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THE DEFENDER (Dolph Lundgren, 2004)
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by Mosquito on 15 Mar 2005, 23:02
Jox wrote:MOSQUITO, I found the same DVD on an other Thai website, this one seems serious to me, isn't piracy more like in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwain?
Oh no. The incident with the ebay seller was only a few months ago. And I've been to Thailand in 2002. You wouldn't believe it. There are big shops everywhere where they sell tons of stuff. When we visited one electronics shopping center ("Pantip Plaza") it consisted almost entirely of copied software and movies (the latest MS Windows versions and the newest movies) and refurbished laptops. Unbelievable!
There's a site called "Bangkok Bob". He writes about Pantip Plaza: "Although it has been the target of several police raids, the copy software sellers carry on with a good early warning system, and the supply is never disrupted for more than a day or so." You can read the whole story here: http://www.bangkokbob.net/pantip.html.
One thing on Bob's site makes me a bit nervous. He tells tourists never to buy gemstones. Guess I have to carry mine to the jeweller and let him assess them... *gulp*
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I have Defender on DVD! In glorious 5.1 English!
by Tom on 21 Mar 2005, 18:56
I just recieved it from ThaiCDexpress. I will be watching it tonight and I'll post a review tomorrow.
For anyone considering purchasing it from ThaiCD express, I can asure you the DVD is good quality. It;s a proper DVD release, very well done, not a VCD. The picture is a good standard and the sound is fantastic.
As for the trailer, well that is lame but trailers aren't really too important. The trialers problem is that it is one of those sorts that just gives away everything and is quickly pit together, with some really bad trailer music. I don't know why they didn;t use some of the score, because as I mentioned in my review of the Spanish verison, the score is very good.
You may still want to wait but for $5.99, i's not bad going. I'm in England so I paid an extra 15.99 to have it fed-exed but that was still only working out at about 11-12 pounds overall which is a very good price. Also I must say that the DVD came much sooner than expected, I only ordered it on the 19th.
For anyone considering purchasing it from ThaiCD express, I can asure you the DVD is good quality. It;s a proper DVD release, very well done, not a VCD. The picture is a good standard and the sound is fantastic.
As for the trailer, well that is lame but trailers aren't really too important. The trialers problem is that it is one of those sorts that just gives away everything and is quickly pit together, with some really bad trailer music. I don't know why they didn;t use some of the score, because as I mentioned in my review of the Spanish verison, the score is very good.
You may still want to wait but for $5.99, i's not bad going. I'm in England so I paid an extra 15.99 to have it fed-exed but that was still only working out at about 11-12 pounds overall which is a very good price. Also I must say that the DVD came much sooner than expected, I only ordered it on the 19th.
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by Jox on 22 Mar 2005, 02:03
Hope that this news makes you happy Tom: according to http://soundtrack.net, Adam Nordén is to score the music of THE MECHANIK as well.
Last edited by Jox on 31 Mar 2005, 01:45, edited 1 time in total.
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by Jox on 22 Mar 2005, 11:24
I ordered and received the Thai DVD, and given the look and money spent on the packaging, I can now there's no way this is a bootleg version. There's no way pirates would have spent so much on the packaging. I worked in a DVD department of a distribution company, and I can tell you can sometime spend more on packaging than anything else. It's cheap to slip a cover in a regular DVD case, which is what they did here. But they also put the case in a hard paper sleeve, that they had to print especially for that, and they had the title made in a 3D kind of way (I don't know the term in english, the french equivalent would be "waffelled" because it's like making waffels), which is the most expensive part. But with all that, I really don't how they can recover their costs by selling it for $5.99!
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by Jox on 22 Mar 2005, 11:26
I didn't see it in Spanish, but here is my review:
WOW!...and I mean WOW! This picture is an event, a date in Dolph's career, I was so anxious and excited at the time that he took up on directing this movie (even if I always thought he should direct sometime). And guess what: Dolph himself is one (if not the best) of the best directors he's ever worked with! I watched "The Defender" holding my breath the whole time and I am speechless. And Dolph has got all to get credit for... Forget the patriotic scenario that I was very afraid of, and which succeeds to be convincing, by adding interesting twits to it. First the movie looks fantastic, and at least 3 times more expensive than its cost. It has a definite sense of scope and pace. The music is engaging, cool, atmospheric, which makes you enter into the movie. Cinematography and editing are just amazing, in a way that we probably never saw that in a Lundgren movie yet. Sound is used in its smartest and best effective way. And in this non-stop action flick, Dolph gives it a touch of drama, like by making each death counts, as in a tragedy.
