I was looking forward to Dolph's latest effort especially after waiting over a year since his last release, the completely underwhelming DETENTION. This one seems to be a return to the films made in the mid-to-late 90s by say Dolph's compatriots like Steven Seagal, Sly Stallone, and Jean-Claude Van Damme. The story here is basic, a cop confronting corruption in his unit, out to stop them and to stop them from either killing him or discrediting him and clearing his name after the bad guys set him up. And here Dolph resorts several times to using the karate and related martial arts that he has not used much if at all say in his last picture. And it is welcome too.
The fight scenes, to their credit, are more realistic than most depicted, and are not very long, although that fact contributes to the realism. Dolph takes on several creeps giving a store owner some crap and takes them out with either a kick, or a punch or a combination of the two. The guys don't say fight for five minutes straight, for example, although I wouldn't mind seeing such fights even though they are never all that real but they are helpful in moving the plots of these flicks along.
The action is better here than in the usual Dolph flicks and seems more realistic than say in DETENTION, with both sides getting into the action, Dolph getting hit at one point; and all are better staged and edited, and they look like they fit with the story instead of simply existing.
The time factor also helps move it along with Dolph having only one! day to train his new partner, find out who is behind the corruption and to foil the perpetrators.
It is good to see Dolph back and I look forward to the next one.
The fight scenes, to their credit, are more realistic than most depicted, and are not very long, although that fact contributes to the realism. Dolph takes on several creeps giving a store owner some crap and takes them out with either a kick, or a punch or a combination of the two. The guys don't say fight for five minutes straight, for example, although I wouldn't mind seeing such fights even though they are never all that real but they are helpful in moving the plots of these flicks along.
The action is better here than in the usual Dolph flicks and seems more realistic than say in DETENTION, with both sides getting into the action, Dolph getting hit at one point; and all are better staged and edited, and they look like they fit with the story instead of simply existing.
The time factor also helps move it along with Dolph having only one! day to train his new partner, find out who is behind the corruption and to foil the perpetrators.
It is good to see Dolph back and I look forward to the next one.