Wanted Man, 2024.
Directed by Dolph Lundgren.
Starring Dolph Lundgren, Kelsey Grammer, Michael Paré, Roger Cross, Michael Worth, Bourke Floyd, Aaron McPherson, James Joseph Pulido, Julian Cavett, Xzavier Estrada, Sherrie Prose, Christopher A. Brooks Sr., Tony Messenger, Ben Steele, and Daniela Soto Vell.
SYNOPSIS:
Follows a police officer who must retrieve an eyewitness and escort her after a cartel shooting leaves several DEA agents dead, but then he must decide who to trust when they discover that the attack was executed by American forces.
Having been a reliable veteran action screen presence for decades now, no one should be coming to co-writer/director Dolph Lundgren’s Wanted Man (apparently a project he had been developing since roughly 2006) for the storytelling. In that sense, it’s a bit forgivable that the narrative is clichéd slop about a racist detective coming to appreciate Mexican culture and looking at the border debate from a new perspective.
The real sin here is that Dolph Lundgren, a staple of this genre, has put together a film that is also lifeless and generic regarding the action. Again, for a film he had been working on and tweaking for nearly two decades now, Wanted Man probably would have been better off left for dead in development hell.
Working on the screenplay with Hank Hugues and Michael Worth, Wanted Man concerns disgraced police officer Travis Johansen (Dolph Lundgren, also starring in the movie), who is grumpy about cancer culture and body cameras as he was caught physically assaulting a migrant worker. He regularly hits up a local bar with his retired buddies Brynner (Kelsey Grammer) and Tinelli (Michael Paré), complaining about the modern world to such an eye-rolling, ham-fisted degree that it feels like watching guest appearances on Tucker Carlson.
Johansen has also been given a chance to potentially redeem himself and will be sent on a somewhat secret mission to Mexico to retrieve two prostitute witnesses to an incident that left undercover DEA agents and Mexican cartel drug runners dead, all murdered by an unknown third party, and bring them back to America to gather information.
During the initial rescue, one of the women is killed in the crossfire leaving him to protect Christina Villa’s Rosa Barranco, who conveniently has a brother in law enforcement and a cousin with a secluded home for temporary hiding. Naturally, Johansen learns that perhaps American law enforcement can also be corrupt (that’s the level of simplistic, outdated lessons the protagonist learns.) You have to hand it to Dolph Lundgren; it really does feel like a film from 2006.
There’s a brief moment where some of this shows a pulse, namely a shootout with shotguns where Dolph Lundgren seems to be trying to have fun as a director and actor, with bodies knocked back through the air and into wooden fences like the bullets piercing their bodies are speeding vehicles. Other than that, the gunplay and hand-to-hand combat are heavily uninspired, coasting off of excessive gore to unsuccessfully hide that none of this is really all that intense and engaging. This movie is more concerned with showing Lundgren’s law enforcement character learning about Mexican cuisine, that both countries’ law enforcement each has its ups and downs, and the oh-so-groundbreaking realization that Mexicans are people, too.
Somehow, all of this becomes more cringe in an epilogue where Officer Johansen is flirting with Rosa. However, it’s not worth singling out that scene for being loaded with awkward lines and delivery because, really, the entire script for Wanted Man is stilted and forced. Dolph Lundgren unquestionably means well, but this story should have stayed in 2006, especially considering there is nowhere near enough solid action to justify the film’s existence.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
