The Minion (1998) Poster

(1998)

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4/10
Lazily made passable filmaking
Yonhap S4 September 1999
The Minion is about... well, a minion. A servant of Satan and whose goal is to get the key that will unlock the door where his master is trapped. He is some sort of demon who possess human beings and when the body dies will possess another. Anyone who happens to be possessed will go on some berserker rage. Dolph Lundgren plays Lukas, a member of a secret order of Templars, who is tasked to keep the key away from the minion. The movie begins a thousand years ago, in the Middle East where a couple of knight templars flee from the minion. Then flash forward to 1999, where the key winds up somewhere underground in New York. An archeologist is assigned to study/dig the place where the key was found. Needless to say, the minion is after the key, and the movie becomes a long winded chase scene between the minion and Lukas and archeologist.

The movie, is just that, a low budget B-movie flick. The movie lacks energy, and just trods along. You'll follow the chase but you won't ever feel involved in the story which willfully takes ideas from previous movies (especially The Terminator films). The fight scenes with the minion is troublesome, in that you never get the sense of how good or how bad a warrior this demon is. It "skillfully" becomes a one-man army when fighting a squad of templars but sucks when it comes to one-on one. And it's supposed to be around for a long time. All this goes to show that any sense of logic is just thrown down the drain for convenience. The whole idea of a secret order of Templars, a door to hell, and the key isn't well explained. We are merely to accept that they just exist. The movie seems to have been made with the feeling there's not much potential to the story but only enough to make a few bucks. Dolph Lundgren sure looks like he wish he were somewhere else.

The verdict: 2 of 5 stars.
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5/10
It may not be one of Dolph's shining moments, but The Minion really isn't all that bad.
tarbosh220005 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
When archaeologist Karen Goodleaf (Robertson) goes to investigate a burial site found underneath New York City, she gets way more than she bargained for. Among the relics is an ancient key. This key just happens to unlock the hiding place of "The Minion", a devil or demon of some sort. Luckily, Lukas (Dolph), is sent from a monastery in Jerusalem to help recover the key before it falls into the wrong hands. As it turns out, Lukas is a direct descendant of The Templars, and his "warrior priest" status helps Karen fend off the powers of The Minion, whose spirit can inhabit the bodies of others. What will happen to the mysterious key? The Minion has some noteworthy ideas, such as modern-day Templars, and the dialogue is fairly interesting, or at least attempts to be. For example, The Minion has the ability to turn you into a were-minion. So many DTV movies seem like they're not even trying. Say what you will about The Minion, you could tell the filmmakers were at least putting forth some effort into delivering a product with some worthwhile thought put into it. The dialogue to convey said ideas is delivered convincingly by Dolph, who must have chosen this role because it's a bit different than what he's usually known for (or he was hitting a rough patch in his career and had no other option but to go to Canada and shoot this).

Now while there are historical references (among plenty of mumbo-jumbo, of course) - the film borrows heavily from such contemporary movies as The Relic (1997), but crosses it with C.H.U.D. (1984), of all things. Dolph can only stop the evil with a huge spiked glove, highly reminiscent of The Glove (1979). But it's one of the cooler aspects of this movie nonetheless. Actually, an entire movie could - nay - MUST be made of Dolph fighting more baddies and punks with a spiked glove. Come to think of it, forget all this mystical demon noise. Dolph and "The Glove" forever! Who's with us? Anyway, add in a demon in some kind of supernatural prison, and Dolph as the most badass dude to wear a white Priest's collar, and you have a decently entertaining Dolph vehicle, despite its flaws.

It may not be one of Dolph's shining moments, but The Minion really isn't all that bad. It's a good one-time watch.