WOW!...and I mean WOW! This picture is an event, a date in Dolph's career, I was so anxious and excited at the time that he took up on directing this movie (even if I always thought he should direct sometime). And guess what: Dolph himself is one (if not the best) of the best directors he's ever worked with! I watched "The Defender" holding my breath the whole time and I am speechless. And Dolph has got all to get credit for... Forget the patriotic scenario that I was very afraid of, and which succeeds to be convincing, by adding interesting twits to it. First the movie looks fantastic, and at least 3 times more expensive than its cost. It has a definite sense of scope and pace. The music is engaging, cool, atmospheric, which makes you enter into the movie. Cinematography and editing are just amazing, in a way that we probably never saw that in a Lundgren movie yet. Sound is used in its smartest and best effective way. And in this non-stop action flick, Dolph gives it a touch of drama, like by making each death counts, as in a tragedy.
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Defender Review!
by Tom on 22 Mar 2005, 14:37
I know Jox has also seen and loved it so prepare tp have your appetite wetted again people. The Defender is probably Dolph's best all round film!
Dolph Lundgren takes up directing duties for the first time here and scores a hit! The Defender is a film which remarkably for a B-movie offers some thought provoking ideas. The plot involves political intrigue and corruption but the basic gist is that America wants peace with the international terrorists against them. A secrect meeting is set up between the head of NSA and Mohamed Jamar a kind of Sadam/Bin Laden character. Dolph plays Lance Rockford bodyguard and leader of a team of highly trained operatives who look after the head of the NSA. In 91 he thought in the Gulf and was captured and tortured to set an example to America. His torture was ordered from Jamar. So we now have an interesting concept. The meeting takes place in Romania in an empty hotel, a fantastic setting. What happens is that initially Dolph doesn’t know who Roberta’s Jones (NSA head) is meeting. The meeting is taking place essentially to buy Jamar’s invisibility. He cannot be convicted or killed as that would make him a martyr, however if America does nothing they look weak. Buying his invisibility basically means he will never surface again and that America can keep up the pretence that he is being hunted down. So there is now a hotel with a terrorist and the head of the NSA meeting up with bodyguards for each. However this secret meeting is not so secret and they are ambushed. As it turns out by American soldiers, working for a group of traitors who call themselves the patriots group. Including one of the presidents own advisors, and a senator. They want the meeting to fail, become public and in essence to oust he president and star a war at the same time. There is profit in war it seems. This is an interesting concept in itself but the movie take in an extra interesting twist which you’ll have to see for yourself.
As a director Dolph does well, raising the question: Why work with so many b-grade hacks in recent years? He does the best directing job since he had the good fortune to work with John Woo in 98 with BlackJack. Lest we not forget that Dolph has worked with some good directors, Woo, Russell Mulcahey, Roland Emmerich, as well as some veterans who although past their best when they worked with Dolph, still must have been useful for picking up tips, for example Sidney Furie, Ted Kotcheff and Bruce Malmuth. The Defender with all it’s political intrigue and so called acts of patriotism are comparable to the Bourne films. This is essentially the low budget sibling to those films and although this is inferior, this is still good work. Dolph handles the action well and the action is plentiful with the entire last hour essentially one long action scene. The camera keeps moving creating a real vibrancy and kinetic energy that works well and the action is reality based putting the audience right in there with some great use of sound. The sound design is the best part of this film, strange as that may sound, but it is so well done it really enhances the action. At the same time the editing is tight and this gives the films action a great sense of rhythm and pacing, particularly with some excellent hand-to-hand moments.
Cast-wise, Dolph is good in the lead, giving a solid performance. He plays it just right and it’s a role that demands subtlety during it’s edgier moments. He is ably supported by Caroline Lee-Johnson as Roberta Jones, as well as Shakara Ledard as a female member of Dolph’s security teams. The rest of Dolph’s team are also good. Particularly good in support is the one and only Jerry Springer as the president! President Springer! How cool would that be? Very methinks! Anyway Jerry is surprisingly good in fact because acting his not his first profession.
