Section 8

I didn't have a bunch of expectations going in, but I like Lundgren and Rourke enough to give this movie a shot. I admit to not seeing some of the plot twists coming, and that was great. I also agree with the other reviewers about the silliness of some of the movie, the endless lack of ammo, and bad shooting. However, it is for entertainment, and I was entertained. I like that Lundgren had a part to play in the behind the scenes in this movie, and overall it was engaging enough for me to keep watching it. I wouldn't watch this movie twice, but I enjoyed it watching it once. Just don't look for academy award winning anything, but the veteran actors do a fine job fleshing this movie out.

The directing was amateur hour with the abysmal slow-mo and faded flashbacks - and terrible cast direction. Most of the second-rate characters felt like it was their first acting gig, and I know they're better than that, so this is the perfect example of the director failing to direct his cast properly. Although Ryan Kwanten acted his heart out, he was poorly showcased from the directing to the writing, that was riddled with cheesy dialogue. The screenplay, even with the few entertaining twists and action scenes, was too generic and cliched, and lacked suspense, intrigue and thrills. I wanted to see more of Mickey Rourke, and I'm not even sure if Scott Adkins' character was needed, but he surely needed to be in this film much more to enhance the action. I feel he should've been cast for Kwanten's character, the entire backstory and current one would've been more believable and suspenseful had there been more fight scenes. There were far too many plot and technical issues, most fifth-grade drama class errors. Eg: the briefcase with maybe 5-6 rough stacks having 3 million in it was a joke. Never mind Lundgren's full-auto handgun with the endless ammo. If you're a fan of the iconic actors, it's an ok one-time watch if you're bored, just don't expect to see that much of most of them, or any decent non-generic story.

I was sure about giving 5 stars until the last third of the movie. This is a very old-fashioned action movie, peppered with geil emotions and shows some artistic blend. In the '80s, this would have been a very good movie. In the '90s, it would still compete with some good Steven Segal and van Damme movies. But we are in 2022. Dolph Lundgren and poor Mickey Rourke should already stay away from cinema... but I guess they still live in the '90s at heart.

There are a couple of big plot-holes, and there are a few silly moments. E.g. If one is out of bullets, then just gets in the car to take a long trip, how come that when gets out of the car, the magazine is again full?

Or: you sit in the Toyota to catch the bad guy who just left with his GMC. And you just literally have two red wires hanging out underneath the dashboard, so within a few seconds you already have a running car. You don't even need the ignition key with the radio chip that is needed for a Toyota to communicate wirelessly with the onboard CPU to start the car (the so-called anti-theft system).

This movie would have worked in the '80s but not in 2022, sorry.

So in conclusion: There was some potential in this movie, there were some good watchable parts in it. There were some plot twists, yes. And the lead actor is quite good. Really. He did a great job, and would deserve something better in the future.

But the rest of the actors were really bad. The whole story is a big cliché that you must have seen several times.

My conclusion is that you don't lose anything if you don't watch it. This movie is a grain of salt less than entertaining.

An unrustling narrative, devoid of any worthy substance, relying on the expected norms of the genre, bringing nothing new, or original to the screen.

Packed up with the fight, war, and action celebrities, missing Arnold or Sylvester-type charismatic and charming characters, makes the hole thing a bore.

The film starts with an unrealistic fight sceen from Afghanistan where the Afghan soldiers speak in the middle eastern dialect, instead of the Afgan Arabic. The US moves into the neighborhood knowing it's a setup, in humvees with all windows open letting the fresh air and bullets in. Ultimately, getting many killed.

Usually, viewers find predictability in scenarios where many other films explored the same thing with a number of similar outcomes. This is one of those you will say I knew this was going to happen.

I'm giving this a 4 to be generous to the cast and production crew. Excellent job as usual.

In fact everything about this story is the usual: a military acquaintance; a plot that becomes more senseless each scene; long, long flashbacks to show the hero's emotions; hand-to-hand attacks during gunfights;and plot inconsistencies that give the impression that a producer's 15-year-old son wrote a script and Dad decided to encourage him... and had the bucks.

Verdict: AVOID. Despite the cast and production quality, I found this movie completely forgettable and an unfortunate waste of time, even though I fast-forwarded through all the my-dead-wife-and-kid-poor-me scenes.