Well, Dolph so dominates the movies he’s in, so there’s a difference between a Dolph Movie and a Movie That Dolph Is In. Though, in my childhood, for a long time I assumed that was Lundgren as Nuclear Man, and because of that, “Superman IV” was my favorite of the series.
I can tell you that I watched “Creed II” while in prison. The moment when Dolph says, “My son will break your boy,” I pretty much stood up and said, “Oh S**T!” Dolph in the Rocky franchise is so massive for me.
I love seeing him in smaller roles too — he’s a riot in the star-studded, little-seen “Small Apartments” as a motivational speaker. I thought he was genuinely MASSIVE in “Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning”. The Coens get a free pass from everyone, but I’ll NEVER forgive them from cutting Dolph from “Hail Caesar!”
It’s hard for me to decide between “Command Performance”, “The Punisher” and “Showdown In Little Tokyo” — with that last one, I’m sad Dolph and Brandon Lee didn’t go on to do multiple movies together. Somehow, I’ve never seen “I Come In Peace” — I searched it the other day, but it wasn’t streaming anywhere, which I found sort of nuts, really.
So ultimately the movie is pro-"woke" it sounds like? And the anti-woke stuff is just part of Lundgren's character? I'm pretty sure I "watched" this many year back but probably only 1/5th paid attention to it because yeah, it's not entertaining.
And no, none of this director's other stuff is worthwhile either. The only Jarhead sequel worth watching is Jarhead 3 with Scott Adkins and directed by William Kaufman (Sinners and Saints, Prodigy) Kaufman's stiuff isn't always stellar, but he's a rare DTV director where his work is almost always a cut above the rest. Like Florentine and Jesse V. Johnson, though with his own voice and style. Those are all fellas worth combing through their entire filmographies.
I guess it is woke? But Dolph doesn't really change - he becomes more sensitive to the kids, but what jerk wouldn't? He just gets put in a situation with a problem that's easy to solve, and he saves the kids. He certainly doesn't start to share.
I have a couple of Jesse V. Johnson movies eventually on the docket. I respect his game, but I faintly recall seeing one or two from him that were substandard. Kaufman, I admit, I don't know too well. Is his Jarhead "better than it should be" or "actually good"? Florentine-level is how I prefer my low budget action.
For Johnson, watch his stab at an art house / film festival darling THE BEAUTIFUL ONES with Ross McCall. I really liked that one, and it's a shame it didn't perform outside of festivals because Johnson abandoned any real ambition after that. The distributor sat on it for years and then colored it (it was shot in black-and-white) and eek, the color version looks cheap AF, but its the only version available anymore, alas. Still worth it.
Then watch everything Johnson did with Adkins - Accident Man, Savage Dog, Triple Threat, both Debt Collector movies, and Avengement especially. Then skip the rest.
For Kaufman, his best are his first films - The Prodigy and "Sinners and Saints". And then Dayllight's End and The Channel are also authentically excellent if flawed. The rest you can skip, imo.
Wow, I have never heard of The Beautiful Ones. That's such a great recommendation, thank you. Unfortunately it looks like it's not streaming anywhere, but I'll keep an eye out for it.
I've actually seen the Accident Man movies and Avengement, I'll be discussing them at some point (in all honesty, I'll be covering a LOT of action on this site). I was really impressed by Avengement. Less so by Triple Threat, I reviewed that herehttps://fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com/p/triple-threat
I'll make a note on Kaufman, appreciate the insight. These are new to me! Very exciting.
Yeah, Savage Dog and Triple Threat are only good for the action, which I still think is quite good, though the scripts and storytelling are pretty mid. I thought the Debt Collector movies were something special as well, like Avengement. Really looking forward to the action coverage - I'm a complete action movie junkie and even currently clock an "Action Junkie Score" for movies on Letterboxd. It's in me blood :)
I love that. I've especially got a lot of foreign action movies coming, some wild and sometimes obscure stuff. I hope I can stump you at some point as you've just stumped me. Maybe I'll do a two-week action block in the summer.
It worked so well with that aesthetic. And then the color just made it look cheaper than the usual cheap DTV. It was such a gobsmackingly stupid, short sighted, myopic, unimaginative, lazy decision on the distributor's part.
I had no idea there was a Kindergarten Cop 2, thank you for your balanced review and synopses.
As far as Schwarznegger-less sequels go, my favorite is Predator 2, which Schwarznegger turned down to do Kinfergarten Cop instead.
Do you have a favorite Dolph Lundgren film?
