Direct Action (2004)

Perfect cast and a good story

Absolutely Fantastic

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Dolph Lundgren is back with Direct Action. Dolph plays Frank Gannon a Veteran cop who is assigned a new partner played by Polly Shannon the Two now must fight a group of corrupt cops drug lords and other scum. Direct action is fun film that doesn't take itself to seriously. Other reviews say that the action is boring I thought the action was Cool and stylish with well staged shoot outs and cool fight scenes And good characters Dolph's character is a hard as nails chewing gum Loving cop who is incorruptible and Conrad Dunn is a good bad guy. To round up the review Direct action is a cool little action flick To watch on a boring rainy day 9 out of 10.

Dolph Lungren plays an honest cop who is going to testify about police corruption on the force. First, he has to drive around a rookie woman police officer. Will they spend the rest of the day running from the corrupt cops wanting him dead? Of course, they will. Will they get into a lot of gun fights where everybody shoot at everybody else? Of course they will. Does this make for a pretty clichéd but pretty entertaining movie? You bet it does. I have definitely seen much worse films than this one. Sure it is predictable (is it a coincidence that one of the dirty cops looks like Al Pacino in Serpico) but it is fun to watch. You are not going to watch Oscar winning stuff, but it is worth your time to rent this movie out.

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.

I like my action films people, I like them fast, loud, and violent and the king of Swedish ass-whoopers, Dolph Lundgren is someone who I enjoy watching. I ain't a huge fan but I have to say I really enjoyed his early work, Punisher (The newer one sucks), I come In Peace (that was freakin cool movie, with the deadly CD's and the giant Aliens.) and Red Scorpion but a lot of his recent movies didn't do it for me. When I rent a film with this guy I want guns and fists and feet flying all over the place, and you get that here. I have seen a few of his recent ones, Stormcatcher (Bad!), Jill Rips (Boring!), Sweepers (Wha?!), and Hidden Agenda (good fights, too much damn talking!). Direct Action has a simple idea and leaves Dolph to look a bad-ass mo-fo. Dolph is a good action man, he has presence, he's cool, and unlkie Fatboy Seagal, he has stayed in great shape. I used to be a big Seagal fan but he's let me down. On the evidence of this movie, if Dolph keeps this kind of thing up then he's got himself a new fan. This has plenty of action. You have good hand to hand fights, okay shootouts and plenty of it. 7/10