This is the first Dolph Lundgren movie I've seen in many a moon and I found it an entertaining modern day take on the classic Westerns of old, mainly Shane, High Plains Drifter and most of all Pale Rider. Dolph does a good job of playing the mysterious preacher who rides into town and takes care of the local bad guys. This is the perfect entertainment for a Friday night with a few beers. Dolph also directed this movie and that really impressed me he has a definite talent for that and I hope he directs a few more, preferably with a slightly bigger budget as this was undoubtedly a low budget movie but one that I found much more rewarding than many a Hollywood blockbuster. Whilst many of the supporting actors won't win many awards some of the young cast were very good as was the two main villains. My one complaint was the colour of the movie I found it a little too colourless but I suppose it gave it a cool look. Thumbs up for the final shoot-out too with a nice final line from Dolph before he rides into the sunset.
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LuboLarsson22 February 2008
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mark-evans-1219 January 2008Not too bad a film to sit down and watch on a lazy afternoon. Dolph is Dolph and doesn't look like he's making too much effort in the role although let's face it not much effort needed in your simple revenge film.
Nothing new in the story line but that's not surprising as it's a blatant re-make of the Clint Eastwood classic Pale Rider. Man rides into town, beats up bullies, gets on wrong side of local boss, he's a preacher of sorts, young daughter of mother he's protecting takes a shine to him, local boss tries to hire him then gets out-of-towners in to kill him but the main one is scared of him as he knows him from before but you never get any more information about when and where he knows him from and then he rides out of town and 'disappears' on the road after killing everyone with the daughter left standing looking longingly after him. Almost scene for scene.
The style of the camera work and choice of film stock add something but I doubt they ever expected it to better the original. More like the studios picking a safe storyline for a Dolph Lundgren project. -
fmarkland3219 February 2008Dolph Lundgren stars as Ryder a mysterious biker who rolls into town (and bares an uncanny resemblance to Gary Busey) and defends an Indian reservation from the local mobsters and bikers that show up in the finale. Missionary Man despite what Dolph Lundgren fans will tell you, is not one of his best movies. Indeed in comparison to his last two directorial efforts this one is the weakest. The problem is that the action is badly edited, the bad guy bikers aren't written well and pose little threat and the film is all grainy and bled out of colors. (Why Dolph didn't shoot this in black and white is beyond me.) The climax has its moments and Missionary Man does remain somewhat watchable through Lundgren's typically commanding presence but with such craftsmanship shown in The Russian Specialist and The Defender one can't help but be disappointed with this one. Plus Lundgren borrows heavily from many superior films such as Pale Rider, High Plains Drifter and Billy Jack. The problem is that he just can't fuse enough novelty to distinguish his work. In the end though it's the sped up action and over-edited camera angles which render this one as a forgettable effort. Not a terrible movie mind you, indeed it is superior to most straight to video movies but Missionary Man is nothing special.
* * out of 4-(Fair) -
Thefourstarcritic24 November 2013Just when you think you've seen every vigilante theme covered, Hollywood pulls this out of the bag. The baddie from Rocky IV (who I'm sorry to say has NOT aged well) writes, shoots, directs, casts, produces, finances, edits, set designs, gaffers and stars in this unique story David v Goliath.
When MM (missionary man) rolls up on his Vespa to the quiet town of *insert town name*, all the locals know about him is that he drinks tequila. straight. All he knows about them is that the native Indians of the town (dressed in costumes so offensively stereotypical, they go past the point of being offensively stereotypical and return to full authenticity) are being asked kindly but firmly to move site by the local government committee, in order to make way for a casino, which would bring wealth, jobs and tourism to the area.
MM soon makes friends with one native Indian family who have just lost their patriarchal figure in a freak drowning accident. 'Our father didn't drown, he was killed' says child native Indian, which confused me a bit. I mean, she was getting at the fact her dad was murdered, but even if someone was holding his head underwater, thus starving his body of oxygen, he still technically drowned. I think what she meant to say was 'Our father's death was the result of actions taken by a third party who possessed malice aforethought'
Anyway, back to the story and the casino planning. MM is having non of this so-called economic progress, and sets off downing shots and kicking-ass.
