Joshua Tree

I really enjoyed viewing the unrated US Laserdisc of ARMY OF ONE. Dolph isn´t as cool as in THE PUNISHER but he´s doing quite a good job when it comes to those great shoot-outs. They sometimes reminded me on those John Woo-flicks.if you have the chance watch the unrated version, gives you more detail and is much more exciting.

Dolph is a bad actor. Of that there can be no doubt. At least he's not paired with Van Damme this time, that is the ultimate in quality dialogue material! As the criminal wrongly convicted of killing a cop, this is as predictable as action US films get. Pretty much a yawnfest from start to finish, but harmless enough in late night TV terms I suppose. One for video. Someone else's video - not yours!

Of all the foreign action stars mass produced and exported to America and cast in over the top movies, I feel that Mr. Lundgren is my favorite. Schwarzenegger comes off as unrealistic. Vandam is just laughable. And honestly, anyone else is just forgettable. When it comes down to it, Dolph Lundgren is VERY underrated and until I watched 'Joshua Tree' I did not even come close to knowing it. To me, he was just the bad guy in the Rocky movie that I never watched. Lundgren is a steamroller. He plows through cops, thugs and anyone else that gets in his way. They are left in a wake of insanity and the whole while he keeps a cool composure and it never gets overly comical. 'Joshua Tree' is in no way realistic; though it has a grittiness to it that movies like 'True Lies' and 'Commando' will never have. Casting Schwarzenegger as 'John Kimble' or 'Harry Trasker' takes me out of the film. With that brutal accent and and the overbearing brawn he will never be a street smart American protagonist that he is cast to be and this is detrimental to his character and the movie as a whole. Lundgren is the antithesis. He has the cold European gaze, but he adds a different flare that actually fits. He can riddle a body with bullets and give a snappy line and the audience will laugh- but they are laughing with him and not at him. Action directors today can learn a lot from this film. It should be mandatory viewing for action directors in film school. Directors today rely too heavily on CGI. This movie is raw. Everything was done by hand and it adds to the realism that a Schwarzenegger flick, like I mentioned before, lacks. Sure, you can see camera reflections on shiny surfaces and guns fire countless rounds without any need to reload but it is just fun. I stated that Lundgren was a superior actor when compared to his European action star peers- that does not, by any means, make the acting in this movie great. Regardless, the characters are vibrant and colorful. The cops are crooked and gaudy. The babes are buxom and bodacious and any all stereotypes are laid on thick and smooth. Without giving away a whole lot: the infamous warehouse scene is amazing- a true high point. I am sure this movie was not the first to do a shot like this but it was executed wonderfully; or, at least a hell of a lot better than many action movies that would follow. When combined with the great car chases and countless fight scenes I cannot speak highly enough. From all of this I cannot help but wonder what the world would be like today if it were Lundgren cast in The Terminator or Predator. I will definitely check out more of his work and re-watch 'Joshua Tree' again and again. On a side note, does anyone know why my copy of the film is titled, 'Army of One' instead of 'Joshua Tree'?

This movie was predictably silly. It had Dolph Lundgren as the lead role, for a start. Now, Dolph can carry a lot of things, I'm sure, but a movie ain't one of them. Then there was Geoffrey Lewis and George Segal. Lewis is always comical, no matter what he's in and Segal....well, what can you say about him in this film. I sometimes wonder if George Segal was a prototype for Tim Allen. They act very similarly sometimes. I was expecting a serious thriller, right up until Segal started to overact (which was early on). The guy was just so hammy that I wondered if there would be a pig wrangler in the end credits. Any seriousness the movie might have had went straight out the window because of him. And Dolph. As an actor, Dolph is not good. But at least he didn't ham it up like Segal did. And the final punch up between Dolph and Segal is not very believable. Segal is older and woefully out of shape compared to Lundgren. It was just silly. As mentioned elsewhere, the car chase is nicely done. The stunt drivers must have thought they'd died and gone to heaven getting to drive cars like that around in the desert. All in all a forgettable movie for a rainy day with nothing else to do.

