I have this strange and unhealthy fascination with Dolph Lundgren's terrible films. There probably is a reason he's never broke into main stream films and The Defender is another example which he not only stars in but helms the picture as well. Frighteningly this was his first directorial film and I kind of thought it might be worth seeing being that he has always had this passion for action flicks that maybe he could direct his way into a great action flick. I mean The Defender is not the worst movie I've ever seen and if you like guns well The Defender might be the greatest film you've ever seen. From start to finish it's a giant shoot out for an hour and a half but as cool as that might sound there isn't even a wiff of a story around that. They try...I think...but it falls flat and makes no sense whatsoever. They even throw in some sort of attempts at twists to the story but you don't really care and by the time they try to throw some story at you, they just go right back to blowing each other away with guns. A handful of bodyguards in a castle systematically take out an entire army of trained marines. Sounds like a Dolph Lundgren movie.
The aforementioned Mr. Lundgren stars as former Armed Forces soldier Lance Rockford who was held and tortured as a P.O.W. and now works as a Secret Service bodyguard. His back story is half decently interesting and there isn't any problem with his acting per se but the story or lack thereof doesn't support any good characters really so it's all about him shooting people...and is it just me or does he hold his handgun really weird in this film? It's like on an angle or something. Jerry Springer, yes THAT Jerry Springer, has a small role as The President of The United States. Actually Springer does a pretty decent job in the very small role. I might have even liked to have seen more of him. It's unfortunate that the plot made no sense because it might have made his character even more important. Shakara Ledard, Thomas Lockyer, Gerald Kyd, and Ian Porter are the main supporting characters and Lundgren's team inside the castle. I lump them together because whether or not they have talent as actors you wouldn't know from this film because none of them have any stand out moments or even personalities. Just a complete mess of bullets flying.
I'm really trying to find something redeemable here but there isn't much. I mean there is plenty of action but it's so empty because the meager plot that exists makes such little sense. Even if you are a Dolph Lundgren fan...for the few of you out there or if you're like me and just can't look away...like a car wreck well do your very best to skip over this one because it's one big long shoot out with nothing in the end to satisfy you at all. The Defender is dud. 4/10
The aforementioned Mr. Lundgren stars as former Armed Forces soldier Lance Rockford who was held and tortured as a P.O.W. and now works as a Secret Service bodyguard. His back story is half decently interesting and there isn't any problem with his acting per se but the story or lack thereof doesn't support any good characters really so it's all about him shooting people...and is it just me or does he hold his handgun really weird in this film? It's like on an angle or something. Jerry Springer, yes THAT Jerry Springer, has a small role as The President of The United States. Actually Springer does a pretty decent job in the very small role. I might have even liked to have seen more of him. It's unfortunate that the plot made no sense because it might have made his character even more important. Shakara Ledard, Thomas Lockyer, Gerald Kyd, and Ian Porter are the main supporting characters and Lundgren's team inside the castle. I lump them together because whether or not they have talent as actors you wouldn't know from this film because none of them have any stand out moments or even personalities. Just a complete mess of bullets flying.
I'm really trying to find something redeemable here but there isn't much. I mean there is plenty of action but it's so empty because the meager plot that exists makes such little sense. Even if you are a Dolph Lundgren fan...for the few of you out there or if you're like me and just can't look away...like a car wreck well do your very best to skip over this one because it's one big long shoot out with nothing in the end to satisfy you at all. The Defender is dud. 4/10