Now, I'm not gonna spoil the ending by telling you who won, but all I will say is that there will be no Craps for the small town of *insert town name* tonight, or any other night!
There's also some weird sexual tension between Mother Native Indian and MM, but the less said about that the better. It seems like Rocky IV baddie wrote in some sex scenes, but got cold feet at the last minute and scribbled them out. anyway, you just get this sense they are sleeping together off-camera.
The film is beautifully shot, but I found out later it was just colour distortion due to trouble converting the film reel, so I don't really think he can get points for that, hence the 9/10 score. -
callanvass10 March 2015I couldn't finish the whole thing! I'm a huge Dolph fan, but I wish they'd give him better material. Dolph tries to pull a Clint Eastwood with the "Stranger" routine. It lacks the budget and more importantly, the entertainment to pull it off. It's extremely talky, and the action scenes are very unexciting. It looks really cheap and grainy, and I didn't see the point in the whole scheme of things. Dolph deserves so much more than this cheap crud. When he gets something to work with, he shines. If you want to see a great Lundgren movie, watch The Punisher. He's made good movies in his career, but this isn't one of them. Avoid it!
DUD -
I'm a fan of Dolph Lundgren, i think he's vastly underrated and he's charismatic and fun to watch in quite a few movies. Showdown in little Tokyo, Red scorpion, Universal solider, The punisher, I come in peace, Johnny Mnemonic, Rocky 4 and The Expendables are all enjoyable movies. Missionary Man is really bottom of the barrel stuff and i struggled to finish watching it. it looks like a TV movie, the action scenes use a lot of shakey cam and are edited so poorly that it's difficult to tell what is meant to be happening and the acting is soap opera quality. Dolph plays a mysterious stranger who passes through a troubled town and takes down the bad guys and i do enjoy that kind of character despite it being a massive cliche but this movie was just so boring i didn't care. You can tell this was made on a very low budget which isn't always a negative but it hurts this movie a lot because the team who made it obviously had no interesting or original ideas.
I was suckered in to buy this on DVD because the cover was really cool, i like Dolph Lundgren and i'm always looking for action movies. Don't be fooled, it sucks. -
Maziun18 October 2013The premise for this movie is basically a classical western story – stranger comes to town and delivers justice. The rehashed plot is nothing new , with elements taken from movies like "The outlaw Josey Wales "(1976), "Billy Jack" (1971) , " Walking tall " (1973) and "Pale rider" (1985). Actually the plot is so similar to "Pale rider" you could call "The Missionary man" a remake of Eastwood's classic. It's an The movie has a washed-out, grainy look that doesn't do it any favors. Due to a down-conversion gone wrong from HD to DVD, the picture quality and colors don't match the HD master that was approved by director Dolph Lundgren. I guess Lundgren wanted to do an arty action movie . The sad truth is that Lundgren doesn't seem to know s**t about lighting. All the sets are dimly lit and the characters are in perpetual shadow. My eyes were tired after a while.
Lundgren's character wears sunglasses , rides a motorbike and reads Bible. Sounds cool , right ? Unfortunately the potential for interesting character is wasted. We never get to know anything about him to the very end of movie . He doesn't have any personality and there isn't a real reason for the audience to like Lundgren's character or care about him . The plot holes are terribly annoying - who the hell was the weeping guy , we never learn what Lundgren did for a living , where he came from , what's with his relationship with JJ and Jarfe.
At 90 odd minutes not that much happens. There are many , too many boring, talky bits and few weak, jerky, short fight scenes. There should have been more excitement and edge. Dolph just sort of lumbers around and tries to look cool. The movie is lifeless , uninteresting and forgettable after few minutes.
