THE RUSSIAN SPECIALIST

Dolph makes his sophomore directing effort with The Russian Specialist and the results are a very satisfying old school action pic.

I stopped caring about Dolph's films after a couple of his straight-to-video B-action movies started feeling all the same, but not only that, they weren't any good or even bad enough to be entertaining. Kinda like Steven Seagal's films have felt recently. Van Damme seems to be the only one still turning in pretty good low-budget action films.

But that said, maybe Dolph just needed to step into the director's chair and take control. After all, he's lived for this stuff for quite some time now. His first chance to direct was with The Defender. I checked it out, out of curiosity to see what he could accomplish. The movie was okay, better than most, but nothing memorable. However, this film was thrown into Dolph's hands just before filming began and he did prove that he can handle the pressure, but didn't really have a chance to show what he can actually do.

With The Russian Specialist, he had that chance, and proved he has what it takes. Dolph stars as Nick Cherenko, a retired Russian Special Forces hit man. When his wife and son are killed by mobsters, Cherenko leaves the country and starts a new life in the U.S. as a mechanic. Then, one day, a woman appears and offers Cherenko a heavy pay check to rescue her kidnapped daughter. It turns out the bad guys are none other than the men who murdered his family.

This sounds like a typical low-budget action film, but a synopsis never does a movie justice. It depends on how the film is handled, the vision of the director. And Dolph brings us a final showdown that even John Wayne fans can appreciate. The last half hour of the movie is so great and surprisingly intense, that you should not pass it up even if you hate everything Dolph has ever done. I felt like I was watching a classic old school western, with a mad taste of the raw, honest brutality of a 1970's picture.

The film doesn't start out this way, however, and that is it's only flaw. It starts out like most low-budget action films. Now, if Dolph can establish the style of the last third of this movie for a whole picture, he may even jump start a successful directing career.

Reviewed by Shane Ryan

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