Castle Falls

Granted, I hadn't even heard about the 2021 action thriller "Castle Falls" prior to sitting down and watching it. But I figured that since the movie had the likes of Scott Adkins and Dolph Lundgren in the lead roles, then chances were that I would be in for a fair enough movie. And I will also say that the movie's cover/poster was actually interesting enough.

And now that I have seen "Castle Falls", I will say that it was watchable. But that was also about it. For an action movie, then writer Andrew Knauer just didn't really deliver anything outstanding or memorable. Everything in "Castle Falls" was essentially something that had been seen and done in a lot of other similar movies, and often better done.

It should be said that the action sequences in the movie were nice, and there were a fair amount of action sequences, so that definitely make up somewhat for the lack of originality in storyline and script. But, of course, there is only so much that pure action can do for a movie.

It was actually fun to watch Scott Adkins and Dolph Lundgren on the screen together in this movie, and they certainly made the movie bearable to sit through. And I will say that this 2021 movie definitely outranks a lot of Dolph Lundgren's previous low budget action movies, so a step in the right direction.

If you enjoy action movies, then by all means give "Castle Falls" a chance. Just don't set your expectations high.

My rating of director Dolph Lundgren's 2021 action thriller lands on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

Yes, I watched that Apex abomination from Bruce Willis and I wondered how bad can this low budget ($1.5m) be, from our friends Lundgren and Adkins.

I was ready for a disaster and it did start slow and emotional, kind of depressing, but then it changed gears up and up, it got action, humor, blood, tears, in a more rounded package than the usual action movies.

The fights were violent and dirty, the way a street fight should be.

The ending was cooler than a big truck doing donuts at the golf course (on Bruce Willis retirement home) and then rolling coal on Bruce Willis! :D The lesson is that when underdogs get a windfall, it never comes in a silver plate, nope, it comes chained to two big raging bulldogs and it will take a lot of guts and blood to get it.

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.

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.

This was an actual modern martial arts film. -Probably the first I've seen where the fights are based on what we currently know to be the most effective and real approach to hand to hand combat.

And it wasn't overdone. -It wasn't a bunch of guys from the gym deciding to make a movie. The story came first, and the fights made sense, the skills baked into the story rather than the story being an excuse for them. That's competence, right there. Competent scripting.

As for the realism... I mean, the moves were all recognized and real MMA tactics. Nobody walks away without getting hurt. Nobody flies through the air. And no 100 pound girls bring down man bears. (The film did feature a girl, and she fought like a girl. She was a mean b****, and you wouldn't want to run into her in a dark ally, but she was a girl and the script and action dealt with her very believably.)

And best of all.., it was a solid story featuring Good Guys and Bad Guys, and some grey guys in between. But the hero was.., heroic! Damn! How often do you see that?)

It was mid-budget, nothing fancy, nothing to mark it as a Block Buster or make it stick out in the culture swirl. Sadly, it won't be remembered. It didn't look like 'money', but it was competent and engaging and satisfying. Nothing about it was stupid. (Though, I was making "Hurry Up" motions with my hands at the hero when he found the money. "Get out! Go Go Go! Stop being.., a regular guy who isn't used to this kind of world and who is taking a moment to deal with a 3 Million Dollar windfall... Okay, I get it, but still... GO!")

But seriously. Competent. Engaging. Satisfying. Nothing stupid.

Those are pretty rock solid hashtags. In today's insane media landscape? Yes.

Recommended!