Castle Falls

Dolph Lundgren and Scott Adkins make a great couple in this action film. Not only as actors, also as producers. And Dolph directing! Do not expect a movie filled with needless action and fight scenes. This movie actually has a very good plot and the dialogues are well written (and executed....). This is a great action movie with a twist and suspense until the very end. The ageing hulk is on prime form, managing his directorial duties with acting. And again an excellent acting performance from Scott Adkins. He must be one of the most underrated actors. In this movie he clearly shows that he can do more than just kick ass. You like Dolph Lundgren and Scott Adkins, do not complain. Enjoy!

As a Dolph fan it's great seeing him in bigger films again (Creed II (2018), Aquaman (2018), I mercen4ri - Expendables (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.

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.

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.

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.