Army of One is a very awesome action movie. Dolph Lundgren is a very good actor and this is one of my favorite movies. I highly recommend it to any action fan on the planet. The movie has good actors and actresses, and has great plot to it. Any action fan who turns it down without watching it first is CRAZY!

From a technical standpoint, this film doesn't disappoint. It marks the theatrical first unit directorial debut for Vic Armstrong, a longtime veteran of stunt work and second unit direction. This is one man who knows how to deliver action on a grand scale, and he does so here. He makes sure that this always energetic thriller never stops moving. The story isn't anything special, and there is some bad dialogue, but at the same time there are some good lines such as the one mentioned in this review summary. "Joshua Tree" isn't quite wall to wall action, at least not to begin with, but it definitely kicks into another gear in its second half, starting with an homage to John Woo, an over the top massacre of bad guys by our stoic hero Wellman Santee (Dolph Lundgren). Santee ain't no angel, which is refreshing. He's been a runner of exotic cars, but things go very wrong when a highway cop pulls over him and his partner Eddie (a much too briefly seen Ken Foree). Soon he's in jail, framed for murder, but gets his chance to escape. Knowing he was set up, he embarks on a mission to find the man who he knows was responsible - and get paid. Exhibiting some ruthlessness, he's willing to take a hostage, Rita Marek (Kristian Alfonso). It turns out that he's actually abducted a sheriffs' deputy who's a pretty tough cookie, and Rita decides to stick by his side when she's convinced of his innocence. Hot on Santees' trail are cops (including Geoffrey Lewis as Sheriff Cepeda) and a pair of detectives, Severence (George Segal) and Rudisill (Beau Starr). If one is partial to scenes of very cool cars driving very fast, "Joshua Tree" does deliver the goods, especially in an intense climactic chase that also shows off the beauty of the desert vistas (the movie was smartly shot using the 2.35:1 aspect ratio). But the aforementioned massacre of assorted Chinese goons is a beauty, with all of the bloodletting going on, the hammy acting of the guys getting shot, and Santees' acrobatics. Dolph's never been that much of an actor, but then he doesn't need to be in this sort of thing. He just needs to be totally bad ass, which he does succeed at. Alfonso is very good at both providing the eye candy and playing a sidekick who can take care of herself. Lewis is under utilized, but Segal and Starr are fun, and the supporting cast features a number of familiar faces that add to the enjoyment: Bert Remsen (who's a hoot in his one scene), Michael Paul Chan, Matt Battaglia, gorgeous Khandi Alexander, and Nick Chinlund. Fans of this genre should be more than satisfied. As testosterone-fuelled escapism goes, this is pretty good and above average. Seven out of 10.

I watched this movie on TV last night. Because of Dolph Lundgren I did not expect very much and so I was not disappointed. He does some sort of acting. But similar to Schwarzenegger, he should not play roles with much lines (except of self-ironic roles). Kristian Alfonso looks nice as his sexy female hostage, but is not very convincing as an incognito police officer. And from her first scene (when she canceled the liaison with her former nice boyfriend) is was obvious she would fall in love to such a 'manly' man like Lundgren. For me, the only explanation for the happy ending is not to frustrate the typical viewers of such action movies. Basically I should have switched the TV off earlier and go to sleep. But once I watch a movie, I want to know how it ends up, regardless how bad the plot and acting is. However, the only reason which made this movie worthwhile watching was George Segal acting like Groucho Marx. This made the movie still funny for me, I started laughing each time he appeared on screen! It was just a pity he was featured so bad! It was almost impossible to recognize him, but maybe this was his intention... Because of Segal for me the movie is still worth 3/10

