Wanted Man has Dolph--who also co-wrote, directed, and produced--as a cop in Southern California who beat up a Latin American man during a routine traffic stop and said some racist things about him not being in the US legally. Naturally he's been put on suspension--and naturally he hasn't lost his job either, because that takes a lot to have happen if you're a cop--but his boss gets the crazy Grinchy idea to have Dolph go south of the border to bring back two ladies of the night who also happen to be witnesses to a botched drug deal that led to two DEA agents being murdered. Naturally again he goes down and things aren't what they seem, so he find himself shot and being nursed back to help by one of the ladies. Once he's feeling better, the two of them try to make their way back to the US so she can stand trial. But just who was behind those DEA agent killings? And what will they do to not be found out?
For a new Dolph flick, this isn't horrible. It does suffer a bit from the current ceiling for DTV films that affects so many productions, but working within those constraints I think Dolph and company do a pretty good job here. We also have the supporting cast of Kelsey Grammer and Michael Pare, which helps get us to the church on time. The message regarding hatred toward immigrant populations, that if people just got to know people outside their bubble, they might be more sympathetic once they realized we're all human, is nice enough, but also kind of lets Dolph's character off the hook for being a racist shithead earlier in the film. It's like the idea of a guy saying "I have daughters myself" when someone is accused of violence against women, as if you can't understand why violence against women is bad if you don't have a daughter? It's the same here, Dolph's character shouldn't need to get to know people from Central American countries that are moving to the US to not be a racist shithead toward them. But hey, the trope is the trope, and at least Dolph's character learns the error of his racist shithead ways, and becomes the hero of the film.
This is now 73 films for Dolph on the site. Not only that, but 8th as a director, meaning he's closing in on joining Fred Williamson in the 20-10 Club--20+ tags as an actor, and 10+ as a director. Unlike the acting piece, where he has some other things in development, it looks like this might be it for him as a director for now, with the one we were expecting, Malevolence, seemingly off the table, since it's no longer listed on IMDb. That would be too bad if he doesn't direct anything else, because the DTV actioners he directs tend to be better quality. Even if this one is treading well-worn territory, his performance, and the action sequences, are still better quality than a lot of stuff that's out there now. He has a film coming with Isaac Florentine that looks pretty good, so I can't wait for that to be released. Even as he's closing in on his 67th birthday, he's still getting after it with no signs of slowing down.
We've also got some Frasier Crane here, that's right, Kelsey "Country" Grammer--I added the "country" myself. Just seeing him in anything immediately gets the Frasier theme song stuck in my head. For over 200 episodes on Cheers and then another 260+ on Frasier, he was Dr. Frasier Crane, sophisticated-yet-goofy psychiatrist, first Diane's love interest, then sticking around the bar after she left to be with Lilith, who then leaves him, but we stay with him, all the way across the country to Seattle for another TV series. It was fascinating--if not out of place--to see him in Expendables 3, and perhaps even more so in a Dolph Lundgren actioner. His character here is definitely not Frasier, which is fine, though I kind of wish he had been--or even Frasier-like. This character was racist, sexist, embodying everything we think of in a crooked cop, but the problem for me is we've seen that character played by myriad actors in myriad DTV actioners before. "Frasier" as a retired detective in Southern California we haven't, and as much as I'm sure he doesn't want to be typecast, it was something this movie could've used to make it less typical and trope-filled.
Maybe the biggest trope in movie blogging is movie bloggers using the term "trope," but it is apt here. That trope of "a character is a racist until he meets people from the group he's racist against and now he's not" is a common one, and as I said above, lets the hero off the hook for being a racist shithead earlier in the film. I grew up in Maine, one of the whitest states in the US, and now live in a very diverse city in Philadelphia. Does that mean it would've been okay for me to be a racist in Maine because I didn't encounter as much diversity? Of course not, and it was even worse in this film considering Dolph's character was a police officer, sworn to protect everyone, not just people who share his ethnicity, and through that bias physically attacked someone. It doesn't mean someone like Dolph's character in this can't redeem themselves from being a racist shithead, but what if he just wasn't a racist shithead to begin with? Or what if he didn't have to meet someone he's racist against to gain a sense of empathy and not be a shithead anymore? Maybe the better route is, it's a partner who's beating up the Latin American guy, and Dolph intervenes, and because he intervenes against a fellow officer, the department wants him out of the way and they give him the shitty assignment?
Finally, as we've been doing since Dolph entered the 50 Club, we're giving him a second paragraph. On our side, it looks like we have one more DTV to do, Showdown at the Grand, and then there's others we could add in, like Small Apartments, Sharnado 5, and Fat Slags--if I can ever find it--plus Expendables 3 and Expend4bles, which weren't DTV, but since I did the first two, they're on the table. All that said, while we could push toward 80 films for him, I think once we do Showdown at the Grand in November, that might be it for him for a bit, as I try to give other names a chance to have more posts on the site. For myself, according to Letterboxd I've seen 83 of his films, which I believe is more than any other actor. To some extent my need to continue to watch his stuff is perpetuated by the sheer inertia of the goal started almost two decades ago to watch everything he's ever done, but also a performance in a film like this reminds me of why I enjoyed watching his stuff to begin with. He gives a fun performance, even as a racist shithead who's redeeming himself; and he's still larger-than-life, even now as he approaches his 67th birthday. So even if we may be taking a break from his stuff after we review Showdown at the Grand, my hunch is it won't be for that long.
And with that, let's wrap this up. You can currently stream this for free on Hulu here in the States. We've seen this kind of movie before, but Dolph brings something a bit different, and Grammer is a fascinating addition. For the podcast with Mitch, you can find that in the archives, episode number 168.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15791574
Looking for more action? Check out my short action novel, Bainbridge, and all my other novels, over at my author's page! Click on the image below, go to https://www.matthewpoirierauthor.com/
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