"The Missionary man" is crap. I give it 1/10. -
claudio_carvalho23 April 2008A mysterious biker (Dolph Lundgren) arrives in a small town in an Indian reservation for the funeral of his friend J.J. and discovers through his family that he was murdered by the men of the powerful John Reno (Matthew Stephens Tompkins). The corrupt businessman plans to build a casino in association with criminals from the North in the town and J.J. opposed to his intentions offering a better option to the locals. The lone vigilante decides to stay in town with his bible and drinking straight tequila and like an avenging angel, bring justice to people.
While watching "Missionary Man", I have immediately associated the story as an adaptation of "Pale Rider" and the character of Dolph Lundgren to "The Preacher" and also to "Billy Jack", and I found that others IMDb users had had the same impression. Like in "Pale Rider", the mysterious stranger leaves many open questions that may give a mystical interpretation to his character. In the end, "Missionary Man" is modern adaptation and very decent remake of a classic. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "O Missionário" ("The Missionary") -
angelicrevenants1 February 2008I really did not enjoy this movie. I am a fan of westerns, a fan of action, and a fan of movies with religious undertones. I was most let down by the main character. Reading the synopsis, I was given the impression that the protagonist would be a lot cooler than he was. He said about 100 words in the whole movie, and had very little personality.
The plot could have been the basis of quite a good movie, but this was appalling. There was very little life in any of the characters, and the best actor (the only good one) is Jarfe, the biker. The only reason I gave a two instead of a one is the atmosphere that the film has. It is quite well done, except for the fact that there is the sound of wind in every scene. -
udar5525 January 2008A mysterious stranger (Dolph Lundgren) rides into an Indian reservation town for the funeral of a guy named JJ. This drifter, who drinks tequila and reads the Bible, claims to have been a friend in JJ's military unit, but no one recognizes him. Naturally, our lead gets into it with the local bad guys (and JJ's killers) led by Reno (Matthew Tompkins). When the stranger easily handles the small-town crew, Reno calls in a motorcycle gang to add some extra muscle to battle this apparent angel of vengeance.
While it is hard to believe with his looks, Dolph Lundgren turned 50 last November. As an aging b-action star, he seems to have survived better than most by making the move to the director's chair. This film - his third directorial effort following THE DEFENDER and THE Russian SPECIALIST - shows that he definitely has a handle of the craft. This is basically THE OUTLAW DOLPH-Y WALES, but it is neat seeing Lundgren play a character with a metaphysical edge. He leaves it up to the viewer to decide if this guy is real or a ghost (I side with the latter) and that is a appreciated twist.
Like his two previous directorial efforts, the violence level is up there so he knows his audience. The only misstep in my opinion is Dolph's decision to give the film that popular bleached look. Some points are so bad that the film almost looks like an old sepia toned silent movie. The cast is all around good, with John Enos III being quite effective as the biker leader. Also, UFC star Brad Imes shows up for a bit as one of the town thugs. The film's oddest moment is a cameo by producer/former b-movie star Andrew Stevens as a drug dealer with all of his dialog in Spanish. -
situationuniverse2 October 2008No, Dolph, No. That's what I'd tell the Swedish muscle man when he decided upon a career in directing. The actor to Director transfer works if you're Clint Eastwood(Quality Actor and Quality Director). Unfortunately Dolph was never a good actor, so when he turned his hand to writing and directing it could only end one way.
A local gangster is strong-arming the Native Indian townsfolk into building a Casino. Anyone who argues with him tends to turn up riddled with bullets. Dolph Lungdren plays Ryder, a bible thumping shotgun wielding maniac who has an axe to grind. He rides into town on his motorcycle to attend the funeral of his murdered war buddy, but quickly starts a one man crusade to free the town.
This is a hugely forgettable formula movie with plot points and action stolen from better films. You're left wondering if you actually watched it at all, as it evaporates from memory within minutes.
As a director, Dolph is amateur at best. No one bothered to tell him about lighting for a start. All the sets are dimly lit and the characters are in perpetual shadow. With a searing sun above his head there are no excuses. He just had to face his actors in the other direction.
