Good story, Not enough for a whole film

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

Blistering performances.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

***SPOILERS***The movie starts out with our killing machine, Edward Glenn (Dolph) in a no-win situation, then flashes back. He is now in bed with a gold digging blond asking him for a new car while they make love because her current car is "so last year." (Brief nudity) He gets a call from his wife (or ex-wife) about attending his daughter's play. Dolph seems cold and heartless. Later we find out he is an ex-KGB assassin working for the Russian mob. He has a real day job as an investment broker. He goes to Hong Kong on an assignment. He murders his target and a bunch of other people, but allows a witness (being tortured by his target) to live. He returns home and is questioned if he left any witnesses. He answers in the negative and gets another assignment. He has to go to Miami ASAP and take out a man that weekend. However, it is his turn to have his daughter that weekend as mom goes frolics with her boyfriend. Edward leaves the girl with his floozy girlfriend and drives off to the airport. The floozy doesn't want to take care of the kid so she palms her off on the housekeeper. Meanwhile Edward is on his way to the airport on the phone with his wife, convincing her he just had supper with Taylor(daughter) and she had just gone to bed. He is just out getting a few items for breakfast, he claims. Then BAM! He is sent on a detour, which turns out to be a trap. People attempt to kill him as he has been set up. He manages to escape and get his daughter to safety then goes to save his wife. After they met up, there is a gun battle with people in police uniforms and her boyfriend gets killed. They end up hiding out together and she asks, "Are you doing something illegal?" DUH! He doesn't answer her until after she puts out. Odd. When I get a woman's boyfriend killed, it is rare that they have sex with me the same freaking night.While I gave away half the movie, the rest is trying to figure out who set him up and the payback. As it turns out our cold heartless killer left his family so they wouldn't get caught up in his world and get killed. A little like OJ, "so if I left you and made love to a blond girl half your age, that would mean I love you."

This straight-to-DVD enterprise is quite a mindless parade of macho, bullets and blood in this same-old, same-old get-up that sees a professional KGB-trained assassin finding himself with a contract on his head. You can he trust, that's what it comes down to as his family find out he's living a lie. Being much more than just a businessman. Everything about this venture is heavily contrived, but outside some sluggish moments and the monotonous narrative filled with deep in- thought dialogues, but let's not also forget those stares. Dolph Lundgren who stars (in a methodical performance), but also directs keeps things rather repetitive, where it seems to be becoming a comfortable formula. He pumps up the screen with numerous slow-motion shots and frantic shot-on camera frames trying to give a personal touch. Talk about personal, Lundgren really gets up and personal when in conversation. What starts of immensely slow, gets better as it goes along where it eventually opens with blistering set-pieces of shootouts and brutal hand-to-hand combat with an ending that throws an ironic twist of fate. The plot tries to balance out its human dramas, but the pandering script is too heavy-handed and feels like a smokescreen as our man becomes a pawn in a much bigger game. Also making an appearance is Bo Svenson. While for me it might not have been as fun as some of Dolph's other recent outings. However while predictable and at times slow, "The Killing Machine" is a bold b-grade action joint."I guess today is your lucky day."

Edward Genn (Lundgren) is a family man and loving husband and father - but he's also a secret assassin trained in the former Soviet Union and working for the Russian Mob. His code name is Icarus. After certain events go sideways, all manner of bad guys - goons, hired killers, Russian mob, other mobs, etc. are after him. All Genn wants to do is protect his family. But he'll have to face the demons of his past first, personified by the evil gangster Vadim (Svenson). Will his double life come crashing down? It's very cool to see Dolph as a hit-man and he looks quite dapper in his suits and ties here. As seems to be the trend of late, some scenes are underlit and too dark to see, but what we did see, we liked very much. Except for the film quality and the soundtrack, this film could have been made in the 80's, which is definitely a good thing in our book. Dolph, as star and director, obviously knows what his fans want, and he delivers yet again. It helps that the writer, Raul Inglis, is also the uncredited writer on White Tiger (1996) as well as the writer of Breach of Trust (1995).There's plenty of action, good violence, and Bo Svenson as well. He doesn't show up until the very last portion of the film, but it was cool to see Dolph and Bo together, especially in a showdown as mortal enemies. Interestingly, the plot of "guy was a hit-man and now has a wife and daughter who are now in danger because of his past life and he now must use his violent training to protect them" was also used for Hit-man's Run (1999). Thankfully, neither Esteban Powell, nor any other annoying sidekick is on display. As said earlier, Dolph knows what his fans want. Annoying sidekicks are not one of them.So thanks to the action, violence, presence of two of our favorite stars (Dolph and Bo) and the undemanding running time of 88 minutes, not to mention the 80's throwback feel and Dolph's direction, The Killing Machine is a solid winner.For more insanity, check out: comeuppancereviews.com

When I picked up and read the DVD box for this Dolph Lundgren movie, my heart sank when I saw it was being distributed by Cinetel Films. For those who don't know, Cinetel Films makes extremely cheap genre movies padded out with stock footage from big-budget Hollywood movies. Actually, the production values for this movie are somewhat higher. It is clearly a low budget movie, don't get me wrong, but it doesn't look as cheap as usual. (And there's no stock footage.) Other things good about the movie are some decent action sequences and Dolph giving another likable, charismatic performance. And it's nice to see a Canadian movie actually set in Canada (for the most part), though the use of Vancouver is so generic the movie could have been set anywhere.Unfortunately, the movie still has some serious problems. There are a few poor special effects. Some dialogue is hard to make out. The camera-work for the movie is awful - it always seems the camera is jiggling or in someone's unsteady hands. In fairness to Lundgren (who was also the director), he was reportedly given less shooting time than usual, and also was constrained considerably by the producers. So I don't blame him for the movie's faults. Still, the movie is probably only for die-hard Lundgren fans, and they should probably wait until it appears on cable so they won't feel ripped off when watching it.