COMMAND PERFORMANCE (Dolph Lundgren, 2009)

[Jox]

Will post a review then.

Maybe hold back until November before posting it?

[Mosquito]

Will post a review then.

Maybe hold back until November before posting it?

Only if it would be a bad review.

[Tom]

Will post a review then.

Maybe hold back until November before posting it?

Only if it would be a bad review.

No chance it'll be a bad one! I know CP is gonna rock.

[Mosquito]

Hm, I was just going to buy 2 Thai DVDs for me and my friend but then I saw that it's NTSC... in times of HD, this is even worse than a PAL DVD. I guess I'm going to wait for Bluray.

[Jox]

Site visits and trailer views on Youtube (5,000!) jumped to the roof in two days, could the leak be good viral marketing after all and will it help the rentals and sales?

[Tom]

I think so. These downloads occur for every single DTV film. They're never as good quality as a DVD, by the time they make it to your PC, and then if you want to watch it on your DVD player and widescreen TV, it loses a bit more when you copy to CD, not that I do (with D's flicks anyhow! ). Granted it takes off revenue, but these flicks still make a hell of a lot of money. Thai DVD quality is never the best either, so some often re-rent when the DVD comes to their own shores. I should be getting my DVD tomorrow.

[Tom]

Guess what I have?

[Tom]

Guess what I just watched?

[dolphage]

Guess what I have?

Guess what I just watched?

Brainteasers, huh? Errrr... OK, I give up! What?

But seriously, was it all right? Was there cool stuff in it? Was it badass?

[Tom]

First part of my review, the warm up. I will post the rest on J's say so. But I will say, just for you Dolphage, that it is...BADASS! Seriously. Worth the wait.

Command Performance:
It’s that time of year again. The time of year when the letterbox flaps, you scamper downstairs and see a package in front of your door. The dog hasn’t eaten it! Excellent! Now to open it with the shaking hands of an excited girl opening her copy of “High School Musical 5: The painful divorce year.” It takes time, but finally you remove the DVD from the box, and chuck it away. Sure it’s trash, and sure it’s littered on your carpet now, but who cares? You’re opening a nugget of gold. No!!!! Shrink wrap! The scourge of any excited fan. 20 minutes later, after you’ve nearly smashed you’re DVD in frustration, you get the shrink wrap off. Then comes opening the case. Suddenly, you’re paranoid…what if they forgot to put the DVD inside? Or worse, put something lame in instead! But no, you open it, and there it is…Command Performance, starring Dolph frickin Lundgren.

Yes, long before Universal Soldier 3 was announced or the monumentally awesome and exciting prospect of Expendables, Dolph announced his “Die Hard at a Rock concert” project. It got a brief surge of internet interest for him. The notion sounded cheesy, but at the same time, awesome. Finally, over a year later, I’ve been delivered the final product. Dolph, starring as Joe the drummer, who must take on Russian terrorists. Will he use a drumstick as a weapon? Wait and see yourself!

Following on from his excellent film, The Mechanik, Dolph has had a string of below par, or troublesome pictures. Be it Diamond Dogs, in which the on set problems, and behind close doors shenanigans from producers, resulted in a poor film. Missionary Man as much as Dolph tried, and at times delivered, still had too much working against it, because he worked with Andrew “I’d buy that for a dollar, actually, heck, I’ll give you 50 cents for it” Stevens. Direct Contact followed, but was nothing more than one of Nu Images typical spec films, churned out for little money. Command Performance thus comes to light, with the shadow of The Mechanik, leering over it. Can Dolph hit those heights again?

[dolphage]

Holy fckballs! This movie is gonna rule my life for all eternity. And beyond. I can't wait.

"Badass" you say?

YES!

[Tom]

Pt 2:
Yes…yes he can! Command Performance delivers! It’s a well made, well paced action flick. Like Mechanik, it’s better than a lot of the theatrically released rubbish of it’s year. I’ve seen too many horrendous action flicks at the cinemas this year, that rely purely on big budgets, but have nothing else, no effort, no integrity. Fast and Furious, Wolverine, Terminator 4. They all sucked. What Command Performance delivers on a fraction of the budget, is a film where Dolph not only adds that star power of an action man who knows what he’s doing, and manages badass (to be fair Jackman was still good as Wolverine, but the movie itself was awful), but he directs with assuredness. There’s a concerted effort to do something good, that’s not only fun, tense, but has a bit of drama thrown in as well. As apposed to the films like F&F which are very much the hollow, marketed, and typical modern action films, aimed at teenagers who only wear labels, and can’t string a sentence together. CP is an action fans film. It’s 80’s style action gold. It kicks ass!

Dolph stars as Joe, former bad ass biker, with a shady past, who’s since turned drummer. The film opens on a rock concert in which Joe is playing in the band backing up star turn Venus (Melissa Smith), who’s pretty much a Britney clone. The Russian president and American ambassador are in attendance, meaning that naturally, terrorists will come and start shooting, and hold Presi, hostage. Joe is the reluctant hero, who teams up with an FSB agent to try and bring Kasov (Dave Legano) down. We know from then on what’ll happen. Dolph is gonna open a big old can of whoop-ass, and make the terrorists drink it down. Much like the Defender, D’s first directing gig, once the terrorists show up, the pace never really lets up. And the film has scatterings of action until the finale. Joe himself is a different character to what Dolph normally plays. He’s not straight laced. He’s not driven by revenge, and he’s not always been on the right side of the law. His past has scared him, leaving him reluctant to use a gun, though that plot element is not particularly needed. Dolph sensibly hints at Joes past, without halting the film to spend too much time explaining it.

