Bodyguard Axel (Dolph Lundgren) spends his time looking after a mob family - patriarch Serge (Robert Miano) and sons Quinn (Billy Zane) and Kurt (Gianni Capaldi). Things get complicated when Hayden (Robert Davi) asks Serge if he can bring his nephew Campbell (Vinnie Jones) into the fold. Sure enough, Serge is soon dead, Quinn is arrested and Axel is on the run as he is framed for murder. Naturally, he doesn't sit back and just take it and, with the help of Quinn's girlfriend Loryn (Jelly Howie), aims for his redemption. Lundgren has spent the last decade or so wandering from personal projects to big budget stuff like THE EXPENDABLES to tough-for-cash (in both senses) roles. Sadly, this is the latter.
This is really rough stuff, shot like a telenovela with some cheap CGI (gun flashes, head shots). On the directorial side, this thing is a mess. Sure, the dislike of the use of flashes of character names when they first appear on screen is a personal bias on my end, but you can't make up some of the stuff co-directors and co-writers Giorgio Serafini and Shawn Sourgose screw up. The script is overly complicated (it is mostly told via flashback as Lundgren maps out the usual suspects on a bulletin board) and laughable. There is one scene where a line of dialog is repeated twice ("His name was Boris") and a fifteen minute span where characters alternately refer to an earlier event (the death of Serge and Quinn's arrest) as happening two, three and four years ago. The worst is the finale where Lundgren's character is shot while toting an M-16. His shooter comes up to him and there is a handgun laying next to his body. And who casts Robert Davi as a Brit? Just embarrassing. Of course, this is just a direct-to-video action flick so it can be saved by some good fights. Sadly, none are on display as the choreography is as lazy as the directors. And it is only hand-to-hand fights and shootings. Not a single car gets over 30 mph. The highlight is probably Dolph getting into a fight in a dominatrix den with a lady while a topless lady tied to a frame screams in the background. Yeah, really. I really wish Dolph would be more selective, but I know the rent ain't gonna pay itself.
This is really rough stuff, shot like a telenovela with some cheap CGI (gun flashes, head shots). On the directorial side, this thing is a mess. Sure, the dislike of the use of flashes of character names when they first appear on screen is a personal bias on my end, but you can't make up some of the stuff co-directors and co-writers Giorgio Serafini and Shawn Sourgose screw up. The script is overly complicated (it is mostly told via flashback as Lundgren maps out the usual suspects on a bulletin board) and laughable. There is one scene where a line of dialog is repeated twice ("His name was Boris") and a fifteen minute span where characters alternately refer to an earlier event (the death of Serge and Quinn's arrest) as happening two, three and four years ago. The worst is the finale where Lundgren's character is shot while toting an M-16. His shooter comes up to him and there is a handgun laying next to his body. And who casts Robert Davi as a Brit? Just embarrassing. Of course, this is just a direct-to-video action flick so it can be saved by some good fights. Sadly, none are on display as the choreography is as lazy as the directors. And it is only hand-to-hand fights and shootings. Not a single car gets over 30 mph. The highlight is probably Dolph getting into a fight in a dominatrix den with a lady while a topless lady tied to a frame screams in the background. Yeah, really. I really wish Dolph would be more selective, but I know the rent ain't gonna pay itself.