Vomitron_G As for my "Catching Up With Dolph" initiative I started last week, THE MECHANIK was my third pick. I ended up enjoying/appreciating this one the most, surprisingly also a film directed by Dolph himself. And he does a good job, honestly. Now I am by far not an expert on all things Dolph, but I can appreciate a decent effort when I see one. THE MECHANIK has a bare-bones story - fairly big on the clichés, I might add, though thankfully not including a tired re-found love angle - but it's put together with a consistent style (you'll have to dig the contemporary look & editing, though) and the cinematography looks fine, using faded, stained colors with hard contrasts. It's all about Dolph being on a mission (again) and getting revenge (again) while at it. But it's executed in a proper fashion. What really made the film pay off, was it promising a decent shout-out climax and even coming through on that promise. Western fans might even dig this film. Lots of violent kills and bloodshed, and it all looks pretty damn good & realistic on screen. A job well done, Dolph. I applaud you, and I will be checking out MISSIONARY MAN next and I hope it'll score as high on the Dolph-scale. Either way, nice to see you're doing well!

Liloh I like when Dolph Lundgren direct Movies. I have seen several of Movies he directed and it shows his talent as an Actor and Director. The only problem with this Movie, the bad guy: Why do the Bad Guys always look so ugly? However, rather then Schwarznegger, Dolph Lundgren hasn't lost that touch of a Cool Action Dud He gets better the older he gets. Its funny, every time I see Lundgren on Screen its like reminds me, oh there must be something about Russia or so. Rather then Retrograde this Movie was a lot better. Retrograde was waste of his Talent. Its really cool to watch Lundgrens Movies and I know that there are some moments I think no this is not acting. This is himself.

anghart Dolph's first directing effort, The Defender, was a nice little action piece. Granted, the movie was low budget, but there was enough enthusiasm and excitement to make it worthwhile.The Russian Specialist,aka The Mechanik, as it should be called; is a distinct step UP for Dolph. His direction is incredibly assured for someone who's only directed one other movie.I won't go into story specifics here because everybody already knows what this about. However, I will go into the production and performances.Dolph has changed as an actor. He's matured, he's confident in his skin. That is half the battle, and he wins bigtime.Ben Cross is the comedy relief/dramatic Brit. He's one of the film's better assets.The rest of the performers are more than adequate. The villains in particular, are slimy and nasty. It's a good thing they're slaughtered in such a brutal fashion!!! The script for this film, while hardly original, is pretty good for low budget fare like this. It pushes all the right buttons at the right time. The dialog is also quite good.Dolph, the director, is in very good form. His style is loose and fluid. Think Tony Scott meets John Woo and you're on the right track.The score by Elia Cmiral is haunting when it needs to be and tense when the crap hits the fan. Which brings us to the action set pieces.Although they're not numerous, the action scenes are well done and VIOLENT! Dolph pulls no punches with this flick. The deaths come fast, hard and furious! Overall, this little film is quite good. I eagerly await the next Dolph film. To those who have not checked out this film and The Defender, I recommend you do so.

Jenny Schubert I was an exchange student in London a year ago and had the great opportunity of meeting Dolph in person, and he gave me an autograph. He was very gracious and kind. I don't watch a lot of his movie usually but I decided to watch this one earlier today (my boyfriend works in a video store and got me it a day early!).I really enjoyed the movie it was very good. Dolph looks good too (I didn't say this to my boyfriend, I'm so bad!) and of course there is lots of fights and things too so he was happy. I liked the scenes with Dolph and Ben Cross, they were engaging and Ben is a really top actor (not that Dolph isn't a good one).Anyways this was a good film and although it was a bit overly violent at times, a little sadistic it was well made.