The Shooter (1995)

Wonderful Movie

Truly Dreadful Film

Load of rubbish!!

Blistering performances.

I feel bad writing this review, since my far-from-perfect rating mostly reflects my disappointment in having expected a different kind of movie. Honestly, HIDDEN AGENDA is a pretty good film from Dolph Lundgren's early DTV career...if you're looking for a spy thriller. The film is directed by the maker of FIRST BLOOD and co-written by one of the scribes behind STATE OF PLAY. Contained within a low-budget sphere, the quality is there, but it just doesn't deliver the kind of thrills I want to see from the Swedish Superman. This is definitely a movie you'll have to check out for yourself to get the full gist of it, unless you're looking for a genuine action film like me - then you can save your money.The story: CIA agent Michael Dane (Lundgren) is assigned to apprehend the prime suspect in an ambassador's murder (Maruschka Detmers) in Prague and bring her to America, not knowing that he's about to be thrown into a web political intrigue and treachery.Considering that the film was made for a slim $7 million and as a cooperative effort among five countries, it looks admirably good. There's one embarrassing instance early in the picture where the filmmakers had to fudge a laser pointer, but otherwise, director Ted Kotcheff's capabilities shine through - not only by successfully filming scenes you wouldn't expect to find in a cheap film, but also by making the East European filming location fun to look at. Authentic Czech is spoken throughout, which is pretty nice, and the film maintains a sense of gravity and importance that'd be exceedingly rare in Lundgren's subsequent career.The movie isn't completely without good action. There's even a segment I particularly like, wherein Lundgren has a shootout with a sniper while clinging to the ledge of a tall building. However, the problem is that very little of the action is the kind that I like. It's almost all shootouts and car chases, which leaves exceedingly little room for martial arts. Lundgren once claimed to have injured himself before he could complete all of the scenes, which might explain the lack of more hand-to-hand action, but it's still disappointing. Additionally, however good the writing might detail the progression of the whodunit-style mystery, I have to take it to point for its truly forced romance between our two leads. Apparently Dolph's charms are so great in this picture that not even a lesbian character can withstand him.For most fans, I'd imagine the movie is at least worth a look, unless you're on the same page as me and would miss the almost-nonexistent fisticuffs.

I quite like watching Dolph Lundgren movies that are high on atmosphere. One of my favourite movies is Silent Trigger, which is just gorgeously shot. So I read reviews of this one as being also beautiful, and there's sniping in the movie too, so I went with it.I'm not going to make a huge fuss and tell you that the movie is Barry Lyndon, but it really is purty. I'll get to that after a brief round up of the plot.So the Dolphage here is US Marshal Michael Dane, who has been sent abroad to kidnap Simone Rosset (Maruschka Detmers), a sniper who is accused of assassinating a Cuban official in New York, and bring her to trial. I don't quite know how controversial such an extra-jurisdictional kidnapping is, there are documented cases of the US doing it, but I wouldn't have thought the US Marshal service would have been employed. It's morally wrong, as Rosset says in the movie, if the Czechs abducted a US citizen from Pittsburgh for trial in the Czech Republic, that would be a huge international incident.Thing is she may not even have done it, and Dane (like Waxman in Silent Trigger) has a troubled conscience. Rosset has been in retirement for at least a decade and is now running a restaurant in Prague with her lover Marta (Assumpta Serna), their world is not just a little intoxicating to Dane. You get a sense, when he sees Simone's expressive dancing in a lesbian night club, that it's an image that will be engraved into his mind for the rest of his days. Assumpta Serna's presence is welcome, she's an unbelievable sauce who actually appears to have more sexual power 10 years later in the Quay Brothers' superb movie PianoTuner of Earthquakes at the age of nearly 50.Purty places include the fabulous Czech restaurant, which I suspect is probably a little more touristy than the movie suggests (you can see Alphonse Mucha designs on the backs of the menus - famous artist of Prague). There's also a lovely wine cellar, and Marta's flat is quite beautiful. Something I harp on about a lot is the transformative quality of interior design in movies, it really does help if you have good diegetic lighting and plush dream apartments in movies. Marta has candles a plenty, cushions on the floor to lounge on, and lovely greenery everywhere, cheese plants, mimosa, and the like. Marta and Simone, one gets the impression, are experts at living.Although others have said that the special effects are not all that, I think there's a couple of pretty cool ones, take the leap to the metro car for example. It's true that the movie is a cheapie compared with modern stuff, but I don't think a few cases of movie explosives were going to make this one better.The plot is fairly much all over the place, and the Cuban officials in the movie a big annoyance, the fact that Dolph is basically the adopted son of one of the spooks comes off as pretty silly, as does the major plot twist. Despite what is also a fairly ludicrous ending, there are very cool parts to the script, such as the observation by Alex (the adoptive father), that the only time self-doubt is useful is when you're playing Hamlet on stage. There's also a kind of strange beauty to the fights between Dolph and Simone, in that he's more than twice her size, and yet she has enough nouse to make them last out.The lasting value is in the film's aesthetics, and the haunting of Dane, as well as the occasional fairly cool special effect. It joins my list of flawed but very purty and lovable movies that were made during my childhood, alongside the likes of Albert Pyun's Cyborg, and Wes Craven's Shocker.

