User Reviews

One in the Chamber, i can sum it up in a few ways. Its not that bad, its an average action flick with a few good and bad things. The things I liked about it was the good cast. Gooding Jr. and Lundgren make a somewhat good duo. The action sequences were good, I think they could have been slightly better. The story was a lil confusing to me but after a moment, I was able to figure it out. Its a mind-bending scenario. The things I didn't like about it was the clichés that I obviously saw coming. Like one point, I knew something unexpected was going to happen. Either a drive-by shooting or a car bombing. The love angle, I just didn't get. It was not thorough and poorly executed, in my opinion. Overall, Its a average action movie. With a few clichés here and there. I recommend this to anyone that just enjoys a lil action flick every once in a while. Replay value for me is moderate and I'd still enjoy it. Overall 6 out of 10.

Whether we like it or not we DO often judge movies by the title and/or cover art promo-poster at first. I expected a true 'B' movie here, but what I got was considerably beyond it. It is an intelligent, albeit formulaic plot line, but it also has very intelligent dialog, shot extremely well, and directed substantially better than MANY "Blockbusters" we end up paying far too much for.

Here you have the many clichés and standards of an average budget action flick, but what this movie does is engross you from beginning to end. I would NOT consider this a 'B' movie by any means. It stands aside as a well thought out and inspired piece of film making on the merits of writing, casting, crew, production values and certainly Directing!

Cuba is truly outstanding here. Best performance in years(I believe). Dolf is...well, still Dolf at his best average, but good casting and acting all around. I recommend this because it surprised me as to certain nuances of actual quality of direction and cinematography AND script writing that is rarely shown in movies of this genre.

Note: Many people and critics complain of not being able to 'follow it'. That is likely because a LOT of the story and scenes here are INTELLIGENTLY executed and THAT takes a disciplined attention span to pay full attention to what is going on.

On a side note; and part of what makes the 'Love' interest in this movie so good, is that, like 'Remains of the Day', you can truly feel the wistful melancholy of the 'Inapproachable' aspect of 'Togetherness' that, as much as we want it to be, it has another more romantic aspect regarding the questions that it leaves behind.

I was very hesitant to watch yet another Cuba Gooding Jr. Direct to DVD film after the last handful or so, but the fact that Dolph Lundgren was a co-star eased up my trepidation long enough to justify to my better judgement about renting it from Redbox.

The film did indeed start off pretty awful, but got a bit better as the film plodded along, of course, picking up coincidentally when Dolph first appears about half an hour into the movie. Now that means you have to suffer the first 24 minutes and 40 seconds, so if you man up and tough it out as the seemingly trite, insipid tale of a Bible-quoting hit-man up against warring fractions of the Russian mafia, it DOES get better.

Another movie filmed in Romania, even in Brasov the town that I was born and live for twenty-five years but still this fact doesn't save this not even the few cars explosions in it. It's just the same scenario with mobster that seeks revenge for the death of their sons, customary shooting, a few tender scenes involving some beautiful girls that plays the role of the lover of one of the mobsters. It has the same elements seen in 6 Bullets and Assassination Games with Jean-Claude Van Damme, movies also shot in Romania.

So, in conclusion it's not worth your time this filling movie with the same scenarios and story that we are all ready use to.

There once was a time Cuba Gooding Jr. was often starring in some pretty decent movies. Then there came a time he still starred in big productions but of questionable quality. Now he is at a B-movie level, along with Dolph Lundgren, who stars opposite him in this movie.

And honestly, I like dumb action flicks and there are plenty of enjoyable B-movies out there but this ons just really isn't one of them. I just couldn't ever enjoy this movie because of the simple reason that I had absolutely no idea what was going on in it.

Seriously, I just didn't even knew what its main story was supposed to be all about. It's getting told in such an incredibly messy and uninteresting way, that I also lost interest in it, pretty quickly. The story seemed to be an incredibly formulaic one anyway, complete with an obligatory love-story, so I doubt I missed out on anything.

