Direct Action (2004)

Excellent, smart action film.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

This movie was inspired by the Rampart scandal, which refers to widespread corruption in the CRASH (or Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums) anti-gang unit of the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department) Rampart Division in the late 1990s. It doesn't change the fact that this is another brainless action movie about corruption in police. The plot has been done countless times before with better results. The script is full of clichés and twists that you can see coming a mile away."Direct action" looks extremely cheap. There's no interesting locations. All you'll get is residential areas and some abandoned factories. Funny thing - The opening credits feature all the fight sequences and action stunts that you will later see again in the movie. Also at the beginning of the movie, a thug that Lundgren beats up can be seen wearing a Punisher t-shirt emblazoned with the famous skull design. Dolph Lundgren played the title role in "The Punisher".All in all it's a typical cheap direct-to-video-action movie. Better watch paint dry. I give it 1/10.

Dolph Lundgren is back with Direct Action. Dolph plays Frank Gannon a Veteran cop who is assigned a new partner played by Polly Shannon the Two now must fight a group of corrupt cops drug lords and other scum. Direct action is fun film that doesn't take itself to seriously. Other reviews say that the action is boring I thought the action was Cool and stylish with well staged shoot outs and cool fight scenes And good characters Dolph's character is a hard as nails chewing gum Loving cop who is incorruptible and Conrad Dunn is a good bad guy. To round up the review Direct action is a cool little action flick To watch on a boring rainy day 9 out of 10.

Well, it appears as if Dolph hasn't thrown in the acting towel yet. I suspect, much like other has-been action-heroes such as Seagal and Norris, that he is intending to carry on with these pale and low budget imitations of other, more successful movies, until he goes toes-up.Not that Direct Action is awful in the way that the last few Seagal films have been. It's pretty formulaic, but steady enough stuff. But just why do these people continue to make these sorts of films long after they have passed their prime? Why do they not accept that their time has gone and either go do something else, or if they must stay in film, at least try something more suitable? Who knows? Anyway, Direct Action is standard cop action fare. It is let down somewhat embarrassingly by the opening credits, which feature all the fight sequences and action stunts that you will later see again in the movie. I cannot explain why they thought this would be a good idea. Perhaps they thought that, by showing you the good bits first, it might encourage you to stay and sit through the whole film? Who can know. Anyway, what you see during the opening credits is what you get later on, so if you are on a tight schedule (or just plain can't stand to watch anymore) then you can leave at any time safe in the knowledge that you've seen all the fun parts.Inexplicably, the worst acting of the film probably has to go to the chick who played Dolph's cop partner's wife. After the inevitable death of her husband, she shows no signs of the loss in subsequent scenes, instead being uniformly cheerful. I could be kind and suggest that these scenes were filmed first and that she hadn't read the script properly, thus not knowing her husband was supposed to have just died, but that would probably be giving the script way too much credit.Anyway, the movie isn't great. Best to save it for a VERY rainy day when you don't have any paint to watch dry.

I watched this film on DVD. At the beginning it was a little bit boring, but later on the action started and as I think the story became interesting. You see bullets flying around but no car is damaged-O.K. this is bad, but what else can you expect from a low budget movie. At least I must say, that Dolph is making the best out of the fighting scenes. On the hole the picture was entertaining and fun to watch it!!!! I have watched many action B movies and I think direct action is one of the good ones. Sweden Dolph brings the best out of it and he doesn't look like he is now forty-nine. He kicks the younger ones .... The title "Direct Action" is good chosen-you will be surprised