Missionary Man (2007)

Excellent but underrated film

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Missionary Man starts as a mysterious man (writer & director Dolph Lundgren) rides into town on a motorbike, he heads straight for the cemetery where his old friend JJ is being buried after drowning in a supposed accident. On his way there the man saves a local native Indian man Billy (Jonny Cruz) from some thugs, the man realises that the town is corrupt & local businessman John Reno (Matthew Tompkins) runs it by beating up or killing anyone who stands in his way. Between stealing & selling drugs Reno has a big property deal in development, Reno wants to build a casino on native American land but the local tribe objects to the plans & this may have been why JJ was murdered. The man decides to stay in town & together with his bible & shotgun dishes out some justice...Starring, written & directed by Dolph Ludgren this apparently had the working title Black Chrome & to me while watching it last night I was reminded strongly of the Clint Eastwood western Pale Rider (1985), in fact Missionary Man is a remake & modern updating of Pale Rider all but in name. The two films share virtually identical plots as greedy businessmen terrorise a local community until a mysterious stranger rides into town with religious tendencies & a knack for beating bad guy's up before things get out of hand & some serious firepower is sent into the town to kill the stranger as it becomes a game of Cat and Mouse as the stranger picks those sent to kill him off one-by-one. The plots, themes & character's are almost identical to be honest, the main thing that separates the two films is that Pale Rider is a classic while Missionary Man is crap. For a start the part played by Lundgren is far too mysterious, we literally never learn anything about him to make us either like or care for him. We never learn of his relationship to JJ, where he came from, what he did for a living or the connection he had with Jarfe. The other character's are poor with typical bad guy's & innocent persecuted native Americans who try to defend their land & ways against evil white men. Yawn. At 90 odd minutes not that much happens, it's throughly predictable as we know Lundgren will beat the bad guy's at the end in a showdown & make the town safe once more. The action scenes are dull & forgettable too.Missionary Man looks a mess, the IMDb says there was mistakes made with producing the master or something & the colours were messed up & it show's. Nothing has any sort of colour, in fact sometimes the film looks black and white with a lot of detail missing from the picture & everything seems covered in dark shadows all the time, even during the day. This can look stylish on occasion but usually it just looks dull & repetitive. There's not much action here, a boat is blown up, there are a few fight scenes & a few shoot-outs but nothing else. Better known as an action film star Lundgren has turned his hand to directing lately & I only hope his other films are better than Missionary Man, they can't be any worse surely?Filmed in Texas I doubt this had much of a budget, it looks cheap & with a distinct lack of action it's tough to sit through. The acting isn't up to much, Dolph just sort of lumbers around & tries to look cool.Missionary Man is a slow moving action remake of Pale Rider that didn't impress me with lacklustre action scenes & a plot that goes virtually unexplained. This is the sort of thing I'd expect Steven Seagal to have made to be honest & that is not a compliment.

I've always been a fan of action movies having grown up in the 80's fed on a diet of Sly, Arnie, Chuck Norris, Steven Seagal and Jean Claude Van Damme. These are the best of the best when it comes to kicking ass. I would include Dolph Lundgren is this category. Granted, he has been in some terrible movies like Cover Up and The Minion, but all the other big action stars also have movies on their CV's that they want to forget about! The thing that struck me about Missionary Man is that is was filmed brilliantly and had an excellent musical score to go with the usual Dolph Lundgren action we expect from him. He directed this movie and it is shot brilliantly. It reminded me of older Clint Eastwood movies, as Dolph plays a stranger in a small town who decides to help the townsfolk fight back against the greedy businessman John Reno and the corrupt Sheriff's Department. It is the closest thing to a modern western I've seen, and I really enjoyed it. Dolph is back people, and this is one of his best!

This is the first Dolph Lundgren movie I've seen in many a moon and I found it an entertaining modern day take on the classic Westerns of old, mainly Shane, High Plains Drifter and most of all Pale Rider. Dolph does a good job of playing the mysterious preacher who rides into town and takes care of the local bad guys. This is the perfect entertainment for a Friday night with a few beers. Dolph also directed this movie and that really impressed me he has a definite talent for that and I hope he directs a few more, preferably with a slightly bigger budget as this was undoubtedly a low budget movie but one that I found much more rewarding than many a Hollywood blockbuster. Whilst many of the supporting actors won't win many awards some of the young cast were very good as was the two main villains. My one complaint was the colour of the movie I found it a little too colourless but I suppose it gave it a cool look. Thumbs up for the final shoot-out too with a nice final line from Dolph before he rides into the sunset.

I really did not enjoy this movie. I am a fan of westerns, a fan of action, and a fan of movies with religious undertones. I was most let down by the main character. Reading the synopsis, I was given the impression that the protagonist would be a lot cooler than he was. He said about 100 words in the whole movie, and had very little personality.The plot could have been the basis of quite a good movie, but this was appalling. There was very little life in any of the characters, and the best actor (the only good one) is Jarfe, the biker. The only reason I gave a two instead of a one is the atmosphere that the film has. It is quite well done, except for the fact that there is the sound of wind in every scene.