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3/10
Poor attempt
Leofwine_draca27 February 2020
Warning: Spoilers
THE MINION is a very poor B-movie spin on a theme popular during the last years of the 1990s, namely demonic possession and end-of-the-world religious mumbo-jumbo. Schwarzenegger's apocalyptic END OF DAYS is the best known of this genre, but that came later; THE MINION's main source of inspiration is the underrated Denzel Washington flick FALLEN, as it borrows that film's figure-hopping demon. Sadly, this is a much lesser production, a Canadian movie made by people who have no idea how to insert tension, thrills and horror into their production. It's cheesy throughout, overacted by an unrestained cast, and the whole thing is a disappointment. Dolph Lundgren's stoic hero deserves better.
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You call that archaeology?
torisen26 February 2003
Worst portrayal of archaeology in a movie EVER. I don't even know where to begin there were so many flaws. Not little nerdishly nit-picky flaws, either, but big, gaping stupid ones. Please believe me when I tell you, dear ones, archaeologists don't go about their business acting like obsessive, `I work alone,' TV criminologists gasping (made-up) historical trivia into a dictaphone while diving straight for the shiny things without any sort of support team (and if we ever get that possessive about archaeological material, someone needs to slap us upside the head.) Makes Indiana Jones look professional in comparison. (At least he dresses with more practicality.) Gah! Now that I've got that out of my system. the rest of the movie is pretty dang awful, too.
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1/10
They couldn't even get the dates right
starninknight29 August 2005
Come on, let's get real. The Knights of Christ, Ordo Templi, or the Knights Templar as they are more commonly called did not even exist until the early 12th century. The story is so laughable that it's pathetic. Dolph Lundgren just looked positively bored. And besides, if you wanted to have a real-life Templar, why not just use the Knights of Christ, who are still in existence in Portugal. At least they should have taken history into account. The only redeeming quality I could find in this movie was that the artifacts looked authentic enough to pass for medieval or Gothic period pieces. The acting was bad, the storyline appalling, the action horrible, and the props were okay.
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1/10
§12 million down the tubes!
Roger J6 June 1999
This is without a doubt one of the worst movies EVER, I emphasize, EVER made. What´s worse, my old hero Dolph is in it and he´s starring it. Jesus... The story is actually quite good but the way it´s carried out made even my body hurt. The fighting scenes for starters are about as well choreographed as a fight between two drunks slugging it out in the gutter. The actors, except for Dolph who kinda sucks also, perform so badly you can´t help but wonder if their reason for being there is that they´re all friends of the director, who by the way must have been absent most, if not all, of the time. This is §12 million spent in an unimaginable way, because by the look of the effects and scenery, the cost can´t be a cent above §1000.
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1/10
Fallen from grace...
fmarkland3226 October 2006
Dolph Lundgren stars as a templar who comes to New York when a key that unlocks the anti-Christ is found by an archaeologist, of course the demon is only a couple miles behind Dolph and isn't killed so easily as he transfers from body to body. (Like Fallen without the suspense) Of course Lundgren is out of his element and the movie is completely unwatchable. I admit to being a fan of Dolph Lundgren, like Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, I try to watch his movies whenever they're on TV. I caught The Minion and boy was I ever disappointed. This movie is utterly terrible. With action sequences so poorly staged and badly edited you can barely make coherent sense in the fight arena. Worst of all is Lundgren's woefully unconvincing perf as a tough guy priest (!) all of this made worse that the movie is such a rip off of Fallen (Which was good) and End Of Days (Which was bad but better than this) overall this movie is the worst movie I've seen from Dolph Lundgren. It literally has nothing to recommend it. It's awful and it's the lowest point in Lundgren's career. And I saw Cover-Up, The Last Warrior and Masters Of The Universe.

1/2* Out Of 4-(Awful)
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4/10
"Some questions are best left unanswered"
hwg1957-102-26570415 July 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Not one of Dolph Lundgren's best. He plays Lukas Sadorov, an ex- Spetznaz soldier turned priest in a sort of Templar order, who comes to New York when an ancient key is discovered by workers digging a tunnel. Apparently the key unlocks a special cell in the Templar order's monastery in Israel in which is imprisoned a Someone . Also on the trail of the key is The Minion, who is the servant of the Someone. The identity of the Someone, how the key came to New York, and the overall plot itself are ludicrous. Why the Templar order never destroyed the key instead of hiding it for centuries as it was never to be used again is never mentioned.

