Every time I watch this film, it feels like I have seen it before. Dolph Lundgren plays Nick, a mercenary in retirement. He is lured out of retirement to do one last job...get a crew, go to a topical island paradise and convince the local natives to sign a mining contract...or else. Along the way they run into some other bad guys. Got the plot figured out yet? It is overly predictable and this is perhaps the formula for a man's "chick flick."

BD Wong plays Po, one of the island natives with speaking lines. He provides us with the little bit of the predictable humor in the film. Charlotte Lewis as Loki, provides us with the token island nudity. Catherine Bell plays an under used butch character. Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, who has gone on to better things also stars as one of the mercenaries and provides conflict within the group.

As a 90's feel good man's film this one rates up there. But by today's standards it doesn't measure up to an action film. There is no CG fighting. There is no swagger music with slo-mo walking. There are no names popping up by characters giving us their bio. There are no inexpiable flashback scenes. If you can live without that and don't want to think too hard, this is a relatively easy going action film.

F-bomb, brief nudity, bar dancers in sheer outfits (mega camel toe) January 2, 2012

I rented this expecting a stupid but violent Dolph Lundgren direct-to-video action thriller. Well, it's violent alright, but it is by no means stupid. In fact, I'd say this is the best direct-to-video action movie ever made, and at the very top of Dolph Lundgren's filmography. The general outline of the plot - Mercenaries assault tropical village to muscle mining rights from the villagers, but then mercenary has a change of heart and helps defend the village - is eminently cliche of course. Previous mercenary classics Dogs of War and The Wild Geese already have similar plots. But the execution is marvellous! What did you expect with the great independent filmmaker and famed scriptdoctor John Sayles writing the script on this one? The movie doesn't rely pure action to raise your blood pressure - All the time spent building the relationships and personalities pays off big time when it comes to the showdown. Real dramatic tension in a direct-to-video Dolph Lundgren flick! Who'd have expected it? The dialogue is smart and knows when to laugh at itself when it gets too cliche or macho. The director and cinematographer do great work as well, very stylish without resorting to cheap "music-video-style" tricks so common these days. And don't worry about the action, there isn't much at the beginning, but the last 30 minutes or so is one huge long action sequence. Best of all, it doesn't pull any punches. Maybe its direct-to-video status allowed them to show more, I don't know, but this is a helluva violent film. You see the results of the violence and it's anything but pretty. I loved this film. Go find it at the video store, it's worth it. The only negative is that the tape is pan&scan and there's no widescreen/letterbox version available on DVD. The compositions seem a bit cramped, especially during the action scenes. Anyway, go see it, and keep any eye out for some cool actors in the supporting roles - BD Wong, Catherine Bell of tv show "JAG" fame (playing a hardass mercenary chick no less!),etc. I hope the studio releases a widescreen DVD soon!

Commando adventure in which ex-Special Force mercenaries carry out a dangerous mission set in a Thai island . This action-packed picture concerns upon a bunch of commando-for-hire who is assigned by two businessmen as financial backers to obliterate a little group of natives (B.D. Wong , Charlotte Lewis , among them) at an island of Thailand . But the financiers hire another bunch as back-up , in case they run into problems . The commando is led by a tough, two-fisted mercenary (Dolph Lundgren) . He contacts an inmate (Tommy Lister) , a soldier-woman (Catherine Bell) and several more (Tom Wright, Don Harvey, Anthony John Denison, among others) . The adventure starts when the expert band of mercenaries disembarks on the coast and goes to deep inside the jungle to destroy the village . But they decide to defend rather than destroy the inhabitants of the far island . As they help out the jungle's natives against other mercenaries( Trevor Goddard , Aldo Sambrell). The mission meets unexpected turns and twists when they're betrayed by their financial backers . Meanwhile they find some caves in middle of jungle where encounter the valuable Guano or bat's crap .

This fast-paced film packs adventures , large-scale blow-up, routine plot , drama , and lots of action for the most part . Based on the interesting screenplay by prestigious John Sayles , a magnificent writer and director . Has some weak moments which break up the continuity of the movie but generally is a good story and well told . It results to be a graphical depiction of a team of professional mercenaries driven by nothing but quest for power and money , being commanded by Dolph Lundgren in one of the best roles . Large support cast formed by various actors who subsequently would get successful careers as Thomas Gibson (Criminal minds) , Catherine Bell(JAG) , Don Harvey , Kevin Thige , Trevor Goddard and several others . Cinematography by Rohn Schmidt is quite nicely , capturing the atmosphere of everywhere , from Thailand to a pretty cool jungle , furthermore some stirring images filmed with camera above the shoulder . Vibrant musical score fitting to action by Gerard Gouriet . The motion picture picture is well realized by Perry Lang who also plays a secondary role . This is his second and last movie -the first was ¨Little Vegas¨- subsequently Lang would direct numerous TV episodes as ¨ Millennium, Charmed, One tree hill , Everwood, Alias, Weeds. .¨

The film was made in the wake of ¨Mercenary sub-genre¨ as the classic ¨Wild Geese¨ by Andrew McLagen with Burton, Moore and Richard Harris and ¨Wild Geese II¨ , plus ¨Dogs of war¨ by John Irvin with Christopher Walken and recently ¨Tears of the sun ¨ with Bruce Willis and Monica Belucci and many others . Rating : 6,5 . Better than average. Well worth watching .