Castle Falls

Castle Falls is tightly scripted and efficiently directed film features Adkins and Dolph Lundgren. It is impressive to see these two martial arts action legends work together and play off of each other's strengths; both give strong performances. As for the action; the film does not disappoint it has well choreographed impressive fight scenes. It delivers solid entertainment, thrilling action sequences, some nail-biting tension broken up with some comic moments. Castle Falls won't please everyone as some will surely complain that it is slow at first but I feel that it was needed to set up the actions of the characters and make the audience care for the outcome. This is a smaller budgeted affair so don't go in expecting huge action set pieces.

Castle Falls (2021) Was Worth The Wait. When Taekwondo Life Magazine spoke to Scott Adkins in June, 2020 the production of Castle Falls had come to a halt as the world shut down during the height of the Global Coronavirus Pandemic. Earlier this year production on the film resumed, and it is set to hit theaters on Friday 3, 2021. Castle Falls was worth the wait-it is very good.

The tightly scripted and efficiently directed film features Adkins and fellow martial artist and action star Dolph Lundgren. As both "down and out" men's paths cross in their quest for $3 million hidden in an abandoned hospital they find themselves having to elude a ruthless gang in search of the money. The situation is accelerated by the near imminent demolition of the hospital where the quest is underway forcing an alliance in order to survive.

While this film does not have the same humor and chemistry of Adkins' Debt Collector buddy films, it is still impressive to see these two martial arts action legends work together and play off of each other's strengths. They both do a good job individually, and together, in demonstrating their acting and action skills. This is a small film with a big heart.

As for the action; the film does not disappoint. There is plenty of action and well choreographed fighting, including the great scenes where Adkins and Lundgren face off against each other. For a 90 minute film the audience is treated to a great sampling of Scott Adkins' martial arts and Taekwondo acumen. He is one of the most fun action stars to watch, on the scene today.

Lundgren is the film's Director, and he does a very good job. The film is visually accessible, past faced, and fun to watch. I applaud Lundgren for his direct approach to the story, the action, and the fight choreography. The abandoned hospital provides a visually interesting setting for the majority of the film's action. This film balances the action and the drama for a highly watchable end product.

As a Dolph fan it's great seeing him in bigger films again (Creed II (2018), Aquaman (2018), Les s4crifiés (2023)) and with this film finally returning to the director's chair in over a decade (with the last film, Icarus (2010) going through quite some changes from Dolph's original version), but don't worry he's still got it!

Unlike what you might expect from a Dolph and Adkins movie, this plays off more like a drama in the first 50 minutes and only after that dipping heavily into the action. The story itself keeps you engaged with Dolph and Adkins as long as you're a fan of either actors, but does have its flaws. The building that's being blown up within 90 minutes doesn't have any 'rush' to it, most characters act rather casual and the few locations where there are explosions planted (and they can't use guns) end up having little impact either. There are also plenty of other little gripes (rarely reloading guns, gunshots echoing through the building with nobody outside noticing, people falling off the building while dozens are watching it, etc), but they don't really affect the enjoyment of the film and are semi-forgivable considering tons of action movies have these smaller 'flaws' as well.

While the characters of Dolph and Adkins are well-developed the bad guys are as generic and uninteresting as you can get and sadly the 'leader' of the bad guys is a stunt performer (Scott Hunter), but his fights ended up rather disappointing. As for the rest of the action scenes, they're well directed, choreographed, edited and performed.

Some transitions (especially at the beginning) felt a little rough and the soundtrack also wasn't great (and even slightly out of place at moments), but in general this is a well-made DTV film that will please any Dolph or Adkins film.

Dolph Lundgren should just stick to acting, because his directing was terrible. Many scenes were too long, bad angles, with lots of amateur mistakes. For example, how did Lundgren's eyeglasses stay on everytime he got punched in the face lol? Even the scene cuts were bad and were missing the pro elements an experienced director would know. He also didn't direct his cast properly, as some actors seemed lost, while others where just too overbearing. The fight scenes were too long and poorly choreographed for the most part, although the action was good. The 90 min runtime felt much longer with the slow pacing, and there was just too much filler and very little substance. The entire cat and mouse chases were dragged out and boring - up some stairs, down some stairs, in a room, out of a room... repeat. However the premise of the story by novice writer Andrew Knauer was actually very creative and enjoyable. I just wish it had more substance, and it needed some plot-issues tuning. The casting and acting were decent (albeit lacking direction), and Lundgren's acting was spot on. But the star here was Scott Adkins, who pretty much carried the entire film. The score wasn't bad for a B film, and the cinematography was good. Had this film been directed by a seasoned filmmaker, it would've been a hit. If you're a fan of Lundgren and/or Adkins, you'll enjoy this one. It's a 6/10 from me.

Nowhere in the entire movie I saw the character of Lundgren wearing sunglasses, so how come in the poster he got one.

The plot has been done countless no of times before, none of the fights are brutal n the end a big piece of cake.

But still I enjoyed it cos of Lundgren n Adkins.