Castle Falls

As a Dolph fan it's great seeing him in bigger films again (Creed II (2018), Aquaman (2018), Os Mercenários 4 (2023)) and with this film finally returning to the director's chair in over a decade (with the last film, Ação e Reação (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.

Castle Falls, an action thriller crafted in the old school 80's & 90's action style. Think of walter Hill's Trespass (1992) & Carpenter's They Live (1988) for style & setting with its abandoned building/hospital setting & two guys after some hidden loot with a gang there to hunt them & with it's blue collar construction working average-joe heroe's especially Scott Adkins. Definitely Adkins character from his outfit/wardrobe to him punching in & working as a drifter construction worker is inspired by Carpenter's Cult movie hero Nada played by Roddy Piper in They Live. Adkins is a huge fan of They Live in real life. Here the excellent Scott Adkins, who i consider to be the most underrated actor & action star working today!!!, plays an ex-MMA fighter, Mike who is down-on-his-luck & takes a job as part of a Demolition crew at a huge abandoned hospital scheduled to be demolished very soon. Adkins is such a likeable actor & here he's got his British accent which is Awesome & he steals the film of course & delivers his finest performance. Now, director & star Dolph Lundgren has used Adkins probably the best I've seen him, he's allowed to act with emotions but still does kick-ass the way he does & how we love.

Adkins discovers some bags of cash (about 3 million dollars) hidden within the hospital & comes back to get them but in that time we get more characters entering the abandoned building for that some money. The money was hidden there some time ago by drug dealing scum who want it back & also we get a struggling father who is there for that money to pay for his daughters cancer treatment. Legendary action star Dolph Lundgren is Richard, a desperate father & prison warden & fits into the role nicely & proves he's a fine actor as well as an action star. Of course Adkins' blue-collar worker & Lundgren's desperate father team-up to take out the drug dealers & keep the money & what we get is a stripped-down & old school style action thriller made on a small-budget but packs a big punch. Dolph Lundgren has given us character we really like & care about with real reasons for their actions & a huge building to play in. Films like this show that you do not need a ridiculous mega "Hollywood" budget to make a good action film. Dolph Lundgren should be very proud of his movie what he & his crew have pulled off with limited funds & restrictions.

The building is Awesome, a huge place full of floors & elevator shafts for our heroes to do action. The setting was a real location so it came with it's realistic gritty look & natural screen presence. Dolph has directed a damn good & entertaining little action thriller & i loved it's one place, contained setting & thrilling brutal fight scenes as said before, Dolph really knows how to use Adkins on screen & the two have worked together many times before (Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning, Legendary, Expendables 2) & also Dolph shows he's a decent action director that has sprinkled his movie with drama & feeling. Yes Castle Falls is a low-budget B-movie really but a damn good one & it never out stays it's welcome with it's short running time, so yeah a damn good movie in my opinion. The look is of course pretty sharp looking as filmed with modern cameras but the story, style & characters feel old school.

I grew up watching & loving the action genre & consider Van Damme my favourite action star & think that Scott Adkins is pretty much the British version in some ways but of course he's his own Awesome action star in his own kick-ass right. Adkins would make the best Punisher or Batman ever.

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.

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.

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.

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