I remember catching about half an hour of this movie once when it was on TV, and thinking it was one of the worst movies I had ever seen, and wondered why Dolph had sunk to such depths. For reasons unknown to myself even, I bought it the other day. It was very cheap, and I got it in a special offer, and was really not looking forward to watching it, but after thinking, hey its Dolph, how bad can it be, I decided to give it a try late one night.

Christian Erickson (Dolph Lundgren) is widely regarded as the best minesweeper in the world. He is working in war ravaged Angola with his partner Hopper (Bruce Payne - Howling 6), when the area he is working on is attacked by rebels. His son Johnny (Rowan Southern - in his only role) has stowed away in his jeep when he was meant to be at home, and is killed in the ensuing carnage.

A few years later, a terrorist attack on a presidential candidate uncovers a mysterious new type of landmine. But upon closer inspection, it was actually designed and originally created by US researchers, but the project was scrapped and the mines never distributed or produced. But the head of the operation has gone missing, and it is believed that Angola is the place of origin of these revolutionary electric mines. A member of the design team Michelle Flynn (Claire Stansfield - The Swordsman) along with a group of bomb squad members go out to Angola to look for the bombs. She is given a file on Erickson, and asked to try and get his help. It turns out that both he and Hopper stayed in Angola, Hopper to become a doctor, and Erickson to become an alcoholic. After her team is killed in an accident with one of the mines, she turns to Erickson for help.
After his initial refusals, he accepts her offer and the pair go on the hunt for one of the mines. You see, Erickson had found one moments before his son was killed, and had no idea what it was. With his help, Michelle hopes to uncover the origin of these mines, and the whereabouts of the creator, but the pair will have to avoid the attacks from the mine-makers right hand man Yager (Ian Roberts - Cyborg Cop 3) and his mercenary army...

If that was an overly short write up of the plot, thats because the plot is so incredibly dull and interestless, that I was struggling to actually pay attention.

If I am being honest, the acting in the film is overall pretty bad. Dolph does ok with his role, but even then he isn't anywhere near top form. The rest of the cast are mildly poor, and look as bored as the viewer will feel, apart from Payne, who for some reason adopts a strange camp voice towards the end, making for one of the worst action villains I have ever seen.

The music is all pretty un-memorable but suiting, apart from the tribal style music which actually has words that go something like "Angola Angola Angola". It plays this when they arrive in Angola. Just so you get the message.

The special effects in the movie consist of a few explosions and the mines themselves, these are all handled very well, and are probably the best thing about the movie.

The movie has one major fault that I am unwilling to forgive, and that fault is a huge one for an action film. It is dull. This truly is one of the most uninspiring movies, never mind action movies, I have ever seen. There is just nothing exciting happening here. Even when Dolph storms offices with a shotgun and chases a train on a motorbike, it is so un-exciting that you really do not care.

To be honest, I can see this being one of the shortest reviews I ever write, the movie couldn't even muster up enough bad things to amuse or offend me enough to talk about. It is just plain boring. There are about 3 parts in this movie that actually qualify as action scenes, one of Dolph fighting in a bar, most of which takes place in the background, and the aformentioned office attack and storming of the train.

On a note that I'm not sure about, but it sure seems more interesting than straight up talking about this movie, there are a lot of scenes towards the end, the Mine place and the train to name them, that remind me a lot of another movie from that hack-tackular company Nu Image (makers of this) called Danger Zone. A mine that looks very similar, and a train sequence on what I believe is the same train, possibly even stock footage could have been used here, appear in Danger Zone. That movie was made and set in South Africa, and this movie could well have been shot there (about 90% of Nu Image movies I have seen have been shot and/or set there). This just cheapens the movie even more for me. Danger Zone was a pile of garbage that only had two redeeming features in Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa and the fact it was terrible in a funny way, even making me think of Danger Zone ensured that this movie wasn't getting a good score.

The movie doesn't deserve a good score. It has nothing to recommend it on. At all. Even at his worst, Dolph usually pulls something out that makes a movie at least slightly watchable, but here I have to beleive the alcohol he is drinking was actually real, and he was seriously drunk, the drink being given to him for free to appear in this turd of a movie.

While I would love to right thousands of words on why this move sucks, it is actually impossible.Like I said, it has no standout scenes or huge plot holes, it is just incredibly boring and not at all a good film. Like I say, the acting isn't great, it isn't even terrible. But an action movie can be expected to have bad acting, but one thing it should never do is be boring.

At the end of the day, I would skip this movie, no matter who you are. I personally love Dolph Lundgren movies, and this is without a doubt the worst one I have ever (and hopefully ever will) seen. It doesn't have a good enough story or acting to attract non action fans, and the complete lack of any action certainly won't please those looking for action. Even the most hardcore of Dolph fans shouldn't put much effort into this, its clear the film-makers didnt.

Other Dolph Lundgren Reviews

Agent Red
Army of One
Cover-Up
I Come in Peace
The Last Patrol
Masters of the Universe
The Peacekeeper
Red Scorpion
Universal Soldier

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD