Direct Contact (2009)

This was a long time coming. Longer than it should've been. First I tried watching it on Netflix's Watch Instantly, but the audio was a mess. Then I figured I'd wait till it came on DVD in the mail, but I don't live in an urban environment anymore, so Netflix doesn't get to me as fast as it once did. Finally, it arrived today, and I've watched it, and I'm reviewing it now.

Direct Contact has Dolph as a former Marine former gunrunner imprisoned in an Eastern European jail. Michael Pare comes and offers him a deal: his freedom and 200 grr, if he rescues a chick from a Russian warlord near the Black Sea. Before you say "hey, this sounds like The Russian Specialist", hold your horses. Things aren't what they appear, and Dolph has no idea who to trust. The girl was never really kidnapped, Pare's now chasing him in a military issue hummer and shooting explosives at him, and everywhere Dolph goes, he gets innocent bystanders killed.



This is amazing. Vintage Dolph. Great one-liners, massive explosions, ridiculous car chases, and beautiful bar room brawls. The film starts with Dolph in a prison, and these guys are trying to get money out of him. He hands them a coin and says "It's all I got." The head guy spits in his food, and Dolph says "That's no way to start a friendship", leading to a big fight scene. The quintessential way to begin any Dolph movie. And it just hits its spots from there. The only thing this film did that was different from all other Lundgr-flicks, was it had Dolph shot in the right arm, not the left.

2009 might be the year of Dolph. imdb lists three other Dolph films slated for release this year, with Command Performance, Universal Soldiers: The Next Generation, and Icarus. I won't lie, he did show his age some, with his moves looking a little slower and more scripted than usual, but the movie more than made up for it. He just seems to get better with age. This film, maybe more than any he's ever done, really shows this sentiment he has that he's playing with the House's money. He's having as much fun making this movie as we have watching it. That's big, because we who watch these movies don't take them too seriously, so it's nice to know Dolph won't insult our intelligence by taking it too seriously either. At the same time, this isn't too tongue in cheek, which I think would ruin the film for us.



Michael Pare is excellent. I thought this was the third film of his I reviewed, with BloodRayne II being one of the others, and 2004's Gargoyle being the other. Well, it turns out I never did Gargoyle. I could've sworn I did. I feel like I did. But it's not on there. My friend at Movies in the Attic has told me repeatedly that I need more Pare up here, and he's right. The guy is the man. He's more than just Eddie and the Cruisers or Trip Fontaine from Virgin Suicides: he's a grade A DTV action star. I am familiar with some of his other work, and I've always loved him, somehow he just managed to slip through the cracks. We'll fix that soon enough.

As you know, I always look up my movies on imdb before I review them, and this one had some interesting info. First, it takes library footage from a bunch of other DTV films, including Out for a Kill and Derailed, which have been reviewed here. Second, the film was released in Kuwait on 16 April 2009, which is almost two months before we got it here. Why do the Kuwaitis get first dibs? Finally, this dude named ztamir from Israel absolutely hated this movie. Generally I'm not a cat who says "he or she just doesn't get it", but man, ztamir doesn't get it. I have a feeling he or she read The Great Gatsby and was like "why did he die at the end?"



McDonald's gets some mad product placement in this movie. I saw the Golden Arches at least three times that I could remember. McDonald's is my number one guilty pleasure, so, at least as far as I go, the movie made me want to get a Big Mac. I guess it doesn't take much for me to want a Big Mac. I was pissed the other night, because my buddy and I were walking back to his place after our soccer game, and the McDonald's on the way closed it's dining room after ten, and we got there at 10:05. Why the hell don't they have a drive thru type area for walkers? I think I saw one in Seattle or Portland, OR. It would be perfect.

This is must rent material. I saw it at my local video store, and believe me, it's worth new release money to get it. For the Dolph Completists out there, you need to buy it, and I'll be buying it soon enough. A perfect fit for any Dolph Fest.

For more info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1182609/