Dolph Lundgren in a murkily-lit modestly-budgeted Co-European production, I have to say, is not a prospect to get the average moviegoer's pulse racing; Dolph is the poor man's Arnie – not, as it turns out, because of acting ability or screen presence, but simply because Arnie came first. Nevertheless, that's the way it is for poor old Dolph, so throughout the 90s all he seemed to get were the scraps that fell from Arnie's table. This one isn't as bad as you might expect. It isn't good either, but it's serviceable.It certainly improves on a weak first ten minutes that are hampered by some lousy lighting and even lousier acting from the likes of Gavan O'Herlihy who chews scenery like a man with indigestion who doesn't wish to appear impolite. Dolph is Michael Dane, a US Marshal on the hunt for Simone Rosset (Maruschka Detmers) a shapely assassin suspected of doing a Frank Sinatra and coming out of retirement to off a Cuban ambassador. Rosset, however, pleads her innocence, and Dane uncovers doings of the murky variety when he investigates a little further.Detmers is an actress new to me, but she adds a touch of class to an otherwise pedestrian action movie. Her character is obviously modelled on Nikita, but Simone is a part-time lesbian with a taste for good wine and a knack for jumping off high places. Detmers gives the impression she is slumming – that's how classy she is. Lundgren gives a decent enough performance too, but the story lets them both down in crucial areas. Dane is just a little too dim, even for a Marshal. He uses a tactic of self-mutilation instead of surveillance, stages a car chase which nearly ends up with him and his passenger being squashed between two tram cars simply because he wants to drive rather than be driven, and shoots indiscriminately into a moving train. On the plus side, the story does at least try to be a little different from the countless other mid-budget efforts out there, adding an unexpected twist that is well-timed and effective, and making use of some terrific Prague location work.This one is for those times when you really don't want to think about what you are watching; it's for when you want the film to do all the work and lay everything out for you without inserting any sly subtexts, etc. The action set-pieces are a little workmanlike – the budgets restricts them to a couple of car chases and a lot of gunfights – but one, carried out on the rooftops of Prague, is pretty cool.No-one sitting down to watch a film like this should be doing so with high expectations, so it follows then that no-one should be disappointed

As a Dolph Lundgren fan this film goes down as one of my prefered viewings. I do like a good thriller, with some plot twists and tension. This film has those but to a mild degree, your not going to get really excited at this compared to something like Mission Impoosble with its high production and A-list cast but for a B-movie this is a good film that is surprising in places and reasonably well written.Dolph plays Michael Dane, who is working with the FBI to try to capture a known assasin played by the sexy Maruschka Detmers. Dane does not beleive she killed the Cuban Ambassador, but he still has to bring her into custody in the build up to a summit between the US and Cuba to try to get the two country's to shake and make up if you like. The plot at times raises questions that many action thrillers do, for instance why are they doing that? one particular example is the inclusion of Dolphs character, he is flown in from New York to Prague simply to arrest this Woman, why on Earth she wasn't brought in before is beyond me, especially considering that her whereabouts were known. A lot doesn't make sense but those minor quibbles aside, the film is nicely paced and is enjoyable.The acting is good, Dolph is assured and puts in one of his better performances, he has great chemistry with the excellent Maruschka who in turn also shows great chemistry with Assumpta Serna who plays Marta the possible lover of Simone. That is another mystery of the film, the sexual preference of Simone (Detmers) this does kind of undermine the development of a relationship between Dolph and Maruschkas characters. Also good is John Ashton as a bit of comic support as Danes Foster father and aid in the hunt for Simone.Furthermore, the action scenes. They are not overly stylish but are exciting, Dolph is in prime condition to dish out a battering and there is some good gun play included as well. Particular standout scenes are the capturing of Simone, and her subsequant escape. Also later in the film when Dolph rescues Simones character and just after when they both escape. The end is good to with the music helping to really build everything to a climactic crescendo.Overall this is a fairly decent thriller, with some nice lighting in the dark shots, and some nice and suitably dank locations. Dolph and Maruschka have a great chemistry, and the twists in the film are good. I would give this a 7/10