The film is also blessed with a good score from Adam Norden whose subtle synth based score does not try to recreate a full orchestra, but instead plays to the strengths of the synthesizer and he creates some interesting themes. Also the cinematography from Maxime Alexandre is excellent, making the film look far more polished than Dolph’s more recent efforts and giving it the gloss of one Seagal and Van Damme’s latest efforts the considerably more expensive Into The Sun and Wake Of Death respectively. The Defender it must be said is also far superior to those films and is a film I would certainly watch at the cinema, even without my main man Dolph in it. It has interesting concepts and is a good action film. I have seen some abysmal films at the cinema like A Man Apart and Collateral Damage, Driven. All with big action stars, yet Defender is a hell of a lot better than those films. It has some integrity and excitement.
Overall this is a solid piece and Dolph’s fans will be more than happy. Adding to their excitement, Dolph is taking up directing duty in his next film too, with him playing a Russian hit-man in The Mechanik, co-starring Ben Cross (Chariots Of Fire). The Defender is a good watch for any action fan. ****
Dolph Lundgren takes up directing duties for the first time here and scores a hit! The Defender is a film which remarkably for a B-movie offers some thought provoking ideas. The plot involves political intrigue and corruption but the basic gist is that America wants peace with the international terrorists against them. A secrect meeting is set up between the head of NSA and Mohamed Jamar a kind of Sadam/Bin Laden character. Dolph plays Lance Rockford bodyguard and leader of a team of highly trained operatives who look after the head of the NSA. In 91 he thought in the Gulf and was captured and tortured to set an example to America. His torture was ordered from Jamar. So we now have an interesting concept. The meeting takes place in Romania in an empty hotel, a fantastic setting. What happens is that initially Dolph doesn’t know who Roberta’s Jones (NSA head) is meeting. The meeting is taking place essentially to buy Jamar’s invisibility. He cannot be convicted or killed as that would make him a martyr, however if America does nothing they look weak. Buying his invisibility basically means he will never surface again and that America can keep up the pretence that he is being hunted down. So there is now a hotel with a terrorist and the head of the NSA meeting up with bodyguards for each. However this secret meeting is not so secret and they are ambushed. As it turns out by American soldiers, working for a group of traitors who call themselves the patriots group. Including one of the presidents own advisors, and a senator. They want the meeting to fail, become public and in essence to oust he president and star a war at the same time. There is profit in war it seems. This is an interesting concept in itself but the movie take in an extra interesting twist which you’ll have to see for yourself.
As a director Dolph does well, raising the question: Why work with so many b-grade hacks in recent years? He does the best directing job since he had the good fortune to work with John Woo in 98 with BlackJack. Lest we not forget that Dolph has worked with some good directors, Woo, Russell Mulcahey, Roland Emmerich, as well as some veterans who although past their best when they worked with Dolph, still must have been useful for picking up tips, for example Sidney Furie, Ted Kotcheff and Bruce Malmuth. The Defender with all it’s political intrigue and so called acts of patriotism are comparable to the Bourne films. This is essentially the low budget sibling to those films and although this is inferior, this is still good work. Dolph handles the action well and the action is plentiful with the entire last hour essentially one long action scene. The camera keeps moving creating a real vibrancy and kinetic energy that works well and the action is reality based putting the audience right in there with some great use of sound. The sound design is the best part of this film, strange as that may sound, but it is so well done it really enhances the action. At the same time the editing is tight and this gives the films action a great sense of rhythm and pacing, particularly with some excellent hand-to-hand moments.
Cast-wise, Dolph is good in the lead, giving a solid performance. He plays it just right and it’s a role that demands subtlety during it’s edgier moments. He is ably supported by Caroline Lee-Johnson as Roberta Jones, as well as Shakara Ledard as a female member of Dolph’s security teams. The rest of Dolph’s team are also good. Particularly good in support is the one and only Jerry Springer as the president! President Springer! How cool would that be? Very methinks! Anyway Jerry is surprisingly good in fact because acting his not his first profession.
