Wanted Man
Wanted Man
The press announcement for Wanted Man mentions how writer-director-actor Dolph Lundgren portrays his character in the film stating, ”Johansen is a veteran investigator who, due to previous policing strategies, has caused more trouble for the department’s public image in the recent past.” Such outdated strategies involve punching a suspect, while making what can be construed as a racist comment, right in front of a television camera crew of reporters.
If that does not suffice to inform us about his view of the people living across the border, he is also seen going to a strip joint with friends, Brenner (Kelsey Grammer, Murder Company, The Expendables 3), Hilts (Aaron McPherson, Death by Engagement, Don’t Kill It) and Tinelli (Michael Pare, The Puppetman, They Crawl Beneath), and making fun of Mexicans. To round up the night, he has to be restrained from assaulting yet another Mexican in the car park.
With this in mind, it makes sense that he is going to Mexico where he is supposed to bring back a pair of hookers who witnessed the murder of two undercover DEA agents, let’s call them Rosa (Christina Villa, The Wedding in the Hamptons, River) and Leticia (Daniela Soto-Brenner, Scherzo Diabolico, Fight Back), in order to avoid the public eye until things cool off.
One of several things that may stand out is the fact that the script was written by Lundgren, Hank Hugues, and Michael Worth (Bring Me the Head of Lance Henriksen, War Wolves). A lot of violence takes place, and so does the ambush that left him alone with only Rosa to assist him.
The last picture that Lundgren directed, Castle Falls, belongs to several of his more recent films, which were acceptable to me; thus, I dreamed the Wanted Man would also be an above average picture. But it takes ages to wind up, and at the halfway point, it bears more resemblance to Misery with Johansen chained to a bed in a house belonging to one of Rosa’s cousins and saying such lines as, “Coming from someone who gives blowjobs for a living, I find that hard to swallow.”
The information that provoked that comment, crooked American cops were the killers, ought to have been a big shock, but it is let out in the prologue. I was hoping this would bring about an active sequence, that the Wanted Man finally got underway but no, all that happens is people shouting at one another until the cartels eventually do figure out their whereabouts, and they bombard the place, giving the movie its second action scene within an hour’s space.
For the majority of its running time, Wanted Man is a talky drama centered on the love affair between Rosa and Johansen and his understanding that not every Mexican is a cartel thug and a human trafficker. Some just seek an escape from poverty, That particularly would make for good cinema, and here it could have worked as a decent sub-plot. Instead, it took over and turned what is supposed to be an action film into a cliched drama with predictable clichés like the cutesy epilogue.
Also, given the fact that three writers were involved in the making of Wanted Man, it is very interesting in that position how otherwise quite predictable the film is. It is hard to fathom that none of them could come up with something that has not already been done so many times, especially since Lundgren and Worth have done it so much in the genre. Rather they present a rather limping story that climaxes with a level of predictability as one would when the characters head North.
The action scenes that are present in the film – there are three of those, four if we included the first murders – are well done and consider Lundgren’s age leaning towards gun play rather than his fists. They also rely on squibs for bullet impacts and not CGI. It’s just unfortunate that there was not more need for them as that is what people will be tuning into Wanted Man for.
Instead of being an action-packed fish out of water thriller, Wanted Man is one of those slow films with lots of words only to be interrupted by mindless violence. Even the short appearances at the beginning and end of the film by Grammer and Paré do not help either. There will be little satisfaction from stalking this Wanted Man, and, apparently, the reward will be elusive.
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- Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Thriller
- Country: United States
- Director: Dolph Lundgren
- Cast: Dolph Lundgren, Christina Villa, Kelsey Grammer
