{"id":5713,"date":"2012-11-16T15:16:53","date_gmt":"2012-11-16T20:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/?p=3567"},"modified":"2012-11-16T15:16:53","modified_gmt":"2012-11-16T20:16:53","slug":"dolph-lundgren-is-red-scorpion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5713","title":{"rendered":"Dolph Lundgren IS Red Scorpion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/RedScorpion1988_b.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-3568\" title=\"RedScorpion1988_b\" src=\"http:\/\/mondomark.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/RedScorpion1988_b.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"120\" height=\"155\" \/><\/a>The best performance Dolph Lundgren ever gave was as Jesus  in one of the worst Canadian films ever made, <strong>Johnny Moronic <\/strong>\u2013 whoops, my bad: <strong>Johnny Mnemonic <\/strong>(1995) \u2013 which I paid to see in Sony SDDS, and  friends still blame me for suggesting. (It was chosen based on CONSENSUS.)<\/p>\n<p>Novice director Robert Longo was reportedly so intimidated  with the assignment that he was hesitant to utter both \u201caction\u201d and \u201ccut\u201d and  left the nerve-racking chore to someone else. Perhaps by leaving Dolph  alone, the actor was able to create his own creepy version of a fubared Jesus  wannabe. He was the best thing in the movie, but it\u2019s not his best film, given  he\u2019s appeared in 50+ productions of varying artistic merit.<\/p>\n<p>Like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lundgren was often cast for his physique,  and it was tough to find roles where he could test his acting chops. Arnie  tried and failed miserably with <strong>End of  Days<\/strong> (itself a colossal dud, and arguably the end of director Peter Hyams\u2019  position as an A-level director), whereas Lundgren had <strong>Jill the Ripper<\/strong> \/ aka <strong>Jill  Rips<\/strong>, Anthony Hickox\u2019 dreadful serial killer thriller. Each actor tried to  find range in the thriller genre, but the roles weren\u2019t customized to their  range with just a <em>little bit <\/em>of wiggle room.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kqek.com\/dvd_reviews\/p2r\/4028_RedScorpion1988.htm\">Red  Scorpion <\/a><\/strong>[<a href=\"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5706\">M<\/a>] (1988) was Lundgren\u2019s third major  film and second starring role (after <strong>Rocky  IV <\/strong>and <strong>Masters of the Universe<\/strong>),  and it\u2019s a solid fit since it delivers action (via real stunts) and has an  effective vision quest thread where Lundgren and his character loosen up. It&#8217;s also an ongoing storyline where the actor shows off some of the charisma that\u2019s often subdued because of his  tough guy roles.<\/p>\n<p>Synapse\u2019s Blu-ray release features RS in a swanky special  edition, and the BR + DVD combo also forms a nice tribute to Lundgren as film action star. He\u2019s  still making films, albeit most tend to go \/ are aimed at the direct to video  market, but the surprise success of Sylvester Stallone\u2019s <strong>The Expendibles<\/strong> franchise has brought renewed interest in  Lundgren\u2019s canon, which is frankly kind of fun.<\/p>\n<p>My favourite guilty pleasure: <strong>Dark Angel<\/strong>, released in cinemas here as<strong> I Come in Peace<\/strong> (1990). The title is derived from a greeting the  alien killer utters before sucking the life out of humans, but Lundgren has the  best moment when he replies \u201cYou go in pieces!\u201d prior to blowing the creature  into bits &amp; pieces.<\/p>\n<p>Anchor   Bay put the film out on  VHS, and there was also a Lumivision laserdisc in 1990, but it\u2019s another orphan  film in need of a home on Blu. (Well, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=iwuGfTs9dU4\" >not quite<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #ffffff;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>,  Editor<br \/>\n<strong>KQEK.com <\/strong>(  <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kqek.com\/Main_Index_Page.htm\">Main Site<\/a> \/ <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php\">Mobile Site<\/a> )<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review of Synapse&#8217;s swanky Red Scorpion Blu-ray, starring Dolph Lungren<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1u9","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5713"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5713"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5912,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5713\/revisions\/5912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}