Section 8 is about a former special forces guy (Ryan Kwanten) who is trying to make good in civilian life with his wife and young son while working for his uncle, Mickey Rourke. After some Mexican gangsters try to shake Rourke down for protection money, said gangsters kill Kwanten's wife and son, so he kills them for revenge, and ends up in prison. Enter Dermot Mulroney, who runs a secret wet works op called Section 8, and he offers to recruit Kwanten to get him out of jail. Things seem fishy though, as they often are, so Kwanten turns to his former commanding officer, Dolph, for advice. Too late, Mulroney was already suspicious of Kwanten, so he sent Scott Adkins in to take Kwanten down. Will Kwanten be able to make it out alive?
Despite not being an Emmett-Furla Willis film, this felt like that, which was weird considering this was directed by Christian Sesma, and the previous film of his I'd seen, Paydirt, wasn't like that at all. Grimacing, bearded, former special forces white guy? Check. Played by someone who isn't one of our big names? Check. Wife and young child either threatened or killed? Check. Convoluted plot complete with ample padding? Check. Characters like Dolph's and Adkins's that seem to disappear for chunks of the film? Check. This had one element though that those didn't: Dermot Mulroney. He was great with his Grecian Formula dyed mustache over his gray beard, wearing a tux and saying vile, villainous things. And from there, we did get some Dolph and Adkins that was good, which is more than can be said for some other films of theirs. For a $1 rental as a Dolph completist it wasn't bad, but I think as a free streamer--or if you're already subscribed to AMC+--this is more likely to do the trick for you.
Normally I don't do so many films by a star like Dolph in quick succession, having done Pups Alone less than a month ago, but I also don't normally get a chance to do his new releases as soon either, as $5.99 is usually too rich for my blood when I have so many free streamers out there, and I know his movies end up on Tubi, Netflix, or Hulu eventually. That meant I couldn't stall too long on this and let it sit when I had this opportunity. He's good enough in this, despite not being the main star. I couldn't help thinking back to the 90s where he would've played Kwanten's part--or even in the late 2000s when we started this site and he was still playing that role. It was often the kind of movie we could put in a Dolph Fest, watching him go around and kick ass and take names. Even something like the ludicrous idea that Kwanten's character would get life in prison for killing his wife and son's murderer only hours after it happened would've been ludicrous in a fun way with Dolph in the lead in the 90s/2000s, but now feels like a contrived plot device with someone like Kwanten in the lead. And maybe that's part of Dolph's legacy as we move into the 2020s, he's no longer the lead in something like this, but we watch it and remember when he was, and how his presence at that time elevated those movies in a way that few can now. Still, it was fun to see him here, and he made the movie better by being in it.
On the other hand, it's been a bit longer since we've last seen Mr. Adkins, back in October when we did Close Range for Isaac Florentine's Hall of Fame induction post. Here he had an afterthought feel, like they got him attached to the movie, so they attached him onto the script. We lose him for huge chunks, and then at the end he confronts Kwanten and it's like Chekhov's Adkins: if you introduce him in the middle, you need to use him at the end. The Adkins we did get was solid though, he has one of the best Vegas shootouts this side of Robert Patrick planting one between the eyes of Mick Fleetwood then proceeding to blow up half of the Vegas Strip; though on the other hand, we have a massive leap of faith at the end when his assassin character has Kwanten at gun point and could just kill him, but then makes mistakes uncharacteristic of a master assassin like him, just so Kwanten can defeat him--more of those plot holes. I still have three more from the Adkins mini film fest I did for a solo podcast episode back in June, plus one or two others in the can, so we'll be seeing more of him soon, which is good, because we didn't see a lot of him here; but with this being his 24th film on the site, we'll be closing on 30 Club territory for him, which would also mean automatic Hall of Fame induction. Maybe he'll go in anyway next fall, whether we get him to 30 films or not, since The Asylum is the only one we've had to invoke that rule with, and do we want Adkins to share that dubious distinction with them?
The best part of the movie for both Ty and me was the Mulroney as a baddie. There was a sense of, "why haven't we seen this guy in more of these movies? He's great!" It was just this scenery chewing villain, sometimes in a tux, always with a gray beard that's been Grecian Formulaed around the mustache area. He's got your My Best Friend's Wedding right here! Of course, this leads us to a Destro Effect, because Kwanten's hero was your standard Emmett-Furla'esque one-note bearded grimacing guy, which gives us nothing to sink our teeth into, so we're forced to turn to Mulroney. Yes, Dolph mitigates it some, but he's not in the film enough to properly mitigate the Destro Effect heat Mulroney was giving off. According to IMDb he had 7 films come out in 2022, which is the kind of quantity over quality approach that signals a full on move to DTV, and could mean this won't be the last time we see him here. Let's hope not.
Finally, as we've been doing, we'll give Dolph a second paragraph as we discuss his legacy more. As I said above, I don't know that this had a passing the torch feel, but rather a reminder that Dolph used to play the Kwanten part, and he played it in a next level way that only he could. In terms of films, he's not really slowing down, as he has 7 projects in post-production right now, but it feels like the days of Dolph on the tin equals Dolph as the lead are over. And maybe that's okay, because of how many films he's given us where he was the lead. He's the Babe Ruth of DTV for a reason, and has the most films on our site because he's so fantastic, and was so fantastic in so many of those earlier DTV flicks that that momentum is what makes us come back to these newer ones where he doesn't have as much of a role, and will keep me coming back. What's great though is a lot of those earlier DTV classics he did are free to stream on places like Tubi, so anyone can go back and see them, or like in my case, revisit them.
And with that, let's wrap this up. Currently this is available on AMC+, which you might have, but if you don't, I think this is better to wait for when it goes to another streamer you might be subscribed to, or a free one like Tubi. It's not horrible, but not worth a $5.99 rental.
For more info: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14950412
And if you haven't yet, check out my new novel, Holtman Arms, at Amazon in paperback or Kindle!
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