So is there at least some decent action? Not really. Just a couple of gun fights and Dolph Lundgren occasionally smacks someone around but it's nothing too spectacular or anything that shall please the lovers of the action genre. Just don't watch this movie expecting a lot of Dolph Lundgren awesomeness. After all, these aren't the '80's anymore, no matter how desperately this movie tried to be just like an '80's genre flick at times.

It basically comes down to it that the movie got far too measly made and put together by director William Kaufman. My goodness, was this movie bad at times. The editing, the pacing, the storytelling, it all seems so incredibly off at times, which makes this movie nearly unwatchable at parts.

Cringingly bad! Just like all of the accents in this movie.

3/10

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"When one mob family has a problem with another they call me. For the right price I solve it. I'm a fixer that's what I do, but that's not the only reason I'm here." Ray Carver (Gooding Jr.) is the best assassin money can buy. After being hired by both sides of a Russian gang war he sets out to do his worst. When he refuses to shoot a woman he himself becomes a marked man. Aleksey Andreev (Lundgren) is sent to take care of Ray before things get out of hand. I know what your thinking...a movie with Dolph Lundgren!! How can that be bad?? Without trying to totally disappoint you this is not really good at all. I'm not sure what happened to Cuba but after winning the Oscar he really lowered his movie standards. Dolph's were never that high to start with but I am really wondering why his Russian accent in Rocky 4 was better then his in this one. I assumed the more movies you do the better you get but I guess I'm wrong. I have to say though that I am not into the B-rate action movies though and if you like them you will probably like this one. Overall, exactly what I expected, maybe a little worse. I give it a C-.

Over the last few years, it seems that Cuba Gooding Jr. has been downgraded to the straight to video action market. He has had numerous films hit the shelves out of nowhere, but they are all a far cry from his Oscar winning A-list days. Dolph Lundgren has been doing them for years with only a couple forays into the big screen lately with the Expendables series. Their latest One in the Chamber throws these two guys together in an assassin cat and mouse game, but can they deliver something worth checking out or just another forgettable actioner.

One in the Chamber follows an assassin playing both sides of the Russian mob. When he fails to complete a hit, another assassin is called in to finish the job and him. This is a pretty simple film with very little plot, but to be honest not much is needed to make it work. The little bit of story they try to force on you outside of the assassins story fills unnecessary and out of place. Lundgren pretty much plays the same character from the Expendables films and does so with the fun stiff charm he somehow brings along with it. He seems to be having a good time stealing the show every time he steps on screen. The same can't be said for Gooding who does a fine job with his character, but just seems to really not be having any fun doing it. This has been a trend with his last few films that leads you to wonder if he is just delivering so much anger to bring out the characters or is really just not feeling it anymore. Either way, the character works decently for this film as he really needs very little emotion or feelings other than the need and ability to kill and there is no shortage of that here. There are a lot of old school shoot outs in this film that continues to up the body count very similar to the action films from the 90's. There is even and fight between Gooding and Lundgren that seems a bit far-fetched, but manages to work on some level.

This isn't a great movie by any means, but it is one that renters are sure to get exactly what they think from it, action. If you like either of these guys or just mindless action films, then check this film out its worth a rent.

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I read the posted reviews posted about this one and they're massively wrong.

I'll keep mine brief:

The movie is rooted in the action and the characters and story are plot devices aside from the lead. The staples are all there (accent heavy thugs, withdrawn lead with a moral dilemma, back story dealing with his obsession with the female lead) and the female lead is gorgeous. I liked that it never resorted to objectifying her.

This is a hit-man movie. It's not aiming for realism over entertainment but it's not out right silly either. The shooting scenes are well done. The fighting scenes could use a little work since there were points where the use of a stunt double was too obvious. It's a hit-man in Prague playing sides in a Russian mafia war. That's about all you need to know.

Once the action gets going another player/hit-man is introduced. Dolph Lundgren steals his scenes with a great character that could have been developed more but is fun as it is.

A more menacing bad guy would have been nice. There are quite a few nasty Russians in this but it's all implied. Some scenes dedicated to showing them as bad people would have helped establish them as such. Don't just allude to him torturing someone. You've got the R rating so stretch your legs Mr Kaufman and let's see the guy tied to the ceiling getting killed so I know the guy doing it is more than just an angry Russian.

I gave this 8/10 because I judged it based on reception as a fan of action movies. If you like movies about professional killers you can put this on and not be disappointed. It's not Collateral but it's still fun to watch. Go into it remembering that it's a straight to DVD/VOD action movie and have a good time.

I look forward to seeing what the team behind this does next since this is a big improvement over their previous efforts. As long as they keep learning and striving for more their next movie could be something very cool to see.

Pros: *good shooting scenes especially with the long range guns *good acting *great locations *coherent and easy to follow plot *fun characters

Cons: *the script had weaknesses in the dialogue *the shots could have been more stylized *the texture of the film should have been adjusted by the DOP to reflect *the location and set pieces. I mentioned Collateral: compare the club scenes specifically to see what I mean. *the gun play (too many machine guns! don't double fist pistols!) *underdeveloped characters

8/10 for an action movie

One in the Chamber is o one of the better straight to DVD action films.

Cuba Gooding Jr and Dolph Lundgren play assassins for rival Russian mobs. Gooding turns on his paymasters when he fails to complete a hit. Lundgren has been called in to finish the mess.

Gooding brings a quiet dignity to his role, now looking older, he has been given a bit of a back-story and plays his role with less histrionics and gets to do some action scenes well.

The presence of an Oscar winner means Lundgren has to raise his game and gives a sardonic performance as the lone wolf, almost moving as a lounge lizard. He is even called Sinatra on steroids at one point. You do sense that Lundgren is getting a bit long in the tooth for the action scenes and they do seem to be a tad lethargic or speeded up.

There is nothing much of interest in the story, it is a pretty standard gangland mobsters with Russian accents and plenty of tattoos. There is a damsel in distress at the climax with enough fight action and plenty of shooting. An entertaining film of its genre type but not exceptional.

One in the Chamber was directed by William Kaufman, written by Benjamin Shahrabani and Derek Kolstad, and stars Cuba Gooding Jr., Dolph Lundgren, Louis Mandylor, Andrew Bicknell, Leo Gregory, Claudia Bassols, and Billy Murray. It's about a hitman attempting to evade another hitman after a job sets off a battle between crime families.

The Plot: Kolstad has come a long way in a short time. From cowriting generic fare like this to John Wick and Nobody. One in the Chamber's plot isn't terrible, it just isn't special in its frequent usage of action movie tropes without adding any personal spin to them. Ray (Gooding Jr.) has reluctantly taken on a hit in Prague, of course, for heads of the Suverov crime family Mikhail (Bicknell) and Bobby (Gregory) to wipe out the Tavanian family, headed by Vlad and Demyan (Mandylor). Of course the dispute is over a drug proposition, with the Tavanian family overstepping their bounds, why wouldn't it be? Ray kills Vlad in the hit, but not Demyan, who escapes and hires Ray through his handler Leo (Murray) to retaliate while the Suverovs sends the Wolf (Lundgren) who uses anything he can, including Janice (Bassols), a love interest, after Ray. That's about it for the plot, which is smartly (and thankfully) not stretched to be some kind of epic, but still could've used more meat on the bones. Some betrayals, some grander scheme, some different scenes that aren't used in nearly every modern DTV action movie. There's a flashback to an unethical kill, a handful of threatening phone calls, the whole drug-based motivations for the families, and not much else. Everything is merely functional, as though designed by an algorithm to satiate action appetites.