As an actor, Dolph reminds us why he barely had any leading parts in movies ( Red Scorpion is the only one that comes to mind). His face only has two expressions; Square jaw angry and a gurning grin that makes PM Gordon Brown's look genuine.
You can't help feel sorry for Lungdren. He's obviously not been offered much work and has decided to go it on his own. There's a quiet dignity in that. Buying his DVD makes me feel like I've dropped money in a charity bucket: Save the 80's action stars.
Verdict 2/10 It gets two from sympathy. -
anghart26 January 2008Dolph Lundgren is the unappreciated underdog of DTV action stars. While many people flock to buy Van Damme or Seagal's latest pics, less chase after Mr. Lundgren's work, and that's a shame. He has something going on. Something good.
MM (Missionary Man) is his third directorial effort, and although it isn't as good as his last picture, it's still interesting and shows some of the class and skillful touches he displayed in The Mechanik and The Defender.
This film is basically Pale Rider with Dolph in the Clint role. Can he handle such a role? You betcha. He plays a mysterious man named Ryder, who rolls into a quiet small town to attend a friend's funeral. Before you can say "trouble" he's already figured out that a rich young jackass is running the place and is behind the friend's death.
The rest of the first and second act is taken up with the plight of the Indians who live in the town. We're shown how modern America struggles with the Indians' beliefs and their way of life. Credit must be given to Dolph for trying to make more than a low budget shoot 'em up.
Unfortunately, as a result of that part of the story, the middle act drags a little. However, a rousing final act, where a gang of bikers turn up to foolishly stop Dolph, kick-starts the picture back to life.
The high noon showdown is BLOODY. Not Rambo bloody, but bloody nonetheless. One poor soul even takes a 12 gage to the face! It's these scenes that show Dolph has an understanding of action greater than his rivals. If Stallone's enjoying a cinematic action rebirth, Dolph's enjoying a DTV rebirth.
The look of the film is also noticeable. Lundgren has bathed the film is a dark sepia look and the music is subtle and underused.
The supporting players are a slight letdown. Some seem like community theater actors, while others, especially the Native Americans, come off as genuine and real. John Enos III rocks up as the lead heavy, Jarfe, about thirty minutes from the end, and that's a shame. His character should have been in the whole picture.
Incidentally, Dolph does the best he can with the very modest production values he has. Note to Sony: Give these stars more money to play with. Granted, they don't need $100 million, but are a few back more out of the question??? (Dolph, if you're reading this, put Enos in another one of your movies. He was cool.) And onto the man himself. As I said in my review for The Mechanik, Dolph has grown into his skin. He's comfortable and relaxed. He's the same in MM and I'm sure if he keeps getting good material to make, he will continue to relax and look good. It seems the days of the awful Storm Catcher and The Minion are behind us.
Hopefully, Dolph will continue to put out quality efforts like this. I can only imagine what would he would do with a bigger budget and better actors. It's okay though, because for now, we've got The Defender, The Mechanik and Missionary Man to enjoy.
Good work, Mr. Lundgren. -
kevintempel29 January 2008I just saw the film. And seeing it it reminded me of the Clint Eastwood film Palerider. It was sort of the same story but in a modern time. Why I say this is because of so many similarities: - man presumed dead by the gangsters, hired gangster believes he killed him many years ago (just like in Palerider) - holy man with the bible (just like in Palerider) - alone against the gangsters (as many films)
The similarity is maybe to similar. Maybe too similar to call it written by Dolph Lundgren. More like partly written by Dolph Lundgren. The base of the story is 100% Palerider.
But the film it self is good. Like the modern twist of it. But it is Palerider. -
Leofwine_draca14 September 2014MISSIONARY MAN is a straight-to-DVD action flick, directed by and starring Dolph Lundgren. The film's plot takes the form of a modern-day western, with the Native American inhabitants of a run-down town finding themselves oppressed by the self-appointed rulers who run the place with an iron fist. A Bible-thumping, motorbike-riding preacher (Lundgren) soon rides into town, planning to clean things up.