The film is also blessed with a good score from Adam Norden whose subtle synth based score does not try to recreate a full orchestra, but instead plays to the strengths of the synthesizer and he creates some interesting themes. Also the cinematography from Maxime Alexandre is excellent, making the film look far more polished than Dolph’s more recent efforts and giving it the gloss of one Seagal and Van Damme’s latest efforts the considerably more expensive Into The Sun and Wake Of Death respectively. The Defender it must be said is also far superior to those films and is a film I would certainly watch at the cinema, even without my main man Dolph in it. It has interesting concepts and is a good action film. I have seen some abysmal films at the cinema like A Man Apart and Collateral Damage, Driven. All with big action stars, yet Defender is a hell of a lot better than those films. It has some integrity and excitement.
Overall this is a solid piece and Dolph’s fans will be more than happy. Adding to their excitement, Dolph is taking up directing duty in his next film too, with him playing a Russian hit-man in The Mechanik, co-starring Ben Cross (Chariots Of Fire). The Defender is a good watch for any action fan. ****
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by Mosquito on 22 Mar 2005, 23:17
That sounds very good, I'll check the site. The women who sold copies on ebay said in the description that the DVD comes in a simple envelope, no case.
PS: How much shipping did you pay? I don't want to register before I know the price but I can't find shipping costs on their site.
PS: How much shipping did you pay? I don't want to register before I know the price but I can't find shipping costs on their site.
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by Jox on 22 Mar 2005, 23:54
here's the shipping info page, shipping is very cheap by airmail ($3.50) but it takes longer, Fedex shipping is $15.99 and takes 4-5days, so at the price of the DVD I guess Fedex is worthwhile
http://www.thaicdexpress.com/shippingcost.asp
http://www.thaicdexpress.com/shippingcost.asp
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by Mosquito on 23 Mar 2005, 13:00
Great. Now I want to buy it and they don't accept my credit card. Grmbl. Anyone else having trouble with this? My card works fine on other sites.
PS: Ok, it was my bank. They are on "orange alert" regarding Thai credit card transactions and had to approve this one manually. Now I am awaiting my Defender DVD!
PS: Ok, it was my bank. They are on "orange alert" regarding Thai credit card transactions and had to approve this one manually. Now I am awaiting my Defender DVD!
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The Defender Review !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
by Krom on 26 Mar 2005, 03:12
After i've read webmaster's review for The Defender i was very happy that i didn't dissapoint with my opinion for this movie before the official release.
I bet that none of you belived me the fact that this movie will be an event, an a movie with an A class in front. All of the foreign movie that were made at Media Pro Pictures were very well done.
I'm sorry again about his new project in Bulgaria, i hope he'll be back via MARTINEZ STUDIOS to Romania as soon as possible.
Again THE DEFENDER is a new begining for Dolph's career.
I bet that none of you belived me the fact that this movie will be an event, an a movie with an A class in front. All of the foreign movie that were made at Media Pro Pictures were very well done.
I'm sorry again about his new project in Bulgaria, i hope he'll be back via MARTINEZ STUDIOS to Romania as soon as possible.
Again THE DEFENDER is a new begining for Dolph's career.
Last edited by Krom on 27 Mar 2005, 04:41, edited 1 time in total.
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by Jox on 26 Mar 2005, 08:54
well with THE DEFENDER Dolph proved to be an excellent director, so it should give us high hopes with THE MECHANIK, even if this one is produced by the eternal Nu Image... I don't see why Dolph wouldn't be as demanding as he was with THE DEFENDER... His DP for THE MECHANIK, Ross Clarkson worked for Ringo Lam on several occasions, so he should be good...
THE DEFENDER was to be directed by Sidney Furie, and with all my respect for veteran Furie, I don't think the movie would have been what it is now if he had done it. I think Furie would have film the story very literaly, llike he did on DETENTION or DIRECT ACTION. And I mean, when you see THE DEFENDER, you can imagine that with the same input and energy invested, DETENTION could have been fifty times better and be a great movie...
THE DEFENDER was to be directed by Sidney Furie, and with all my respect for veteran Furie, I don't think the movie would have been what it is now if he had done it. I think Furie would have film the story very literaly, llike he did on DETENTION or DIRECT ACTION. And I mean, when you see THE DEFENDER, you can imagine that with the same input and energy invested, DETENTION could have been fifty times better and be a great movie...
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