The Characters: One in the Chamber is one of those movies where the bad guy is more entertaining than the good guy, it's the Wolf (Aleksey, in actuality) who holds the movie together by his sheer disregard for all social standards and professional behavior, as well as the most casual attire ever seen on a gun-for-hire. Ray is another one of those reluctant hero types, his defining characteristic is that he's a reader and quoter of Biblical scripture, but that's a trait that's only used as dressing and never comes up in any significant manner. He does, however, have an appreciable insecurity in his approach to women in that he never talks with Janice for too long, even after coming to her aid. It's not much and the relationship is generic as most other things here and quickly becomes a savior and damsel situation but that little quirk helps liven a couple scenes. The crime families are as cliché as they come. War veterans who came back and went bad for the money, doing whatever pays them the most while maintaining a fair business relationship in the city. Demyan is more spiteful than the average bad guy but that's not enough to make him memorable. Gooding Jr. Is fine here and Mandylor is good, as are the supporting cast, but this movie belongs to Lundgren who oozes smugness and enthusiasm as Aleksey. He's having fun but dials his performance in when necessary. He's become a very good actor as time has passed.

The Action: It's most likely down to the low budget, as Kolstad isn't one to skimp on spectacular action scenes by choice; or maybe that comes from Shahrabani's input. Either way, One in the Chamber doesn't have that much action and most of what is provided is sourced from Ray sitting in a chair firing a sniper rifle or assault rifle with a scope on it into a crowd of bad guys from a safe distance. There's some good sound design and foley work done for his weapons of choice but the outcome is all too familiar. Lots of shot-reverse shot sequences of Ray shooting and Czech enforcers falling over with the occasional spurt of blood. Aleksey's action scenes aren't much better as far as the action itself goes, but his character elevates them with his nonchalance about his work. He counts his targets and estimates the number of rounds he'll have left in his guns and stands in disbelief when Mikhail tortures one of the characters. It makes his scenes a lot of fun. When he and Ray are fighting each other the movie does pick up by quite a bit but those encounters are few and far between. Still, Lundgren's scenes are worth seeking out.

The Technics: Eastern European countries offer tax benefits for film productions, hence the numerous movies that have been at least partially shot in the region over the past two decades. Those production values are present in this movie and help give it a grander look and feel, but that feeling is nothing that hasn't been felt before in a laundry list of other action movies. Camerawork in One in the Chamber is better than a chunk of its peers thanks to having talent behind the camera and a lot in front of it. Almost any movie with Lundgren has a few decent fights. The 91-minute runtime can drag at a couple points but that comes from the lackluster writing and characters. A decent score or a slightly tighter edit could've aided the movie but it's the lack of impressive action or any personal touches (that aren't from Lundgren) that damns the movie to the back of the viewer's mind.

Lundgren owns One in the Chamber. After having played at least four other Russian characters he's nailed the role. It's not a memorable movie by any stretch, proved by the workmanlike story, characters, and action; but it can pass the time.

54/100.

Cuba Gooding Jr. And a visibly aged Dolph Lundgren (wearing a very bright shirt and a rather fetching hat) find themselves in the midst of a dispute between two warring groups of organised criminals in a film where there are plenty of bullets flying in both directions, and a reasonably high body count.

Dolph doesn't figure until about a third of the way in.

The acting is...not great, but that's standard for these sorts of movies. The Eastern European setting is in keeping with the gritty subject matter - the violence is graphically bloody - and the scenes between Cuba and Dolph are good, if not plentiful. The action movie cliches, however, are most definitely plentiful.

You know what you're going to get from a Dolph Lundgren film. Has he made better? Yeah, sure. But this is nonetheless a reasonable direct to video film. You could do worse than this on a Saturday night.

As in many movies before, Dolph Lundgren deals with his love for Eastern European / Russian mob themes. And he has always participated in strong feelings movies where love, hate, betrayal etc have been clearly up and vividly performed.

Gooding is great as always (Academy Award winner!), but Lundgren does not seem his pale shadow - has he improved so much then? And the guys depicting Russians are equal to the task - if taking into account that none of them is of Russian origin. Alike in other movies by Lundgren, there are lots of long shootings, dead bodies and changing sides - with some unexpected moments, though. If you choose to see this movie, your time will not wasted - although Lundgren has starred in better ones.