This is a low rent flick all the way, clearly inspired by the likes of Eastwood's PALE RIDER, although of course it can't hope to hold a candle to any of the "proper" Hollywood classics. Instead it's an ordinary little movie featuring no-name cast members and a handful of fight scenes that are hardly memorable. The best thing about this is Lundgren himself, more for his presence than his performance, towering over everything as he does.
Unfortunately, something went wrong with this film during the post production process, leaving it a visual mess. Almost every scene is too dark, the colours are gone and the whole thing looks drab and muted. The plot serves as a hanger for the fight action, but the choreography is poor and muddled. I expected more from Lundgren, I have to say; MISSIONARY MAN is distinctly humdrum, and far from the actor's best. -
poolandrews9 August 2011Missionary Man starts as a mysterious man (writer & director Dolph Lundgren) rides into town on a motorbike, he heads straight for the cemetery where his old friend JJ is being buried after drowning in a supposed accident. On his way there the man saves a local native Indian man Billy (Jonny Cruz) from some thugs, the man realises that the town is corrupt & local businessman John Reno (Matthew Tompkins) runs it by beating up or killing anyone who stands in his way. Between stealing & selling drugs Reno has a big property deal in development, Reno wants to build a casino on native American land but the local tribe objects to the plans & this may have been why JJ was murdered. The man decides to stay in town & together with his bible & shotgun dishes out some justice...
Starring, written & directed by Dolph Ludgren this apparently had the working title Black Chrome & to me while watching it last night I was reminded strongly of the Clint Eastwood western Pale Rider (1985), in fact Missionary Man is a remake & modern updating of Pale Rider all but in name. The two films share virtually identical plots as greedy businessmen terrorise a local community until a mysterious stranger rides into town with religious tendencies & a knack for beating bad guy's up before things get out of hand & some serious firepower is sent into the town to kill the stranger as it becomes a game of Cat and Mouse as the stranger picks those sent to kill him off one-by-one. The plots, themes & character's are almost identical to be honest, the main thing that separates the two films is that Pale Rider is a classic while Missionary Man is crap. For a start the part played by Lundgren is far too mysterious, we literally never learn anything about him to make us either like or care for him. We never learn of his relationship to JJ, where he came from, what he did for a living or the connection he had with Jarfe. The other character's are poor with typical bad guy's & innocent persecuted native Americans who try to defend their land & ways against evil white men. Yawn. At 90 odd minutes not that much happens, it's throughly predictable as we know Lundgren will beat the bad guy's at the end in a showdown & make the town safe once more. The action scenes are dull & forgettable too.
Missionary Man looks a mess, the IMDb says there was mistakes made with producing the master or something & the colours were messed up & it show's. Nothing has any sort of colour, in fact sometimes the film looks black and white with a lot of detail missing from the picture & everything seems covered in dark shadows all the time, even during the day. This can look stylish on occasion but usually it just looks dull & repetitive. There's not much action here, a boat is blown up, there are a few fight scenes & a few shoot-outs but nothing else. Better known as an action film star Lundgren has turned his hand to directing lately & I only hope his other films are better than Missionary Man, they can't be any worse surely?
Filmed in Texas I doubt this had much of a budget, it looks cheap & with a distinct lack of action it's tough to sit through. The acting isn't up to much, Dolph just sort of lumbers around & tries to look cool.
Missionary Man is a slow moving action remake of Pale Rider that didn't impress me with lacklustre action scenes & a plot that goes virtually unexplained. This is the sort of thing I'd expect Steven Seagal to have made to be honest & that is not a compliment. -
damianphelps5 March 2021The story here is actually a pretty good one, nothing new but still good.
The movie though has a couple of issues. The first being the fights, this is Dolph not De Niro, I'm primarily watching this for action. The choreography seemed to go out of the way to avoid displaying the fights?
Secondly, I'm not a cinematographer by any stretch, but the film seem to have been shot through a brown filter. So the colours were muted and the film looked dirty gritty and unclear, and not in a good way.
