Michael Ledo ***SPOILERS***The movie starts out with our killing machine, Edward Glenn (Dolph) in a no-win situation, then flashes back. He is now in bed with a gold digging blond asking him for a new car while they make love because her current car is "so last year." (Brief nudity) He gets a call from his wife (or ex-wife) about attending his daughter's play. Dolph seems cold and heartless. Later we find out he is an ex-KGB assassin working for the Russian mob. He has a real day job as an investment broker. He goes to Hong Kong on an assignment. He murders his target and a bunch of other people, but allows a witness (being tortured by his target) to live. He returns home and is questioned if he left any witnesses. He answers in the negative and gets another assignment. He has to go to Miami ASAP and take out a man that weekend. However, it is his turn to have his daughter that weekend as mom goes frolics with her boyfriend. Edward leaves the girl with his floozy girlfriend and drives off to the airport. The floozy doesn't want to take care of the kid so she palms her off on the housekeeper. Meanwhile Edward is on his way to the airport on the phone with his wife, convincing her he just had supper with Taylor(daughter) and she had just gone to bed. He is just out getting a few items for breakfast, he claims. Then BAM! He is sent on a detour, which turns out to be a trap. People attempt to kill him as he has been set up. He manages to escape and get his daughter to safety then goes to save his wife. After they met up, there is a gun battle with people in police uniforms and her boyfriend gets killed. They end up hiding out together and she asks, "Are you doing something illegal?" DUH! He doesn't answer her until after she puts out. Odd. When I get a woman's boyfriend killed, it is rare that they have sex with me the same freaking night.While I gave away half the movie, the rest is trying to figure out who set him up and the payback. As it turns out our cold heartless killer left his family so they wouldn't get caught up in his world and get killed. A little like OJ, "so if I left you and made love to a blond girl half your age, that would mean I love you."

lemon_magic I remember seeing DL in "Red Scorpion" over 20 years ago, all excited about the way he was going to light up the screen in his first feature role...but coming out of the theater shaking my head in disappointment. And that continues to be the summary of his solo career.I really admire and like Dolph and wish he was a little more versatile or else could get some better parts. But he just can't carry a movie by himself - he has to have a partner or a cast of other tough guys to play off - "Showdown in Little Tokyo" with Brandon Lee is a good example of the former, and the remake of "The Expendables" is a good example of the latter. But make him the main lead, and it's 2nd rate city. (Michael Pare and Rutger Hauer have the same problem.) Dead giveaway that the director doesn't have any ideas of his own and only apes better, more original movies - at key points of high stress, he always (ALWAYS) resorts to jerky, grainy slow motion close up shots of Dolph. (One more reason why Tony Scott, who seems to have invented the trick and actually does this kind of thing effectively, must be barred from ever coming up with new visual gimmicks. Whatever he comes up with first, lesser directors steal and beat it to death in endless ripoffs later.) This movie...well, it has its moments, and Dolph gets off some decent lines, but it's just another exercise in black ops paranoia and noir gloom. Having seen it recently on cable, I've concluded that there's no real reason to ever watch again. Sorry, Dolph, that your career has come to this...but at least you're probably still making better money as an actor than you ever would have as an engineer.

Comeuppance Reviews Edward Genn (Lundgren) is a family man and loving husband and father - but he's also a secret assassin trained in the former Soviet Union and working for the Russian Mob. His code name is Icarus. After certain events go sideways, all manner of bad guys - goons, hired killers, Russian mob, other mobs, etc. are after him. All Genn wants to do is protect his family. But he'll have to face the demons of his past first, personified by the evil gangster Vadim (Svenson). Will his double life come crashing down? It's very cool to see Dolph as a hit-man and he looks quite dapper in his suits and ties here. As seems to be the trend of late, some scenes are underlit and too dark to see, but what we did see, we liked very much. Except for the film quality and the soundtrack, this film could have been made in the 80's, which is definitely a good thing in our book. Dolph, as star and director, obviously knows what his fans want, and he delivers yet again. It helps that the writer, Raul Inglis, is also the uncredited writer on White Tiger (1996) as well as the writer of Breach of Trust (1995).There's plenty of action, good violence, and Bo Svenson as well. He doesn't show up until the very last portion of the film, but it was cool to see Dolph and Bo together, especially in a showdown as mortal enemies. Interestingly, the plot of "guy was a hit-man and now has a wife and daughter who are now in danger because of his past life and he now must use his violent training to protect them" was also used for Hit-man's Run (1999). Thankfully, neither Esteban Powell, nor any other annoying sidekick is on display. As said earlier, Dolph knows what his fans want. Annoying sidekicks are not one of them.So thanks to the action, violence, presence of two of our favorite stars (Dolph and Bo) and the undemanding running time of 88 minutes, not to mention the 80's throwback feel and Dolph's direction, The Killing Machine is a solid winner.For more insanity, check out: comeuppancereviews.com

Wizard-8 When I picked up and read the DVD box for this Dolph Lundgren movie, my heart sank when I saw it was being distributed by Cinetel Films. For those who don't know, Cinetel Films makes extremely cheap genre movies padded out with stock footage from big-budget Hollywood movies. Actually, the production values for this movie are somewhat higher. It is clearly a low budget movie, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't look as cheap as usual. (And there's no stock footage.) Other things good about the movie are some decent action sequences and Dolph giving another likable, charismatic performance. And it's nice to see a Canadian movie actually set in Canada (for the most part), though the use of Vancouver is so generic the movie could have been set anywhere.Unfortunately, the movie still has some serious problems. There are a few poor special effects. Some dialogue is hard to make out. The camera-work for the movie is awful - it always seems the camera is jiggling or in someone's unsteady hands. In fairness to Lundgren (who was also the director), he was reportedly given less shooting time than usual, and also was constrained considerably by the producers. So I don't blame him for the movie's faults. Still, the movie is probably only for die-hard Lundgren fans, and they should probably wait until it appears on cable so they won't feel ripped off when watching it.