THE MECHANIK / THE RUSSIAN SPECIALIST (Dolph Lundgren, 2005)

[Terminator]

hmm... by the way, why does a lands like Pakistan or Thailand offer new movies first? I'd have thought about Rumania or the USA.

@ khurram112:
When I bought Silent Trigger, I was firstly pleased, too, but the DVD version I got does only support the German Audio and like you said it: almostly no features at all. Maybe it is better to wait and to turn the arguments into positive ones. So that we've got the Internet, it's quite easy to find new movie releases.

[Jox]

The german DVD of The Mechanik is not gonna be too bad:

extras include making of, photo gallery and trailer + film presented in 1.85 widescreen and 5.1 sound of course,

but be sure to get the FSK 18 rated version if you don't want the film to be cut (16 rating version) (available for retail in April)

[Jox]

Japanese DVD cover

[Terminator]

I think the cover with the skull is the best one. The slogan varies from the English to the German Version. The German one is a more general one, but in the end, the meaning is the same, a quite simple setting, just like in "The Defender". Vengeance because of the "bad guys"... but I'd like to watch that movie anyway.
Dolph´s shoulders are a lot tighter than they were in Rocky IV...
More motivation for me to stick a way closer to him.

[preacher]

Wow!
I´m a big fan of this film! I think it rocked the socks of most of Dolphs films. I love "Showdown" but while that one is just great popcorn-action this one is dirty, gritty and just real overall. The people in this movie seem like real persons (not common in actionfilms at all) and I must say I loved the cast. It´s more than ok in my book. Dolph and Ben Cross naturally but I think that practically all of the russian speaking parts turned in good/great performances. My only problem was Olivia Lee as the kidnapped girl, but she was´nt all bad either.
As for the cinematography: Excellent! I love how the film uses it´s locations. Both city and countryside. And the action is staged in a great way.
The story is ofcourse very simple, but strong characters and suprisingly clever dialouge makes it work. Bryan Hill, if you are reading this: Great job mate!
The premise of The Mechanik could just as well have turned in to a crap-fest, but this film is just so skillfully executed on all levels that the not so original story turns into an exciting and gripping one.

I won´t go into every detail but i needs to be said that The Mechanik is a good film. Not just good because it´s Dolph or good for being a cheap actionmovie... it´s just down right good!

[Tom]

It was a revenge film that felt different from one's I'd seen. I loved the quiter moments because they added subtlety lacking in DTV revenge flicks.

[Jox]

I actually had a Dolph Lundgren double feature last night, watching THE DEFENDER and THE MECHANIK back to back and I must it was great to evaluate the differences between the two movies. You'd notice I usually give Dolph's films a lot of excuses to like them even when they're bad, just because it's Dolph. But I must say those two are overall just good movies don't make me ashamed to praise them in public. Where Dolph strikes as a promising director is the sense of style that those two films have. They're both hard-core action flicks, but they're shot in a totally different way, with a different pace.

I can't wait to see Dolph's third masterpiece! He's supposed to shoot a film in Russia this spring, so I hope he's gonna direct it as well... that's be dolph-tastic!

[Moltisanti]

I agree all the way. It will be nice to see him in a different type of movie like THE INQUIRY but after that I hope he directs another film. The best case scenerio would be for the right people to see what he can do on a small budget and give him the chance to direct an even bigger film like the ones Statham and the Rock appear in, maybe not just direct but co-star as well.

[aaaab]

I have seen the excellent trailer of The Mechanik, and I was wondering if someone know the release date for the Mechanik in France or in Belgium?

Thank you for your answer.

[Jox]

I just thought this mornig it'd be funny and interesting at the same if Stallone asked him to direct RAMBO IV, even though I do not really wish it happens.

[bryanhill]

Bryan Hill here.

I forgot my password, Jox. Took me twenty minutes to come back here, LOL.

Thanks for the kind words and support. Dolph and I really appreciate it. Just talked with him last week. (He's filming in Tunisia). He's very happy with the film and he's even happier that you guys enjoy all the work he put into it.

Cheers,

BH

[Moltisanti]

I hope he appreciates the good script you helped come up with for the film. It's probably the best one he's had to work with since the John Sayles co-scripted MEN OF WAR.

[TombRaider]

R1 back:

[Travis]

I thought it was sloow and boring. What did everyone else think?

[Tom]

I thought it was very good. I see why fans of Dolph's big explosion fests might not enjoy it as much. I personally would love to see Dolph doing a real all out action fest again but at the same time I appreicated The Mechanik because it was good old fashioned revenge flick, that also for an action film had some subtlety. I enjoyed the quieter moments because you generally don;t get them in most action films.

The action as well was very good and although brief, was made to ocunt, hit hard. With the low budgets we can't expect the amount of carnage of Army Of One and Punisher etc.

I do thnk that as an overall piece, Mechanik is Dolph's best film, although it's not my faovurite because I do love the cheesey action fests. But it's a more real and down to earth film whereas his faourites like Showdown, Unisol, Punisher, Dark Angel are comic bookish movies. Mechanik has a bit more depth and doesn't fail where something like Jill Ripps did. I have high expectations for Inquiry, because again this is not gonna be a cheesy action extravaganza.

I would definitely love Dolph to be given a bigger budget in his next film, espeically considering the polish he gave to his first two directing gigs, no more than 6 million budget a piece. I think there's been an upsurge in interest in Dolph since he started directing and I fully expect his next directing gig to be slightly more expensive.

Dolph will get better and better as a director and I think interest in him is gonna increase. He'll be able to expand the scope and increase the action.