Dolph Lundgren himself looks uninterested most of the time and even in the action scenes looks half-hearted. Am not sure if he was dubbed sometimes but his voice did seem to change a lot. Françoise Robertson is a most unlikely archaeologist and is quite irritating for most of the time. The Minion is played by several people as it can leap from person to person, only to give itself away by a hilarious kind of growl.

"Some questions are best left unanswered" says one of the characters. And some films are best left unmade.
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1/10
People actually financed this?
gallivan_46322 July 2005
Where to start? This is probably one of the worst movies I have ever seen. The editing is the worst ever, the sound effects were awful and the sound editing was whacked. Most of the movie all one could here is the crappy kicking effects, with muddled talking in the background. I had to turn my volume on full blast just to her what was going on....and what was I supposed to hear exactly? Probably one of the worst scripts ever made. I can't believe people actually put up some green for this film. It makes me think I could take a crap in a box, send it to producers, and then have them finance a movie for me.

Dolph, was a usual, Dolph. Nothing else needs to be said. The villains were bad, the protagonists were bad, and the movie was a stinker. If you really want to know what NOT to do when either writing, directing or editing a movie, watch this!
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1/10
Bad
Snoopy110 August 2004
I can't think of much to say about this film.

This was an awful movie...I can't even tell you what made me decide to view it. It had SO few redeeming qualities that I don't even know where to begin.

The plot moved from implausible to downright absurd. My entire body was tense throughout the duration of the movie because I could not wait for the awful thing to be over and done. By the end of the movie, I found myself feeling beyond relieved.

The editing was poor, the acting was sub-par, and the storyline was weak. Francoise Robinson was cast as a Native American, even though she does not even closely resemble someone of Native American heritage.

If a movie is going to be this idiotic, it should be laughably stupid -- at the very least. It wasn't. It was just pathetic.
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3/10
Could have been good.....
xtrospawn10 November 2005
Warning: Spoilers
This movie had the potential to be really good, considering some of the plot elements are borrowed from the sci-fi actioner THE HIDDEN. And Dolph always lends some cheesy appeal to his roles. But someone somewhere really dropped the ball on this one.

Dolph plays a butt-kicking monk (!) who travels to New York to retrieve a key that unlocks a door beneath his monastery that has imprisoned the antichrist for 2000 years. He must battle the minion, who is a spirit that jumps from body to body much like THE HIDDEN and JASON GOES TO HELL. The minion, naturally, wants the key so it can let the antichrist out. Along for the ride is an annoying female archaeologist and together she and Dolph are chased by the minion-possessed bodies.

If I'm making this sound entertaining, forget it. The pacing is very awkward and sluggish, the acting subpar at best, and the fight scenes staged poorly. Dolph sleepwalks through his role and spouts some of the worst dialogue of his career.

The cheese factor really picks up at the end when the minion battles an army of machine-gun wielding monks at the monastery, but the rest of this flick is a snoozefest.

