Outubro Negro

Dolph Lundgren used to be a Marine. Now he's a journalist and best-selling author on his way to Israel to cover a new group called "Black October.' That doesn't sound cozy, does it? And to see if he can reconcile with his girl friend. But while he's there, he discovers CIA station chief Lou Gossett Jr. Is tracking something odd and gets caught up in something that seemingly random assassins will garrotte him for.

The most impressive thing about this movie is Lundgren's pretty good, if occasionally wavering accent. Most of the time he sounds vaguely Midwestern, but he occasionally falls into a vaguely Southern drawl. Otherwise, its a compendium of thriller-type shots shot in monochromatic light. Gossett tries to do something with his lines, infusing them with some emotion.

The stage curtains open ...

"Cover-Up", starring Dolph Lundgren as an ex-Marine turned journalist named Mike Anderson, and Louis Gossett Jr. as CIA agent, Lou Jackson, relies heavily on plot in a film that is more of a mind game than an action-thriller. Not your usual Lundgren film, it finds him playing detective in a race against time.

When a U.S. naval military base is bombed in Israel, Anderson is sent in to investigate and report his findings. While he is there, he runs into some familiar faces from his past, including his old flame, Susan Clifford, who is now working for the U.S. Embassy. As he digs deeper into the mystery behind the bombing which killed American soldiers, he finds that things run much deeper than what is initially believed to be the case. Now, he is in a race against time to prevent the death of thousands of innocent people, including a diabolical plan to do much, much worse.

This really wasn't that bad of a film. I wouldn't put this among Lundgren's best, but at the same time, it is a lot better than some movies he's done. The story is surprisingly intelligent and intricate with strong characters and decent acting. Lundgren really isn't known for his acting chops, but he shows some here and knows how to rein things in to keep in character and avoid becoming bigger than the story. The ending is a little hazy ... and without giving anything away, all I will say is that it's hard to tell if Mike Anderson survives the ordeal or not. I guess you would have to watch it to decide for yourself.

Even though the movie plays out well, it is still not one I would necessarily recommend. I feel that if you are a Dolph Lundgren fan and haven't yet seen this movie, you would probably enjoy it - keeping in mind that it is low on action and high on political intrigue. I think I would watch this again though. I had a good enough time to say that overall, it was enjoyable.

This is a fairly well written and involving thriller. Unfortunately its good early work is slightly let down by either obvious or absurd twists in the final 15 minutes. Before the slightly disappointing ending the film moves along nicely, and the script is developing well, while there aren't too many B-movie cliches, such as the obligatory sex scene, between a recently widowed woman and the central character. This was Dolph Lundgrens first real move away from the action genre and he gives his first decent lead performance, he has more than 3 lines of dialogue as well, but he does fairly well. The film unfortunately looks very cheap but the direction from Manny Coto is functional and well paced, while the action scenes are good, including a trademark Vic Armstrong car chase. ***

Mike Anderson (Dolph Lungren) is an ex-marine reporter sent by the LA time to Tel Aviv to investigate the recent bombing of a US army base. There he meets his mate Cooper, who has now hooked up with Mike's ex. Mike sense that something isn't right with this attack, and he's right. A nerve gas has been stolen that can kill up to a square mile of people and it seems a shadowy group called Black October have stolen it. Mike sets out to find out what's up with the whole deal, and just exactly what Lou Gossett Junior has to do with it all.

Low on action but high in covert shenanigans, Cover Up is helped greatly by the fact that Lungren, unlike a lot of action stars, is also quite a likable actor to boot. Here he doesn't have too much to do except snoop around, avoid the CIA, and avoid being killed by assassins, but he does find time to sleep with his widowed ex, get into a car chase, and seemingly get into a very violent fight with an actor who greatly resembles Italian b-movie star John Stiener (who, in some sort of time slip, travelled forward in time from a movie set in Rome to kick Dolph's head in - weird).

There's your usual double and triple crosses, plus, for an action hero, Dolph really takes his licks here. I liked it for what it was, and when violence appears it's quite strong. Not bad for something to pass the time.

One of the worst movies ever made, Manny Coto has nothing to do with what is called film art. Dolph Lundgren, Louis Gossett Jr. and all the other "actors" are just ... sorry. If you watch it at the cinema, you will want to kill the cashier to get your money back on the ticket. If you watch it at home, on the video cassette, DVD or Blu Ray, you will want to break the TV or/and destroy the player. A waste of time!