Otherwise its alright. -
wlevyiii12 September 2021My tag line says it all... anyone who gave this a high rating is lying. Just plain stupid and totally unbelievable. Do anything else for 90 min.
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ccunning-7358719 March 2021I did not care for this Dolph flick for several reasons: It is not much more than a bad modern day remake of the excellent Client Eastwood movie 'Pale Rider'. Just swap motorcycles for horses & indians for miners. The ending was like 'Pale Rider' & 'Shane'. I did not care for the anti-Christian blasphemy or the anti-white racist innuendos. I had hoped for better from Dolph.
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pragitam14 April 2008While I thought this was a good movie, consistent with Lundgren's earlier pieces and well done from a production point of view, the plot haunted me, reminded me of some other movie, and then it struck me: Pale Rider (1985), Clint Eastwood. Except for the setting, the plots are identical. Both good viewing, the spoiler is they are the same movie save for the fact that one is more contemporary with "Iron Horses" and one is set in the "Old West" on "real" horses. The ghost like and unknown "Preacher" comes to town out of no where. Hits it off with the "decent folk", one family in particular. The young daughter falls in love with the Preacher. Then there is the evil, criminal gang and sinister boss that run the town, bullying everyone, instilling fear through violence and corruption. The Preacher stands up for everything that is "good" and defends the "decent folk". When he poses to be too much of a problem for the local gang, outsiders are called in to take care of the problem. The new gang leader is none other than the nemesis of the Preacher whom he believed he had killed. Single handedly, the Preacher kills everyone of the gang members and rides out of town, justice served, leaving his young love behind without so much as a Good Bye. Like I said, same movie, different time, both good viewing.
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creepymagick27 January 2022Would have been good if they kept to the clean missionary man theme. Too many scantily clad women in this movie for me to relax and watch it. I am grossed out by it.
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only the last scene has real action(except in content and required mood), but because all the other elements are in place you might not even notice. for the general viewer, this is an interesting flick about and with MODERN native Americans and their way of life on the last reservations.from the way they educate the children, to interesting cultural aspects; well documented i actually felt like i learned something beside watching a "classic" revenge movie. "old school" clichés that never get old if done properly.
it is a classic suspense build-up plot; nothing special but simply can not find anything wrong other then being slow at times. however the movie has a lot of shots and visuals that contain artistic images that will not let you loose interest. all actors are decent and in some scenes really good.the best component, i would argue, are the costumes, and to certain extent the well chosen environment; it goes very well with crating the mood required to sustain the simple but effective plot.the biker's gang in the last 30 minutes is well done very menacing and looks real.John Enos III as their leader performs excellently.the soundtrack is nothing spectacular but fits properly as mood definer.
now about Dolph Lundgren; if you have grown up on such flicks as "the red scorpion" you might enjoy this a lot providing you not expecting any sgi fights. he aged decent and his "cold" tone got better and feels more "real". as a director he seems very decent will be checking his future productions hopefully will not be disappointed.he is way better in substance then Stallone is in his "rambo 4"(pointless action). seems like this project is dear to him from the way he handles dialogs, subject matter and the body language on display.
overall i enjoyed it. however i do not agree at all with any "Missionary" men especially "born again" Christians. from a vintage point of view i liked it, but in reality this only creates just yet another type of extremists/extremism.i do not find "cool" preaching the bible to the native Americans ,that got almost exterminated in the past because the "white man's God". however there are some details, for example regarding the facts of how the catholic church and "education" tried to forbid them speaking their own language(s) so they "convert" properly... -
zardoz-1325 November 2009"Universal Soldier" tough guy Dolph Lundgren has written, starred in, and directed a hard-as-nail but hackneyed revenge melodrama that he cobbled together from such past hits as "Billy Jack," "High Plains Drifter," and "Pale Rider." Clocking in at a lean, mean 93 minutes, Dolph has all the clichés covered. If you like your revenge movies predictable as blood gushing from a belly wound where the bad guys get their heads blasted off, this is the ticket! There are no surprises in "The Missionary Man," but Dolph lets the formula smolder like a steer being cooked on a spit so you can savor the wicked villainy of the white underworld who believe that they are indestructible. Some of the acting by the homegrown Texas cast is amateurish, but you'll forget these quibbles when our rugged, enigmatic hero goes into a kill mode for a catharsis of a showdown.