The action of the film is actually good and well-wrote. I have seen some of the actors in so many movies so I can say that they play pretty good. However, all the links to the place where the action takes place is said Prague, so the capital of Czech Republic. I am not agree because I recognize most of the places because there are from y country, Romania. The action starts actually in Brasov, in the middle of our country, and then, at the end, there are some views from Bucharest, the capital of Romania. The stage manager wanted some good landscapes, so he used Romania's landscapes as being in Prague? I still do not get why they did this. There are some places to promote in Czech Republic or what? Why do they tell to the viewers that the action takes place in Prague if the Atheneum is in Bucharest, the Hotel Grivita is there too and so many other places? Why do they use from time to time sequences from Prague, like the tram and the Dancing Building so they could say that all the action takes place there? Shame!

A Title that Announces this DTV Action Movie as if Anyone who would be Remotely Interested in this B-Movie would Need such an Exclaimer. There is the Teaming of Two Has-Beens that Now Pay the Rent by Making Low-Budget, Mostly Foreign Filmed Fodder.

These Actors Usually Make Watchable, Never Released to Big Screens Movies that are High on Bloody Shootouts and Low on just about Everything Else. In this One Dolph Lundgren Stays with His Mentally Damaged Character that seems to have a Lot of Fun Blasting Away Bad Guys for Big Pay Days. The More the Merrier.

Dolph Supplies the Comedy Relief but Mostly He just Relieves the Bad Guys of Their Scummy Lives. Cuba Gooding Jr. Plays it Perfectly Straight with a Haunting Past an Obsession with a Child He Traumatized.

Overall, Worth a Watch for its High-Energy and is Good Enough to Recommend to B-Movie Action Fans, Followers of the Two Stars and those not Expecting Anything to Sophisticated.

I don't know if Dolph Lundgren isn't attractive star for fans of B-class action movies anymore, so he has to work with Steve Austin or Cuba Gooding Jr. to sell his movies . I doubt that is a good idea since neither Austin or Gooding Jr. are "hot" stars , even in the B movies range. I can bet that most fans of this type of movies would watch it for Lundgren only.

Anyway , Lundgren is the best thing here . He's fun as the eccentric Russian assassin . He brings a lot of humor and quite decent acting. When he's on the screen the movie lives , because you don't know what he will do. I wish the whole movie was about his character.

Unfortunately, Lundgren has to share screen time with Gooding Jr . He's completely boring as another assassin who looks for meaning of live and is hunted by his past. Seriously it was done before and with much better results ("Leon The Professional") . Gooding is not one bit charismatic and it's a ridiculous idea to promote him as action star . His strength has always been comedy and he doesn't have chance to show this here.

The story about two rival mob families trying to kill each other is lame and the writer wasn't able to put any new ideas . The acting with exception of Lundgren is bad . The fight scenes are decent , while shootouts are rather chaotic.

For fans of Lundgren and bored action movie fans only . I give it 1/10.

Cuba plays an assassin for hire. He's hired by one Czech mobster to take out the rival faction. When he fails at killing his main target this one knows what's up and a war between mobsters break out. Cuba meanwhile thinks his job is done and goes back to what he does in his spare time, follow and watch over a pretty girl. Turns out that on one of his missions years ago, he was hired to kill her dad, and the girl saw him. It's something he never got over.

What he doesn't know is that the surviving mobster and his brother have hired Dolph to take revenge, kill mobsters and Cuba. They also get a hold of Cuba's handler. Cuba eventually is forced to come out of the shadows when some thug gives the girl a hard time. Of course she doesn't recognize him but she's attracted to him. Dolph is in the meantime wreaking havoc and killing mobsters left and right. When they finally meet, Cuba decides to let him live (!). That's when Cuba decides to finish the job and kill some more mobsters, setting things up for a second meeting with Dolph and the eventuality that the girl will find out the truth.