Too bad, I really wanted to like this.
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10/10
Dolph sends Satan back to hell!!!!!!
richard-31821 October 2000
When seeing this first time i thought that it was poor because there was not much action in it and that is what you'd expect from a Dolph film, but having watched it again and concentrated more on the plot and characters i found it quite good. This film had the most potential of all the armaggedon prevention films that came out before the end of the millennium but the lack of budget and amateurish direction puts it somewhere in the middle with end of days. Its promise was really in the story, it was similar to End of days with Satan as the threat of human extinction, but the plot was a lot better than Arnies film but the fact that E-O-Days had the big budget, and the impressive cast list it will be preferable to most people. The cast in the Minion has Dolph has it's only recognizable name and face but to be fair the other performances are of a good standard. Dolph rightly steals the show with a solid performance and does the predictable which is save the world. I think it would make an interesting film if just for once the world did end or the bad guy wins then at least it would surprise the audience, just when they expect the hero to save us from Satan he gets impaled with a spear or something and turns the earth into a blazing inferno then follows on by eating Jennifer Anistons charred bottom, but thats not gonna happen. As for this film it's a decent enough film with a good plot let down by the director who has only done the Minion and it shows, the film does'nt live up to its potential but i still liked it.
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6/10
An Okay Time Killer But You Could Do A Lot Better!
callanvass5 March 2005
Warning: Spoilers
This is an okay time killer, but you could do a lot better. The 1st half is kind of dull, with lots of boring and pointless dialog, but the 2nd half is great with lots, of action, however, Dolph has done a LOT better, as i was a bit disappointed by this movie. This may be Dolph's worst(well at least that i have seen so far), and, the ending was kinda abrupt. The Direction is kind of bland. Jean-Marc Piché does okay here, but it's kinda dull, some of the visuals were cool,and some of the camera tricks are cool, but it's kind of bland, and the pace is extremely inconsistent. Not much gore or violence here. We get some non bloody stabbings, non bloody impalings, a few bloody gunshot wounds, and some bloody corpses and bodies. The Acting for the most part is good. Dolph Lundgren is AMAZING as always, however, he looked bored here, and had to spurt out some awful dialog, but he kicked that ass, and made the movie bearable, and his chemistry with Françoise Robertson, is decent. Françoise Robertson, is good looking but is kind of annoying at times, but she did okay. Overall worth a rent but not much more. **1/2 out of 5 Dolph has done a lot better.
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1/10
Terrible - One of Lundgren's worst movies
Maziun28 December 2014
I appreciate the fact that Lundgren tried to do something different for his image with this movie. I understand that he wanted to explore some new (for him) cinematic territory – a horror movie. Unfortunately this movie is just SO bad that I can't think of any redeeming quality in it.

I simply can't believe that they spent 12 million $ on this movie. By the way it looks it couldn't cost more than 1000 $. OK , so the artifacts looked authentic enough to pass for medieval or Gothic period pieces. Where did they spent all the money ? That's a mystery more intriguing than the whole movie.

Dolph Lundgren in this movie plays a tough guy priest ! He is simply unconvincing and gives one of worst performances in his career. He also delivers some of the worst dialogues in his career. The rest of the actors is bad too. The movie is awfully directed. There is no suspense and the pacing is very awkward and sluggish. If you're counting on some fun action scenes you'll be disappointed. The fights are badly choreographed and shot. I've seen better fights in amateurish movies… The story rips off "Fallen" and "End of days" , but that's the smallest problem. The authors couldn't even get the dates right (The Knights Templar did not even exist until the early 12th century). The story is stupid and pathetic.

It's a snoozefest. I give it 1/10.
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P.U
COMICBOOKSTOREGUY2 January 2002
The Minion (AKA Fallen Knight) stars Dolph Lundgren as a priest who must keep a key out of the hands of a demon who is trying to set the antichrist free.

This is not a movie...It consists of one sided fights (That are poor) And bad acting that will make anybody groan. The Templars should keep this movie from an audience.....Because this groan inducing bore will have you wishing the end of the world would happen just you could get out of this stinkbomb. What was Dolph thinking?

* (Out of four)
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1/10
Complete rubbish.....
darrell-237156 June 2020
It's amazing that Dolph Lundgren managed to produce so many film but most of them are rubbish, no all of them are rubbish.
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1/10
How can any of scarlet-16 review be trusted.
dougiesantarosa21 December 2020
First of all, The Minion never featured Steven Segal. What film were you watching? You wouldn't know Dolph Lundgren from a hole in the ground. Next time at least view the end credits before attempting to write a bad review. Also, the archiological (sp. archeological) "dig" was an improper "dig" therefore anything retrieved is bogus. Turn on your spellcheck, too.
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5/10
Very Strange Movie But It Wasn't That Bad I Wished It Was Done A lot Better
nikola1728 December 2017
I Found This Movie On DVD At garage sale for $2, I Have A Dolph Lundgren Collection Expect For Cover Up Movie I Hated Specially Last Patrol AKA Last Warrior I Prefer This Movie over top of these 2 movies specially. this movie was so strange the story and way it looks of movies. just story and plot it's strange but it wasn't boring or slow wasn't anything of that. Dolph Can Do Russian Accent like in Rocky IV, Red Scorpion, The Mechanik AKA The Russian Specialist he can do a German or French Accent in War Pigs But His Character Is A Jewish Character can't do a Jewish Accent i am sorry his voice in this movie sounds terrible in this movie just terrible gives me headaches but he was a Templar and a former Speznas who deserted the Soviet army following a massacre on civilians in Afghanistan. i was thinking why can't they write him again as a Russian Character Because he do a Russian Accent maybe one of these guys