Dolph Lundgren is a true action star, one of those one man army vehicles for Lundgren to leave a constant wave of destruction. Watch as things go BOOM! "Joshua Tree" is pure simplicity in its plotting and conventional with the surprises, but the blistering action (gotta love the spectacular set-pieces of Lundgren giving his shotgun a good workout) is extremely well staged and the pacing is high-octane. This is what you ask for and it delivers in spades. Wellman Anthony Santee is a trucker who's framed for the murder of a highway patrol man that pulled him over in a smuggling job gone wrong. Over a year later escaping an attempt on his life, he kidnaps a lady (who unknowingly to him is a cop) and flees. Now Santee is seeking revenge for those who betrayed him and killed his best pal. However these folks have authority and are using this power to get their man. For an on-the-run narrative, the momentum is consistent (despite some lulls with some moralistic babble and dramatics) and there are some excitingly dangerous high speed car chases which are expertly shot within beautifully open, baking hot desert / mountainous backdrop. Director Vic Armstrong (who's an excellent stuntman) gallantly engineers a durable actioner, where he packs bloody carnage (slow-mo anybody?) while also chipping in with a sense of humour ("Is there an off switch to your mouth."). While Joel Goldsmith's music score scorches along. Performances are spot on. Lundgren is a hard-shell, Kristian Alfonso looks comfortable and George Segal shows ticker as the corrupt officer who's on the trail. There's also good support by Beau Starr and Geoffrey Lewis. Black and white action yarn, but effective nonetheless especially when it's romancing us on its violently meaty encounters.

Oh Dolph....what the hell was that? This movie is about a truck driver who is sentenced to 30 years in prison for shooting a police officer in a raid of the truck, but there's something about him we don't know......OK enough of the BS, Dolph plays a man framed for a crime he didn't commit and losing a friend in the process (Ken Foree of Dawn of the Dead fame). After escaping from prison he kidnaps a woman to use as a hostage, what he doesn't know is the woman is actually a rugged cop who's basically your Steven Seagal "beat up the bad guys by any means nessicary" type. The thing is, Dolph was framed by 2 crooked cops that blew away the officer Dolph was framed for killing and Ken Foree so Ivan Drago spends the whole movie lugging around Rita and plotting revenge on the crooked cops. The reason this movie is stupid is because 1. If Sgt Scott was framed, why didn't he say something in court, after all forensics can match up the bullets fired with the guns of the crooked cops 2. She's supposed to be a cop, you would think she would have tried to escape more often than she did. I could go on and on but there are just too many holes for me to deduce logic. Here's something else, one scene Ivan Drago is up against 25 or so Chinese mobsters and takes out all of them...singlehandedly of course. The thing is every time he shot a gun he'd hit whoever he was shooting, 5 minutes later the cops surround the area and suddenly when Dolph shoots at them he can't hit anyone. Where'd his perfect aim go? Another funny thing is after Sgt Scott gets shot in the leg, he gets involved in a hell of a fist fight and starts doing karate kicks with the bad leg, landing on it like nothing was wrong with it. The coup di grace...make it coup Disgrace is the ending where Geoffrey Ross discovers the crooked cops are the real murderers and has them AND Dolph arrested as the credits roll. We are left not knowing what happens to the cops, what happens to Dolph, the female officer...nothing. Sorry Dolph, this was not Universal Soldier. 4 out of 10

Dolph Lundgren stars as a wrongfully accused stock car driver who escapes from prison (During a botched attempt on his life) and disappears into the desert to exact vengeance on the crooked cop (George Segal) who set him up while taking a police woman (Kristian Alfonso) hostage many fight sequences and high energy shoot-outs occur. Army Of One is the type of action flick one would expect an 80's Schwarzenegger would've starred in, not the B-grade Dolph Lundgren. Still this action flick moves with such force and delivers so much action, Army Of One works as one of Lundgren's best straight ahead actioners. With this and Men Of War, one wonders why Lundgren didn't obtain a bigger following in theaters. Both of these titles offer far more than their generic titles would indicate and their overall punch in the action sequences easily showed up Steven Seagal in On Deadly Ground. In fact with Lundgren putting out credible action movie output, one is ultimately disappointed that such a movie could probably not be duplicated by Dolph Lundgren today. This is an extremely intense movie that needs a widescreen transfer on DVD to really get the action fan to appreciate the fun Army Of One offers. Only real flaw is some flabby padding but aside from this, this is as good (Entertaining) as Lundgren flicks get. * * * out of 4-(Good)