One In the Chamber is a great B action movie. And it looks like the B movie universe survives only thanks to action movies. Erotic B movies have completely disappeared, and so have B horror movies leaving us only with C-and-below horror movies. Hollywood is busy spending half a billion dollars making the umpteenth CGI movie about something silly destroying entire cities. This movie is your good, honest, old fashioned mano-a-mano action movie. No CGI, no anorexic girls beating up on bouncers, no nonsense. The script is very good, the direction is excellent, the locations beautiful (Romanian streets), and the cast does very well. Dolph as always just enjoys every role he gets. Cuba can act but frankly is just a tad bit outmatched by Dolph who must be 3 times the size of Cuba so I doubt that a knee to Dolph's abdomen would even be noticeable to him. The secondary cast also does well, especially Louis Mandylor and Andrew Bicknell. And Claudia Bassols is just gorgeous. Is One In the Chamber perfect? No, but it's so much better and much more entertaining than almost all the stupefying summer blockbusters and action movies Hollywood cranks out by the dozen.

Hopefully they didn't pay the screenwriter too much, because he wrote this story with his hands tied behind his back in a long night session. What a simplistic insignificant story.

Short summary:

Mafia Boss 1 employs hit-man 1 (Cuba) to eliminate Mafia boss 2

Hit-man 1 misses the under boss of Mafia boss 2

Underboss employs hit-man 1 to eliminate Mafia boss 1 (plus entourage)

Mafia boss 1 employs hit-man 2 (Dolf) to eliminate the under boss (plus entourage)

The boss of hit-man 1 betrays hit-man 1

Confrontation between hit-man 1 and hit-man 2

Hit-man 1 saves hit-man 2 his life

Confrontation hit-man 1 (+ his boss) with Mafia boss 1

Hit-man 2 assassins Mafia boss 1 (Yep I didn't really see that one coming) and saves hit-man 1

Hit-man 1 & 2 become best buddies

And there you have it. I could have made that up easily in one night. Mix that with an idyllic story of a handsome chick who lives in Prague, who was the daughter of someone who was eliminated by Cuba and the picture is complete.

Nevertheless it started really well. The opening credits looked almost like "Se7en". The scene in which Cuba uses a huge sniper rifle and the way it's filmed, is fantastic. And then it slumps down and transforms into a common "Terence Hill & Bud Spencer" story, but with guns and machine guns instead of fists.

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I guess that with both Cuba Gooding Jr. and Dolph Lundgren being prolific direct-to-DVD stars, it was inevitable that someday they would make such a movie together. Almost all of Gooding's movies for the past few years have been awful, but Lundgren is a lot more dependable - it was primarily his presence that made me rent this movie. While it's low budget, the movie is executed in a pretty slick manner that never makes the movie look cheap. There are some serviceable action sequences, and the movie also has the occasional sense of humor that I found welcome. Apart from those things, though, it's hard to build any enthusiasm for this movie. Gooding is miscast, to say the least - it's hard to accept him being a professional hit-man who casually kills and can pull off martial arts moves. Lundgren gives a relaxed and likable performance, but for some reason it's pretty clear that in his fight scenes he is being doubled for 90% of the fight footage, despite the fact that Lundgren has a black belt in martial arts in real life. (Needless to say, it's obvious that Gooding is being doubled as well.) The biggest flaw of the movie is that it is pretty slow for the most part, with a lot of boring chat. The slack pacing of the movie makes it hard to build a huge amount of resentment to the film, but you'll be falling asleep long before the end.

Don't confuse this movie as Lundgren starring vehicle. Cuba is the star of the movie and rumors have it, that Dolph did decline to play the main role and opted for this other character, because he thought the main character was dull (he apparently said it to a German film magazine). Need I say more?

But even the guy he plays has more flaws than you be used to. He tries to be funny with that character, but doesn't succeed that often. Lundgren is one thing (he seems like a very funny person and we do know he knows how to use his brain, his doctor title being more than prove enough), but how did Cuba Gooding Jr. slid into this muddle? He must wonder himself. And I'm pretty sure he'd wish someone was there, to help him help himself (or whatever he said in that Tom Cruise movie Jerry Maguire).