haven't seen Rocky IV Or Red Scorpion sadly made his character is a Jewish who was a Speznas ? the story is similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger end of days expect this is a very low budget movie sadly can't be bigger movie i wish this was directed by Peter Hymas Who Made End of Days Dolph Character can team up with Schwarzenegger Character. this movie come out after end of days one year later it's because it's kinda Similar story to End of Days with New York, Christmas Eve, 1999 - at the dawn of the new millennium - a subway construction crew unearths an eight hundred year old Celtic skeleton and a mysterious key. Archeologist Karen Goodleaf is called in to determine the meaning of the discovery. News of the discovery reaches a Middle East monastery where the warrior monks knowns as the Knights Templer - an ancient sect entrusted with protecting holy relics - choose their best pupil, Lukas (Dolph Lundgren) to face the diabolical threat. As Lukas races to New York, an evil Minion seizes Karen and uses its body like a parasite and host. Lukas arrives just in time to rescue Karen and despatch the Minion. The Minion takes hold of another host - revealing that it is immortal. As it cuts a path of destruction through the city, decimating a parking garage and leaving a trail of death, Karen realizes that the Minion can't be killed - but only delayed from finding a new host.from finding a new host. now he kills a lot Demons in this movie and theirs another character with him is woman Karen Goodleaf (Françoise Robertson) Who Saw All What Happened Follows Lukas, She Doesn't Get What's Going on she Decides to Follow Lukas. Now This is So Similar to End of Days the all Thing and Horror and Apocalypse and Christmas all That did Peter Hymas Watch This Movie Made his Own Movie Better Then This ? i believe Peter Hymas is a Better Director then from this movie Jean-Marc Piché Who Can't Make Action a lot to it or Horror in it, i thought this was most strangest movie i have watched like Character Comes in with Heavy Weapons in Police Station i am like ok ? did Jean Marc Piché Just Toke That Scene From Terminator When He Crash's his car in Police Station Kills All Police Offices I Am like ok ?? I Know What Scene They Got That From. Sadly Theirs Not Much Action In Movie The Only Shameful Thing is When Dolph Character Lukas Has This Great Looking Glove with sharp objects on top of it and if he punch's it, it kills person it looks sick that glove i wished he would use that in movie the all movie use that Glove killing all demons but no he uses that for 30 min or less he loose it sadly shame. if he uses that, that would be badass as you can use in poster that metal looking Glove looks sick but he doesn't use that in movie sadly. there is action i like ending of showdown with Dolph And Villain each another with weapons was great looking and well shot i love that scene pretty fun but movie wasn't fun.

