After becoming increasingly disenchanted with action blockbusters as of late, I've found myself drawn more and more to low budget action flicks. You know, the ones that star the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal, even Mark Dacascos. These types of films offer up a more realistic, raw kind of action than the smooth and polished megabucks pictures. One other, often forgotten star of these straight-to-video bonanzas is Dolph Lundgren, who has been churning out his movies throughout the '90s to little recognition in and out of the genre. So when I saw that this film was in the late-night schedule of a trashy television station (Channel 5 to you UK readers), I couldn't resist.
It starts off badly, it has to be said. An hour passes with little of interest to hold the viewer's attention, instead it's the same old scene-setting. Although the Prague setting does make way for some nice views of picturesque statues, monuments, buildings etc. At around the hour mark, the film suddenly changes into high gear, and is then packed with shoot-outs, car chases, and action up until the very end. The action scenes may be clichéd (the old train-top chase is brought into play, for example) but they are frequently exciting, with lots of machine guns blazing and Lundgren escaping from death time and time again.
Which brings me to the acting; lamentable, as to be expected. Lundgren is extremely wooden here, although athletic when he needs to be. Detmers makes for quite an alluring femme fatale, and her final fate is quite a tragic one. The only other actor of interest is O'Herlihy, who essays the role of Lundgren's older, balding partner, and is quite likable in the part. There are many individual scenes of interest in this film; a moment where Lundgren cuts his own arm with a stanley knife (bet you can't guess how they did that!), a rooftop fight between Lundgren and a sniper, a shoot-out at a desert airport, and the finale, which involves a machine-gun battle between Lundgren and two of the main bad guys. Oh, and there's a scene of a man exploding and a John Woo-style slow-motion shooting in there somewhere too. THE SHOOTER may be clichéd entertainment, but it delivers on the action front, and is quite enjoyable in a so-bad-it's-trashy way.
It starts off badly, it has to be said. An hour passes with little of interest to hold the viewer's attention, instead it's the same old scene-setting. Although the Prague setting does make way for some nice views of picturesque statues, monuments, buildings etc. At around the hour mark, the film suddenly changes into high gear, and is then packed with shoot-outs, car chases, and action up until the very end. The action scenes may be clichéd (the old train-top chase is brought into play, for example) but they are frequently exciting, with lots of machine guns blazing and Lundgren escaping from death time and time again.
Which brings me to the acting; lamentable, as to be expected. Lundgren is extremely wooden here, although athletic when he needs to be. Detmers makes for quite an alluring femme fatale, and her final fate is quite a tragic one. The only other actor of interest is O'Herlihy, who essays the role of Lundgren's older, balding partner, and is quite likable in the part. There are many individual scenes of interest in this film; a moment where Lundgren cuts his own arm with a stanley knife (bet you can't guess how they did that!), a rooftop fight between Lundgren and a sniper, a shoot-out at a desert airport, and the finale, which involves a machine-gun battle between Lundgren and two of the main bad guys. Oh, and there's a scene of a man exploding and a John Woo-style slow-motion shooting in there somewhere too. THE SHOOTER may be clichéd entertainment, but it delivers on the action front, and is quite enjoyable in a so-bad-it's-trashy way.