Well, Dolph so dominates the movies he’s in, so there’s a difference between a Dolph Movie and a Movie That Dolph Is In. Though, in my childhood, for a long time I assumed that was Lundgren as Nuclear Man, and because of that, “Superman IV” was my favorite of the series.
I can tell you that I watched “Creed II” while in prison. The moment when Dolph says, “My son will break your boy,” I pretty much stood up and said, “Oh S**T!” Dolph in the Rocky franchise is so massive for me.
I love seeing him in smaller roles too — he’s a riot in the star-studded, little-seen “Small Apartments” as a motivational speaker. I thought he was genuinely MASSIVE in “Universal Soldier: Day Of Reckoning”. The Coens get a free pass from everyone, but I’ll NEVER forgive them from cutting Dolph from “Hail Caesar!”
It’s hard for me to decide between “Command Performance”, “The Punisher” and “Showdown In Little Tokyo” — with that last one, I’m sad Dolph and Brandon Lee didn’t go on to do multiple movies together. Somehow, I’ve never seen “I Come In Peace” — I searched it the other day, but it wasn’t streaming anywhere, which I found sort of nuts, really.
I did like him as Terminator-Jesus in Johnny Mnemomic and I think he was pretty good He-man. But you're right, he is terrifying as Ivan Drago
I Come In Peace went back to its OG title, "Dark Angel". It's stream8ng free on Prime.
So weird, I thought I searched for that title too. But there it is. Thanks!
So ultimately the movie is pro-"woke" it sounds like? And the anti-woke stuff is just part of Lundgren's character? I'm pretty sure I "watched" this many year back but probably only 1/5th paid attention to it because yeah, it's not entertaining.
And no, none of this director's other stuff is worthwhile either. The only Jarhead sequel worth watching is Jarhead 3 with Scott Adkins and directed by William Kaufman (Sinners and Saints, Prodigy) Kaufman's stiuff isn't always stellar, but he's a rare DTV director where his work is almost always a cut above the rest. Like Florentine and Jesse V. Johnson, though with his own voice and style. Those are all fellas worth combing through their entire filmographies.
I guess it is woke? But Dolph doesn't really change - he becomes more sensitive to the kids, but what jerk wouldn't? He just gets put in a situation with a problem that's easy to solve, and he saves the kids. He certainly doesn't start to share.
I have a couple of Jesse V. Johnson movies eventually on the docket. I respect his game, but I faintly recall seeing one or two from him that were substandard. Kaufman, I admit, I don't know too well. Is his Jarhead "better than it should be" or "actually good"? Florentine-level is how I prefer my low budget action.
For Johnson, watch his stab at an art house / film festival darling THE BEAUTIFUL ONES with Ross McCall. I really liked that one, and it's a shame it didn't perform outside of festivals because Johnson abandoned any real ambition after that. The distributor sat on it for years and then colored it (it was shot in black-and-white) and eek, the color version looks cheap AF, but its the only version available anymore, alas. Still worth it.
Then watch everything Johnson did with Adkins - Accident Man, Savage Dog, Triple Threat, both Debt Collector movies, and Avengement especially. Then skip the rest.
For Kaufman, his best are his first films - The Prodigy and "Sinners and Saints". And then Dayllight's End and The Channel are also authentically excellent if flawed. The rest you can skip, imo.
Wow, I have never heard of The Beautiful Ones. That's such a great recommendation, thank you. Unfortunately it looks like it's not streaming anywhere, but I'll keep an eye out for it.
I've actually seen the Accident Man movies and Avengement, I'll be discussing them at some point (in all honesty, I'll be covering a LOT of action on this site). I was really impressed by Avengement. Less so by Triple Threat, I reviewed that herehttps://fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com/p/triple-threat
I'll make a note on Kaufman, appreciate the insight. These are new to me! Very exciting.
Yeah, Savage Dog and Triple Threat are only good for the action, which I still think is quite good, though the scripts and storytelling are pretty mid. I thought the Debt Collector movies were something special as well, like Avengement. Really looking forward to the action coverage - I'm a complete action movie junkie and even currently clock an "Action Junkie Score" for movies on Letterboxd. It's in me blood :)
I love that. I've especially got a lot of foreign action movies coming, some wild and sometimes obscure stuff. I hope I can stump you at some point as you've just stumped me. Maybe I'll do a two-week action block in the summer.
Movies! What a gift!
You can still see what the BEAUTIFUL ONES looked like in b&w here on FilmFreeway: https://filmfreeway.com/417697
It worked so well with that aesthetic. And then the color just made it look cheaper than the usual cheap DTV. It was such a gobsmackingly stupid, short sighted, myopic, unimaginative, lazy decision on the distributor's part.