entirely different gun.

Posted: **21 Oct 2013, 11:01**

Nathan wrote:A slow afternoon?

The process of filming often feels slow (because of all the waiting around between set ups etc) but shooting green screen inside a studio is some of the most tedious, I'm not surprising actors don't like it much (not mentioning they have to fake it even more than usual).

No, it was during the bike chase when the tanks were supposedly shooting at him, (the whole sequence must have been lifted from another movie because Dolph ends up blatantly dressed in all black (obviously it's from another movie)

Oh yeah for sure that one is obvious.

- but the car chase you speak of (ripped almost entirely from Derailed - did they shoot any of it at all outside the studio?) has Dolph firing a gun out the back window - it cuts from the close-up against the green screen, then when he turns round to fire out of the back window it is Van Damme's hand and an entirely different gun.

No, they didn't shoot anything else than Dolph and Gina May inside half a car shacked by grips with the camera mounted on a jib crane moving back and forth and lights around. Gina was screaming like a porn star while Dolph was firing his gun behind once in a while (very good at fake driving and dodging invisible bullets by the way).

Here are some behind the scenes of that sequence at 10:45:

Jox wrote:Here's a little exclusive folks, 16 minutes of behind the scenes I had filmed in Sofia

Ultimate Dolph

DIRECT CONTACT (Danny Lerner, 2008)

Re: DIRECT CONTACT - Danny Lerner (2008)

Re: DIRECT CONTACT - Danny Lerner (2008)

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Re: DIRECT CONTACT - Danny Lerner (2008)

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