Ryder (Dolph Lundgren) cruises into a small Texas town terrorized by white criminals to pay his last respects to a fallen comrade who died under mysterious circumstances. It doesn't take tall, dark, silent Dolph in sunglasses to make an impression. He wears glasses, reads the Bible, and likes to do shots of tequila. The bad guys line up to take it like guys and do they ever more get taken. Jarfe (John Enos III) is the leader of a notorious motorcycle gang and he and his army are summoned to silence Ryder. There is something almost supernatural about the way our quietly spoken champion navigates the dangers. Essentially, it all boils down to an Indian reservation trying to build a casino and the local thugs trying to get in on the action. When they cannot convince one Indian to back down, they kill him and make it appear to be a drowning death. August Schellenberg is good as an older Indian named White Deer.
The last 30 minutes is a solid smack-down that makes the previous 103 minutes of build up tolerable. No, "The Missionary Man" isn't high art, but there is an art to taking something this familiar and making it work for the zillionth time. Bravo, Dolph! -
lestatlioncoeur16 January 2008I would say this film has a good atmosphere of subtle menace, combined with lots of action. It's good vs evil and as such doesn't deviate from the standard plot - but the acting is good for a tight budget film.The violence is graphic so as such is not recommended for children - in Canada we would rate it 14 yr minimum age but with parental guidance for language, graphic violence, and sexual content - even if it's implied mostly. The actual filming is quite good, and in a different decade would probably be a good Eastwood flick. Films such as the Dirty Harry series, or even his spaghetti westerns. This film reminded pacing-wise and character-wise, of The Good The Bad and The Ugly for instance. I must confess that all that was missing for it to be on par with the aforementioned films was for Dolph to have a defining quote a la "Go ahead, make my day".
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netnutmcb20 February 2008I love all of Dolph's movies, when I read the story line for this one I saw Pale Rider all over it. That is still one of my favorite Clint movies, Dolph does a great job of adapting that story line to his movie. The only cheesy part of the movie is when he does his BillyJack impression, it made me cringe with the 'I'll hit you with my right knee and there's nothing you can do about it' then makes the guys drop their drawers. Besides that, I like the movie as well as the cast. I thought the grayish tint to the movie was a nice touch. I really enjoy a good action movie with good acting instead of all the special effects and Dolph pulls it of well(no surprise there).
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lost-in-limbo9 April 2012I seem to be digging much of Dolph Lundgren's recent output, but while I quite liked Lundgren's "Missionary Man" (which was produced by Andrew Stevens) however there's no denying the material is lifted right off Clint Eastwood's mid-80s symbolic western "Pale Rider". So much, that there are set-pieces and plot threads that are quite identical, which leaves you thinking it must be some sort of homage. From the first encounter with some thugs involving timber bats, the fascination of a young girl falling for the stranger to the almighty vicious final standoff between the stranger and some bikers that he might share a past with. And that's only a few. It's a western at heart with a modern day face-lift. Lundgren co-wrote, directs and also stars as the stranger who enters town on his motorcycle not just carrying a bible in one hand, but looking for retribution with the other. Sinners better repent, as Lundgren is going to be breaking some bones and taking some lives. There are a lot of confrontations; therefore it means the reckoning is upon those who stand in the way of justice with numerous broken bones and corrupt dead folk. The leering action is brutal and quick, but well captured by Lundgren with his crisp styling. The story is mechanically told, but never does it get too heavy-handed with its themes. The performances are spot on. I like Lundgren in the leading role, bringing that right temperament. Mixing broodiness with mystic. Matthew Tompkins and John Enos III make for effective villains. Clichéd, but bruising action entertainment.
"What's your poison?"