There is action moments but movie wasn't great but i like idea of having Dolph Lundgren In Horror movie like End of Days. But Sadly End of Days Is A Better Movie Then This. this kinda hard to watch but unless if your Lundgren fan like me then you could watch this movie very easily i thought story was really good and having Dolph in it but i really wish it was peter hymas making this movie with Arnold and Dolph to save world but sadly it didn't happen or no one had thought of it. i did because i loved end of days this movie is noting special but what really really annoyed me he can't do a Jewish Accent why can't make him Russian Character Besides Jewish because his accent really annoy's me in this movie. 5/10 movie wasn't slow 1h 35min. but if your Dolph Fan it's more easily to watch if your not a fan of Dolph that's going to hard to watch
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1/10
When your movie is envious of "End of Days"... you know it sucks
squirrel_burst11 December 2014
"The Minion" (a.k.a. "Fallen Knight" here in Canada) is a boring fantasy action flick with bad acting, a lazy script and with a budget so thin (too thin for grenade explosions apparently) that there's no way any audience could see it without being disappointed. The film is so poorly written that there is absolutely no drama or tension. The plot, not that you will remember or care by the time the movie is over, concerns a warrior belonging to an ancient order or super priests who have to prevent "The Minion", a servant of the Antichrist from opening a doorway to Hell and unleashing the apocalypse every thousand years. The Minion is able to possess the bodies of people, so even when our hero Lukas (Dolph Lundgren) or the woman who decides to join his quest, Karen (Françoise Robertson) get rid of it, the big bad will just come back in the body of another person. You would think that would make for some sort of excitement, particularly when you see Lukas' ridiculous spiked gauntlet thing, but the movie wastes every opportunity to deliver. An obvious plot point for example, would be for a character we care about to be possessed by "The Minion" to create the "are they going to find a way to bring him back, or are they going to have to kill their friend?" scenario but this never happens. I also took offense to the multiple displays of racism throughout. Instead of giving the villains personalities or setting up situations that would have you cheer for the protagonists, they just use this as a cheap trick to get you riled up. Even if you are a hardcore fan of Dolph Lundgren, the action scenes are bad so there's no reason to see this. (Canadian release on VHS tape, August 1, 2012)
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4/10
This movie sucked
scarlet-162 July 1999
Wow and I thought that any Steven Segal movie was bad. Every time I thought that the movie couldn't get worse it proved me wrong. The story was good but the actors couldn't carry it off. Also, they made a lot of mistakes on how proper archiological digs are done. For instance you don't handle artifacts untill they are catologed and accounted for. The biggest crime in casting was the archiologist girl. She is a weak actress and I felt that her acting really made the movie less realistic then it already was. The whole concept of the knights templar being underground all these years seemed pretty stupid to me. I like the idea of how they disappeared and stuff, so that almost seemed depressing. I thought that the characters wern't explained well enough. You didn't find out much background and that made it harder to relate to them.
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5/10
It's OK!
BandSAboutMovies26 December 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Directed by Jean-Marc Piché and written by Matt Roe and Avi Nesher (the director of Doppelganger) this movie finds the holidays coming at the worst of times, as all the signs of the end are there - it's super hot in New York City despite it being December - and that's because The Minion is about to unlock the fourth of the Trinity - just go with it - the Antichrist who is locked inside the fortress of the Knights Templar and their strongest warrior Lukas Sadorov (Dolph Lundgren) must stop that from happening. He's also a former Speznas who left the Soviet army after witnessing a massacre of civilians in Afghanistan - is this a Red Scorpion sequel? - who ends up working with a Native American archaeologist named Karen Goodleaf (Françoise Robertson).

The Minion has powers like The Hidden, jumping from body to body, but Dolph has a spiked glove so it seems like this is unfair fight for demons. Also: a subplot about nuclear waste on reservations, the alternate title Knight of the Apocalypse and the sad undelivered promise that Michele Soavi was one selected to direct this and man, what a movie that would have been. It's still pretty good - I mean, Dolph praying before beating up cops and a bunch of Knights Templar in body armor fighting a body-switching demon, what else could you ask for? - but just imagine if this had been in the hands of a man who put a scene in a movie where a rabbit can use a remote control and it's the least wild idea in that film.

