Riot (2015)

This was another of the myriad Dolph flicks that came out while I was on hiatus between 2015 and 2019. By my count Dolph did 16 films that our site could cover alone in that period, let alone all the TV, big screen movie, and foreign film work he did in that time. We still have a lot of catching up to do, and reviewing this film is another step in that direction. In addition to us, our friends Ty and Brett at Comeuppance have covered this too, so you can go to their site to see what they thought. Now, without any further ado.

Riot is not to be confused with the Gary Daniels film of the same name (one of the famous Daniels "three Rs" of PM Entertainment). This one features Matthew Reese as that tried and true cop on the edge who gets himself arrested so he can infiltrate a prison to take down a major crime boss who runs it, played by Chuck Liddell. Inside, he finds unlikely allies in seemingly developmentally delayed janitor Dolph, who may not be as developmentally delayed as he's letting on; and an inmate on the lady's side of the prison, Danielle C. Ryan. As always, will he be able to survive inside long enough for the truth to get out?

 

I don't know that this is horrible, but I don't know that it's great either. Where does that leave us then? Paint-by-numbers prison actioner with a suspense plot that goes all the way to the top. Matthew Reese is the lead protagonist, but his face and name are nowhere near the cover. That means we're working uphill twice as hard to buy into him because we're going into this based on the cover looking for a Dolph v. Liddell prison romp, and once we realize that's not happening, we have to ease into the reality of the film, which is a movie we've seen many times before--and many times done better--with a guy in the lead that we're not expecting and not necessarily renting/streaming this for. With all that in mind, this film had a lot to overcome, and ultimately just couldn't get us there.

We're now at 58 for Dolph as we continue the march to the 60 Club. I haven't even updated the imaging for the 50 Club to include him and Daniels, and he's already eclipsing that. One thing that struck me about this is, not only how Dolph's presence overshadows everyone else's performance just by him being in the movie, but he doesn't do anything to go out of his way to command that presence, if you know what I mean. This isn't like a Seagal film, where he needs to be the lead in every scene he's in, even if someone else is supposed to be the lead of the film; on the contrary, I got a strong sense that he was trying to support Matthew Reese's work as the lead. To me, that's what makes Dolph stand above his other contemporaries like Seagal, he doesn't need the film to artificially reinforce for him that he's the man the way Seagal often does; Dolph just is the man, plain and simple.

 

On the site and in DTV action circles, we often talk about the next wave, especially considering how a lot of the old guard are getting older, so when we see someone like a Matthew Reese, the conversation naturally shifts in that direction. I saw on IMDb he has another film from this time, One Shot, which also has Kevin Sorbo, but that's about it. His martial arts were really solid, so there's that. In terms of screen presence, compared to someone like a Scott Adkins or Iko Uwais, he has a long way to go, and the thing is, guys like Adkins are doing three or four movies a year, so their screen presence is only getting better. I think the number one thing is, the prison yarn is not the best place to start when you're trying to build a CV. For one, the character always gets his ass kicked on the regular throughout the film by the guards, which doesn't help in building leading man bona fides; and the other thing is, they tend to be darker and grimmer, so there isn't as much room for personality. Avengement mitigated all of these things with the way they made that, but very few prison films are that inspired. If I'm a Matthew Reese, I'm thinking an actioner with Dolph Lundgren is a great opportunity, but the reality is a little different. You wonder if the better bet is a Romanian production of a Keoni Waxman directed Seagal flick, because those movies really showcased names like Byron Mann, Bren Foster, and Johnny Messner.

The low-hanging fruit would be to dump on Chuck Liddell and his Russian accent as the head baddie, but I'm actually going to applaud him trying something different as an actor since this is the career he's pivoting into. The issue again goes back to that cover and the way this was sold to us. Liddell is in a prison jump suit, looking like he's ready to get after it against Dolph. That's not a crime boss running his criminal operation out of a prison on the cover. That hurts Liddell, because when we first hear him with the affected Russian accent and realize he's not who we thought he was going to be, like Matthew Reese, he's working uphill.

 

When I look back on the 2010s for DTV flicks, I think it might be the worst decade ever, which is hard to say when we consider the 2000s weren't great either. I do have hope with the work Scott Adkins is doing with Jesse V. Johnson and Isaac Florentine, they may be bringing the 90s back; but a movie like this really gets to the heart of what's been wrong with the DTV action industry. First and foremost, I've already mentioned the cover a few times. If this had been a PM or Corman flick in 1994, Reese would have been front and center on the cover, and Lundgren and Liddell would have either just had their names listed, or smaller images of themselves below Reese. The scene where Reese gets himself arrested to get into the jail probably would have had a sweet car chase scene with flipping cars. The fights wouldn't have had frames taken out or quick edits, they would have been shot and action-directed by people who let the action breathe. It may have still been paint-by-numbers, but it would've have felt a lot more fun. PM and Corman weren't working on massive budgets either, so it's not like they had more resources than modern DTV makers. It feels like with Jesse V. Johnson and Isaac Florentine, they're going back to what made these movies work, and are putting an emphasis on that. It would be nice as we get into the 2020s if more directors took a page out of their 80s and 90s predecessors.

And with that, let's wrap this baby up. I think this can work as a 90-minute time killer, especially since it's currently available to stream on Netflix and Hoopla. Spending $3 for a rental may be pushing it though. For us of course it's all about the Dolph, and I think if you're a Dolph completist, there's a lot in here of value, just know you're not getting a Dolph flick per se, but rather a Matthew Reese flick.

For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4642044/