Icarus (2010)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Sad to say that I had initially set my expectations low for this movie. Why? Well, it is a Dolph Lundgren movie after all, both starring and directed by the hulking Swede. But I am surprised at how good this movie was, so a big thumbs up to Lundgren on his achievement here and for blindsiding us with this movie. I am not saying that his movies are usually bad, they just tend to be a replica of the movie that came before. So you know what you would get already.The story in "Icarus" was actually quite good, and it managed to grasp the audience in a tight grip - or by gunpoint - and take them on a roller-coaster ride full of action.The acting in the movie was quite alright. Dolph Lundgren is, of course, right at home in this genre, but his co-stars were doing good jobs as well."Icarus" is definitely a bright moment in the movie history of Dolph Lundgren, and it is well-worth watching regardless if you are a fan of him or not.So this surprise of a movie is getting a six out of ten stars rating from me.

This straight-to-DVD enterprise is quite a mindless parade of macho, bullets and blood in this same-old, same-old get-up that sees a professional KGB-trained assassin finding himself with a contract on his head. You can he trust, that's what it comes down to as his family find out he's living a lie. Being much more than just a businessman. Everything about this venture is heavily contrived, but outside some sluggish moments and the monotonous narrative filled with deep in- thought dialogues, but let's not also forget those stares. Dolph Lundgren who stars (in a methodical performance), but also directs keeps things rather repetitive, where it seems to be becoming a comfortable formula. He pumps up the screen with numerous slow-motion shots and frantic shot-on camera frames trying to give a personal touch. Talk about personal, Lundgren really gets up and personal when in conversation. What starts of immensely slow, gets better as it goes along where it eventually opens with blistering set-pieces of shootouts and brutal hand-to-hand combat with an ending that throws an ironic twist of fate. The plot tries to balance out its human dramas, but the pandering script is too heavy-handed and feels like a smokescreen as our man becomes a pawn in a much bigger game. Also making an appearance is Bo Svenson. While for me it might not have been as fun as some of Dolph's other recent outings. However while predictable and at times slow, "The Killing Machine" is a bold b-grade action joint."I guess today is your lucky day."

Dolph Lundgren made a competent work as a director in Icarus, much better than the one he did in his previous movie as a filmmaker, the tedious Command Performance.Icarus may not be a great movie, but I found it to be entertaining and very superior to many action movies made straight to DVD.The screenplay of Icarus has various clichés directly taken from many action movies from the 90's, which do not offer something new to the old formula of persecution and revenge; however, screenwriter Raul Inglis made the human element behind the violence to be credible, something which adds a varnish of emotion to the screenplay.The result may not be brilliant, but it feels more honest than many movies about "alcoholic ex-cops who must defeat an enemy from the past", or something like that.I also liked the fact that the main character is a murderer with a golden heart, so that we constantly question ourselves about the morality of his actions and our reasons to wish his triumph.That trick is undoubtedly copied from the film The Professional, but it still worked in Icarus (respecting proportions, of course; remember I am talking about a low-budget B-movie).Unlike Steven Seagal, Lundgren is conscious of his limitations, as we can see in this movie.To start with, he carries his age with dignity and does not try to make us believe he is 25 years old.The abundant action scenes are consistent with his character, who occasionally triumphs due to his experience and ingenuity, and not because of being omnipotent or infallible.Besides, I feel that even Lundgren himself recognizes the fact that he is not a good actor, and because of that, he filled the other roles with solid actors; I particularly liked the work from Samantha Ferris, Stefanie von Pfetten and Bo Svenson, because they all bring force and conviction to their characters.So, in conclusion, Icarus is not an excellent or very memorable film; but I personally had a good time watching it, and I think that makes it worthy of a recommendation.

***SPOILERS*** Better then you would have expected from a direct to DVD action flick with Dolph Lundgren as Eddie Genn/KGB code name Icarus taking things into his own hands when he's set up by his bosses and controller to be hit when his career as a hit man for the Russian Mafia is blown.This all happened when Genn was given a job to do in Hong Kong that in the end exposed his true identity when one of the persons involved survived and was able to finger him. Now back home in the US at his job as a financial investor Genn is visited by a Mr. Grahm, David Lewis, who by talking to him about investing in Hong Kong real estate tips Genn off that his days as a investment broker are numbered.***SPOILERS*** At first just being suspicious Genn soon realizes that he's being set up for the kill when his controller Mrs.Kerr Samantha Ferris, gives him an assignment or hit-job in Miami that's in fact to be his very last! Non-stop action with Eddie Genn giving as good as he takes in the movie as he's being tracked down by both sides of the law, the Russian Mafia and FBI/CIA, for immediate termination.After surviving a slew of bloodbaths with his both wife and 5 year old daughter Joey & Taylor, Stefanie Von Pfetten & Katelyn Mager, kidnapped and almost killed in the process the final showdown between Genn and those out to get him comes down to him meeting his former and fellow KGB Agent Valdin, who's life Genn saved, played by an almost unorganizable Bo Svenson. I didn't realize that he was in the movie or who he played in it until I read the films closing credits! The final shoot-out tops all the others in the movie with at first Genn, who's job was to knock off Vadin, letting down his guard and getting captured by the Valdin hoodlums! But in the end the Cohiba Havana cigar, costing as much as $35.00 a piece, that Valdin offered Genn that he at first turned down, Genn had given up smoking, turned out to be a life saver for him!