Everyone compares this to End of Days but Lundgren got there first.
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3/10
Kinda boring. Not a Christmas movie.
duck_head1 December 2021
I've see this movie in a few Christmas horror/thriller movie lists. I'm a big fan of Christmas horror so this movie let me down. Other than a few scenes in the beginning you wouldn't even know it was that time of year. Aside from that I thought it started out interesting then lost me in boredom. An old episode of the A-team is more exciting than this. IDK, maybe I missed something but that movie put me to sleep.
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10/10
They simply don't come any better....(minor spoilers, but do read on)
pater-tenebrarum16 February 2011
Warning: Spoilers
What a scorching ride of a movie! Never has a better film been made, ever! One wonders why it was so carelessly neglected by the Academy Awards? The best actor who ever lived, Adolphus Lundgren, graces the movie with his presence, with this shining luminary of the thespian arts miming a black-clad Knight Templar in his inimitable, hard-hitting fashion. Not only that, but the movie contains an excellent portrayal of the lost art of archeology, showing some earnest and well-intentioned digging in an abandoned subway shaft that unfortunately goes horribly wrong. A denizen of the nether regions is released, to everyone's understandably great consternation. The remainder of the plot is too complex to rehash in a few sentences, let us just say that it continually keeps you on the edge of your seat with its captivating twists and turns. The supporting actors orbiting the Great One in this movie must have descended from supporting actor heaven...one grasps in vain for the proper superlatives to adequately praise their superb work. There are numerous fight scenes, which perhaps may strike some of you as superfluous given the earnest subject matter, but let me assure you they all have their place. There isn't a single scene in this movie one could possibly cut without maiming its subtle and important message. Besides, the fight scenes probably have made scores of Hong-Kong movie makers realize how starved their industry is for truly memorable choreography. The grace and fluidity of the fisticuffs is simply out of this world. What else can I say? If you have but one hour left to live, this movie is what you should spend the time with. It's THAT good.
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7/10
Dolph Lundgren efficiently crushing the errant skulls of myriad black-eyed demon-possessed minions
Weirdling_Wolf1 March 2021
Two metropolitan transport Workers accidentally tumble into a subterranean, long-forgotten, body-strewn burial chamber hidden deep beneath the bustling streets of New York which leads to the extraordinarily macabre discovery of the upright, partially garbed skeleton of a sword-bearing monk, a Templar Knight. Karen Goodleaf (Francoise Robertson) a young archaeologist discovers an ancient key hidden in a sealed locket around the dead monk's neck which living warrior monk Lukas Sadorov (Dolph Lundgren), just flown in from the Holy land has come to collect it, armed with a killer dentine smile and a pretty gnarly looking spiked gauntlet! This exquisitely handsome pugilist priest being tasked to destroy the various minions that would no less zealously try to reclaim said key for the nefarious purposes of their infernal master! In the conspiracy-laden tumult running giddily up to the millennium the trapped, hateful Antichrist seething sulphurous in his prison pit craves release from his living tomb in order to seek dominion upon the earth with only the pretty archaeologist Goodleaf and Dolph's exceptionally brawny spiked fist to prevent this most nightmarish Armageddon!

While Jean-Marc Piche's 'The Minion' is pure B-movie gobbledygook all the way it's also a lot of fun to watch, and as always, the handsome enigmatic Dolph makes for an engaging champion and there's also a super ballistic gonzo Terminator-style massacre in the cop shop that's pretty righteous to behold, and it all races along with laudable alacrity to a substantial evil vs. Lundgren showdown, which bloodily ends in the only righteous way such an altercation should ever end! If it should ever become mandatory to see at least one screwball, theologically dense fantasy action movie with the mighty, steel-thewed Swede Dolph Lundgren efficiently crushing the errant skulls of myriad doom-heralding, black-eyed demon-possessed minions, this one comes highly recommended!

'Lantern-jawed action icon Dolph Lundgren's entertainingly hokey late 90s DTV monster mash 'The Minion' would make an especially cosy B-Movie double bill with JCVD's equally evangelical adventure 'The Order'. - Tor Bronson @ The Heroic Bloodshed.
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5/10
A decent fantasy movie
dodgerzdad26 March 2021
I like the concept of the story but there were a couple of details I thought the directors missed. For one, there are never times when there is only one car in the Holland Tunnel and the story is set in 1999 and yet the police car they stole from the NYC police was an early eighties car. Minor to the story but things people notice. Also, if wanted to get rid of the key, you could have just took a blow torch to it or hacked it up and throw the pieces in the river. But I suppose since it is a fantasy story, reason would make the movie impossible.
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