File under Who Knew? Dolph Lundgren, permanently tagged as Sylvester Stallone’s ROCKY IV adversary (a massive 6'5" to Sly’s bulked up 5'9", a blink would have K.O.’d) has had a surprisingly varied career even within the action hero roles he’s been stuck playing. Perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised this engineering Fulbright scholar has always had more than one arrow in his quiver, writing, producing and for the past two decades, directing low-ball action fare, presumably for the foreign market, now as streamers. This one, generic as its title, perfectly acceptable product that could have been pitched at Clint Eastwood circa GRAN TORINO.* (The prejudice Mexican-centered rather than Asian.) Its neat parabolic plot sees Lundgren’s aging xenophobic cop in disgrace for violence and racial putdowns. He’s saved from being fired by accepting a trade-off assignment to pickup a pair of Mexican hookers South of the Border, witnesses to a drug cartel bust gone wrong and multiple dead DEA agents. But those third parties at the sting operation weren’t Cartel Bad Guys, but cops in disguise, corrupt officers on both sides of the border. So when the pickup goes wrong and the body count erupts, who can you trust to call for help? Okay, fresh this ain’t, and some technical issues bother. (In particular, the dubbing, especially in the first three reels, might be out of an early ‘60s Italian post-production synch lab.) But Lundgren stages the violent set pieces with aplomb (and readable logistics), while at 67, he’s beat up enough to pas as a weary, but still powerful police presence. Kelsey Grammer one of a few ‘names’ who show up. Fine, though having someone so prominent in a smallish role sort of gives the plot away. No cheering then, but no reason to hold your nose.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK: *Sure enough, Lundgren says he tried to get this going in 2008. The year TURINO came out. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/05/gran-torino-2008.html
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