The action itself is good. It’s simple put it punches. It’s tightly edited, giving it a good pace, and when someone gets shot or killed in close combat, there’s a good delivery of blood to show that they aint gonna be getting back up. The surroundings are tight, claustrophobic, making the action quick, rough, frantic. When Dolph takes someone on in a fight, he goes in fast and hard, using any weapons he can at hands. Dolph’s gone for pretty grounded action. Everything needs a base in reality. Joe’s tough, he can kick ass, but he kicks ass like a biker, so D doesn’t whip out the martial arts moves. And his showdown with Dave Legano, is very much like the end fight in Men Of War. It’s down and dirty. The only thing that lets this down, is the budget. After all, this is a Die Hard formula, and it lacks the one big set piece, or a good money shot stunt. Think Bruce jumping off the Nakatomi plaza, or Seagal jumping off a boat in Under Siege. But given more time, and more money, I’m sure some sort of impressive stunt would have been thrown in by Dolph.

The film looks great. Dolph and his DP Marc Windon, have gone for a Bourne/docu kind of vibe. Once the action kicks in, the pace of cutting picks up as well. It gives everything a sense of kinetic energy, without resorting to mindless shaky cam. But more-so, the energy helps hide the small budget. Windon’s lighting is naturalistically stylised I supposed you could say. He was going for part Bay, part music vid, part Bourne, and it works. It certainly enhances the production value of the film. As for Dolph, his direction gets better every film. The opening of the film really establishes the style of it brilliantly.
It’s well shot, and very well edited by veteran cutsman, Peter Hollywood (Adventures of Baron Von Munchhausen, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). Most importantly, he’s got a good sense of cutting action. Elsewhere on the technical aspects, the production design is good, the concert sequences are very well done, and the sound design is top notch, and sound design is very hit and miss in the Nu Image factory.

Dolph gives a good performance as Joe. He’s laid back, cool, and a bit of a kid at heart. But he’s got a bad streak in him, and he has to bring his dark side out when it comes to kicking some A-holes. I worry sometimes about Dolph directing himself, because he’s not got the outside perspective on his performance. But he did plenty of pre-production work on his character, and it works. Joe’s more everyman than D usually plays, but he’s a badass with it. As Dolph’s FSB tag along Mikhail, Zahary Baharov is good. It’s an important role that demands not sucking, and Baharov is far from sucking. He’s pretty assured with his role. Melissa Smith does okay. She’s not got much of a role at all. As is typical of action flicks, she’s got a pretty wafer thin female role. Dolph to be honest can’t write for a female, but he’s not alone in mandom with that drawback. There’s little chemistry between Dolph and Smith, if only because the coupling looks pretty funny on screen, more than anything else. You have Dolph the middle-aged, heavy metal drummer, 6ft 5, and Melissa Smith, pop princess in her early 20’s, and 5ft 2. Not all that much time is given to their burgeoning relationship anyway, and it takes a back seat once the film kicks in. Lundgren the 2nd, Dolph’s daughter Ida, also stars, and for her screen debut, at 12 years old, does pretty well. I think Dolph struggles writing for 12 yr old girls even more than women it seems! But when you watch an action film, you’re not interested in the role given to the 12 yr old girl (with the odd exception like Leon that is!). The biggest worry was also the bad guy. Die Hard formula flicks live or die by the bad guy. I worried that Legano could bring down the film single handed, but he’s actually pretty good. In fact he’s one of the best DL villains in a long time. He gives his role plenty of intensity. He’s a different villain to Gruber (Die Hard), or Stranix (Under Siege), driven by a different goal. He doesn’t wallow in smug, he just gets on with it. And of course, Legano at 6ft 3, and mostly muscle, is heading for a showdown with DL, from the first minute. Which delivers. Most surprising is Dolph’s buddy James Chalke, who so far in his Dolph film appearances has ranged from bad, to downright horrendous. But he’s competent here.

Overall though, this does not disappoint. It delivers what you want in an action film. It’s well made too. The film probably needs a bit more humour in it, though there are plenty of one-liners and sight gags, but could do with a bit more. All the scenes are well done, bar one, which features the three young women of the film. It briefly halts the film, and the dialogue is terrible. But it’s the only scene in the film that isn’t at least competently done. Mercifully it’s short, and then returns back to the D-man. Still, CP is the best DTV actioner of the year by far, and one of the better action films in general. It’s just about on a par with The Mechanik. ****

[algren]

I haven't watched the Mechanik yet. Missionary Man is next for me to watch, but maybe i'll skip a few and watch The Mechanik.

[Tom]

I haven't watched the Mechanik yet. Missionary Man is next for me to watch, but maybe i'll skip a few and watch The Mechanik.

The Mechanik is Dolph's strongest DTV. It's an old school revenge flick, and it delivers. I'd definitely recommend that one. Missionary Man has it's moments, but had so many problems during the shoot, and a real lack of budget. The finale is very cool though. Dolph goes Terminator.

[dolphage]

Nice, Tom!

I always just skim through reviews of movies I haven't seen, as to not spoil the fun for myself, but from what I could gather it's another well written review by the TomCat and another good movie from the Dolphanero.