Get Cooked: Hellfire (2026) Review

Director: Isaac Florentine

Cast: Stephen Lang, Scottie Thompson, Chris Mullinax, Johnny Yong Bosch, Dolph Lundgren, Michael Sirow, Harvey Keitel

 

Back in the late 00s and the early 10s, if you wanted to find great old school action, you would scan the internet for Isaac Florentine. His ‘straight-to-video’ (a term that essentially doesn’t exist thanks to streaming now) affairs were some of the best you could find. His work with classic icons like Dolph Lundgren and Jean-Claude Van Damme was fun, and his partnership with Scott Adkins defined that era for incredible action. I’d still argue that Ninja: Shadow of a Tear is one of the greatest action films ever made, and I will absolutely fight you if you disagree.

 

However, Florentine’s career has been much rockier lately. Some of this is due to trying some new styles, working in slightly different genres, or partnering with different stars, but it felt like some of the shine was being dulled. It culminated in Hounds of War, an ultimately droll affair with Frank Grillo on autopilot and horrendous editing and action design that felt completely out of sync with what one expects from a Florentine flick.

 

Thus, my expectations for Hellfire were relatively muted. Sure, it has a hell of a cast, including Stephan Lang as the special ops veteran caught in the criminal web of a small town, but even that was not necessarily as exciting as I hoped for. Yet, while Hellfire certainly struggles to find some of its voice in the first 45 minutes and really loves to hammer down on those straight-to-VOD action tropes, it is something of a bounce back for Florentine. Its foundations are solid, the main performances - even if tropey - feel engaged, and the back end of the film really starts rollicking once tensions of its generic script finally pop. By the end, I was totally engulfed by the fun and surprising moments that Hellfire was delivering. Enough so that there’s a part of me that hopes Florentine has found his new franchise in the wandering warrior that Stephan Lang is bringing to the table. 

 

Dead or Alive: Wanted Man (2024) Review

Director: Dolph Lundgren

Notable Cast: Dolph Lundgren, Christina Villa, Kelsey Grammer, Michael Pare, Roger Cross, Aaron McPherson, Rocko Reyes, James Pulido, Jose Trujillo

 

Dolph Lundgren made his directorial comeback with the highly entertaining Castle Falls back in 2021, and for an action fan like me, it was a welcome comeback. I’ve always been that one guy who defended Dolph’s directorial efforts, and now that he’s back behind the camera, I’m there. With his latest action thriller venture, Wanted Man, Lundgren is trying to balance classic action tropes and a slightly more modern (and, dare I say, socio-politically charged?) narrative. The result is an entertaining mixture of gun blasts, small-scale thrills, and a surprisingly compelling character arc for an older man trying to be better. 

 

After a relatively cliche opening, something found regularly in lower-budget action thrillers, where a drug deal goes south and leaves some DEA agents iced in the morgue, Wanted Man immediately goes into crafting the lead character that the audience will be partnering with for the run of the movie. Dolph, naturally, plays an aging Detective in Texas who, we quickly learn, has been revealed as a racist cop for viciously beating a Mexican suspect on camera.

The Best Worst Man: The Best Man (2023) Review

Director: Shane Dax Taylor

Notable Cast: Brendan Fehr, Luke Wilson, Dolph Lundgren, Scout Taylor Compton, Nicky Whelan, Scott Martin

 

Although there are plenty of action stars that have been relegated to the direct-to-video market in the last handful of years and while many film critics and fans are eager to pounce and people like Bruce Willis or Nic Cage for falling into this category, it’s a corner of the market that has its own feel and approach that often gets overlooked. 

 

When The Best Man first stumbled into my consciousness, it was hard not to buy in for me simply based on the Dolph of it all. Yet, it was apparent that he would play a secondary character to Brendan Fehr and Luke Wilson (?!). Now my interest went from piqued to full-on curiosity. Yet, with films like The Best Man, it is best to keep expectations tempered and that’s my recommendation here. While the idea of seeing Fehr, Wilson, and Lundgren team up to fight off terrorists is seemingly outlandish enough, the reality is that The Best Man is rarely as entertaining as it might have been. It’s a fine paint-by-numbers low-budget action flick to burn a lazy Sunday afternoon on, but it never reaches its own potential. 

 

Killing Machine, The (2010)

Director: Dolph Lundgren

Notable Cast: Dolph Lundgren, Stefanie Von Pfetten, Samantha Ferris, David Lewis, Lindsay Maxwell, John Tench, Bo Svenson, Katelyn Mager, Monique Ganderton

Also Known As: Icarus

The straight to video action genre is a crap shoot on almost any given day. Even having a recognizable name in the film isn’t necessarily a guarantee of quality, but there is something fun and enjoyable about digging through these films to find those diamonds in the rough. For whatever reason, I kept putting off watching The Killing Machine even though I had it on my watch queue in my Blu Ray collection for God knows how long. Now that I finally have gotten around to it, I must say that it’s one of the better films that Dolph Lundgren has put out in the later part of his career. This is saying something because he directs the film too and it’s his direction that comes off as shockingly effective at times and carries the film more than anything else. It’s one of those films that doesn’t strive too hard to be more than it is as a low budget actioner, but it does it all with decent intent and execution making it one of those surprises one hopes to find while sifting through the genre.

Riot (2016)

Director: John Lyde

Notable Cast: Matthew Reese, Dolph Lundgre, Danielle Chuchran, Chuck Liddell, Michael Flynn, Renny Grames, Eve Mauro, Melanie Stone, DL Walker

Riot is the reason that I spend hours upon hours dredging through the straight to home video news and sections at movie stores. The low budget action genre is certainly one that doesn’t necessary promote lots of thoughtful execution and surprising quality as a whole, but there are always little diamonds to be found in the coal that entertain. Riot is one of those films. Truthfully, I picked up the movie because it had Dolph Lundgren in it. What can I say? I’m a sucker for Dolph. What I found in Riot though was one of the better B-action films of the year and one of those special finds that makes digging through the crap worth the time and money. Riot is a blast. It’s a heartfelt and surprisingly well made little actioner with enough charm and solid action set pieces to satiate any action craving fans might have. It’s hardly perfect, but hot damn if the intention to make a good movie isn’t there.