Wanted Man

This reminded me a little of John Wayne's "Mc Q" (1974) only this time it's Dolph Lundgren who is the curmudgeonly old cop who bends the rules to suit the investigation. That's caused his bosses a bit of an headache, so they want to put that frankly rather odious "Johansen" out to pasture. A trip to Mexico is organised so he can retrieve and escort a vital witness in a double-murder case back to the USA. "Rosa" (Christina Villa) is no shrinking violet and the couple don't exactly hit it off, but gradually that all changes as the pair begin to realise that they are being played. By whom, though? That's the six million dollar question. I'm afraid the presence of Kelsey Grammer in anything (except maybe the early editions of "Cheers") never bodes well for me, and his mediocrity rather sums up this whole thing. It hasn't an original bone in it's body as it follows well established plot lines, constantly escaping from hellish scenarios against overwhelming odds and firepower. It's as if his dark sunglasses gave him a degree of immortality. Rapid healing powers at any rate. Duplicity, police corruption, betrayal - you name it and it's been squeezed into this bland and repetitive thriller that's very short on thrills. Television fodder at best, sorry.

Lately I have been so into looking got just a good Hollywood movie that I am down to watch anything. So I rented this off Amazon Prime. I will admit, I was not disappointed with this film. It is dark and gritty, but still very enjoyable. The film takes place I believe a time of body cameras where a veteran cop is caught on tape saying racist things to a Hispanic person. There's no denying it's him. His chief sends him on a special assignment at the border where he uncovers more trouble after a attempted assassination. He then learns very quickly that he cannot trust anyone. This isn't a high budget film but it's still good.

Yeah well I definitely didn't like this movie I'll say that much, but I don't think it's like horrible in any significant way either... it's most definitely a bad movie but it isn't particularly horrendous. It's the exact type of movie I think you might expect it to be just from its title and the man that it stars and that's either going to be a great thing for you or in my case be one of the worst things about the entire movie. This wholeheartedly feels like a movie that my nana would watch which is absolutely not a compliment because the types of movies she watches are really low budget action movies that feel very poorly made, and that's pretty much exactly what this is here.

This movie both stars and was directed by Adolph Lundgren, who I only know from his atrocious performance in the sequel to "Kindergarten Cop" but who is for sure most well known for his role in the fourth Rocky movie. He's not a horrendous actor I'll give him that much, but his direction could really use some improvement that's for sure. It's not that anything he chooses to do here is all that bad but it's just the fact that it's all so mediocre in nature that it's boring and like ninety percent of this movie is just meh. The movie itself doesn't look all that bad either, it's just so dull in atmosphere and tone, plus the really boring color on display doesn't help at all. Not exactly the worst direction I've ever seen from a movie but it really does feel as if this belongs on some discount dvd shelf in the back of a dollar store.. and it probably does exist there actually. Dolph's acting here might actually be my favorite part of the entire movie, and no it's not because he was good at it but at least he was somewhat entertaining to watch.. although; it definitely does not help that he made himself be immensity racist pretty much the entire runtime and the very first thing we ever see him do is assault a man and call him "Mexican scum", which makes it very hard to care for him like at all or like his character in the slightest. Very unique choice there and I can't say I under why it was done but I guess that's just how they wanted it to be?

The acting other than Dolph present here is okay at best, there's a character played by Kelsey Grammer who is quite literally Frasier and was in the best movie of all time "Money Plane" a few years ago, and the love interest (I think?) in this movie is played by Christina Villa and I am so sad for this poor woman because what she got to work with here was awful, and her relationship with Dolph's character is both really badly done and also just inherently cringe worthy to watch and not exactly enjoyable in any real way. On another note, if there is to be one thing I somewhat enjoyed about this movie without it being so bad it made me laugh, that would have to be its actions, which for an action movie this has very little of but what we do get is done in a very decent manner and is probably the most engaging part of the whole experience. There's some okay action in the beginning, middle, and towards the very end here but that's just about it.. which is somewhat disappointing. Although; I do have to say that the gunshot wounds themselves looked perfectly adequate for a movie like this and I was actually kind of surprised that they looked nearly that good, so props to this movie for having good blood effects sometimes, but that's about all I can really give it.

"Wanted Man" is a really boring and dull action film starring and directed by a Swedish man which is probably the most interesting part about the film as a whole, it's not good in any meaningful way and is kind of annoying to watch due to just how bland it all feels. Nothing here is done particularly well other than a few action scenes which are still just scraping the very bottom of what they're meant to be.. from the writing which is some of the worst I've ever seen, to the acting which isn't awful but nowhere close to good, and the direction which is at its core just super disappointing and I wish there was more to like here. This movie is bad I would say and I very clear do not recommend trying to watch this one for yourself no matter how much time you have to waste as it's not even a fun bad movie, it's just below average and upsetting. I wish I could've liked this movie more because I have faith that this man can actually direct and star in a decent movie but this was nowhere close to that, but I do want to see what more will come out of this 66 year olds mind... don't watch it unless you're like putting it on in the background while you do something much more important. It's not worth your time and way too politically motivated yet somehow isn't the worst movie I've seen this year.. shocker?

Disgraced, hard-line detective Mike Johansen (Dolph Lundgren) is given the redemptive task of going to Mexico and extraditing Rosa (Christina Villa) who witnessed the slaying of two DEA agents during a fubar'd drug heist. Not long into Johansen's ostensibly straight forward trip when things quite literally, and figuratively go dangerously south, as Johansen becomes the target of rogue cops from north and south of the border! I will be generous here and simply say that the rudimentary plot is comfortably familiar, and leave it at that, happily, the dynamic presence of the grizzled, hugely charismatic Dolph in front of, and behind the camera gives this gritty crime actioner a dopamine boost! Pacy enough, with some decent squibbage, Wanted Man is a more than credible, dramatically compelling shoot 'em up, eminently watchable fare for action junkies, and a no-brainer for Dolph fans! It must also be said that the Clint Eastwoodian tropes are hella strong in Dolph's exciting Wanted Man, being 2 parts The Gauntlet and one part Gran Torino, and certainly no worse for it! There's lovely chemistry between the beautiful Christina Villa and Mr. Lundgren, and I was rootin' for 'em all the way to the border, man!!!!!

No pun intended - while Dolph is the main character, the important one (story wise) is the witness ... and she has only one thing on her mind ... surviving ... well and doing the right thing I reckon by helping out law enforcement ... without really thinking too much about herself. At least that is what she is telling us.

And why shouldn't we believe her - if we buy that Lundgren is still up for the task (he is not the quickest anymore, suspension of disbelief is important, especially when you have to buy that he would be able to physically fight others ... or get near them, without them killing him first). The action still is kind of decent ... so if you are a fan of the man ... well you could do worse... like being a fan of a different action man who even uses stunt man to walk ... kid you not ... anyway, the message is clear and you also have some good actors rounding everything up ... no surprises here though (twists? Well ... not really)