Mike Riggins (Dolph) is rotting away in a Balkans prison for supposedly smuggling weapons. Thankfully he can defend himself against his jailhouse assailants. When Clive Connelly (Pare),a government bigshot, comes to Mike and offers him a total of 200,000 dollars if he can find the kidnapped Ana Gale (May) and bring her back home, Mike agrees. But as it turns out, all is not as it seems, and thanks to some twists and turns, we see there is a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top. Will Mike and Ana make it to safety?

In one of the better Nu-Image movies we've seen of late, Direct Contact delivers the Dolph you want. Sure, as we've discussed before, he elevates all movies he's in. His presence means a lot, but here it's just enjoyable to watch him beat, shoot, pistol-whip and blow up everybody in sight. Even the squibs are entertaining, as baddies die unnecessarily bloody deaths, sometimes to humorous effect. However, it's not all good news, as some lame green screen and CGI effects hurt the movie. These things are just annoyances, nothing more, and it's puzzling why some filmmakers believe they are important to the movie. There's even some ridiculous sped-up chase footage where it seems like the "Yakety Sax" should be playing on the soundtrack. Somehow, the doofuses at Nu-Image don't seem to realize this is DOLPH LUNDGREN, not Benny Hill. But we suppose it's forgivable, because Direct Contact is an entertaining, if not that original, production where Dolph meets another titan of the genre: Michael Pare.

Pare puts in a good performance and it's cool to see this "clash of the titans" as he faces off with Dolph. He doesn't seem to phone in his role, and that's certainly a good thing. Also it should be noted that there is a baddie in the movie named Drago (Rahal). He's such an ethnic stereotype, he gives Balki of Perfect Strangers fame a bad name. Perhaps they couldn't get Bronson Pinchot. That aside, in a "meta" move, it's Drago vs. Drago! Was this done on purpose, or are there no more generic Eastern-European names left to use? (To answer our own question, judging by the end credits of most DTV productions nowadays, which read like the Bulgarian phone book, no.) Also, even though it has been mentioned before, we can't not bring up the scene where a character actually says, "What if he goes AOL?" How this passed the director, the actor himself, the editing process, and any step in between without any notice and ended up in the final film is anybody's guess. But to answer the man's question, he'll get mail, news, messenger, and plenty of extras for only $9.99 a month. Someone find Mike Riggins!

So aside from the aforementioned technical hiccups, Direct Contact (not to be confused with Direct Action, 2004),provides a solid night of Dolph fun.

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Dolph Lundgren walks through an okay action film about a US Special Forces agent taken out of a Russian prison to rescue a kidnapped girl, who really isn't kidnapped.(Don't think about it, it makes no sense what so ever) His rescue stirs up a hornet's nest of danger - such is the majority of the movie. Good by the numbers movie that somehow works despite the fact that everyone is clearly moving by the numbers. You can see the disinterest on the faces of many of the actors, but you still are engaged with what's happening. Is it a great film. No. Honestly its probably not even a good one, but it is the sort of film that you'll put on, or better catch on one of the minor cable stations at 3AM and enjoy in a completely mindless sort of a way. Yea, I know that's not a ringing endorsement but sometimes you want to get away from high art and just veg as mindlessly as possible. For those times this fits the bill.

****SPOILERS*** Whatever you expected from a Dolph Lundgren action film, he doesn't make any others, you get here in "Direct Contact" and a lot more. Especially the ending sequence where Dolph as ex-special forces man Lucky Mike Riggens sends the films villain Clive Connelly, Michael Pare, to his final resting place in what looked like a million pieces! Recruited by Connelly, who looked so sleazy that you knew right away that he was up to no good, who claimed to work for the US Government out of a Balkan prison serving time for gun running. Mike is promised $200,000.00, about a third for what he's pied to star in the movie, to get American Ana Gale, Gina May, out of a unnamed, because no one can pronounce or spell it, ex-USSR country on the Black Sea coast. As Mike soon finds out Anne is there on her own free will working for the US Government, which Connelly is not, helping to provide for and medical aid the sick poor as well as undernourished people in the country.

As we so find out it's Ana's evil Uncle Trent, James Chaike, who's behind all this who want's Connelly to get Ana, after he kidnaps her, to sign away her majority ownership rights to her deceased father's multi billion dollar arms and munition corporation and give it over it him. It takes a while for Dolph or better yet Lucky Mike to realize that, he's too busy trying to figure out a way to bed down Ana, to notice that! But by the time Mike gets the message to what Connally has in store for both him & Ana he hits the panic or speed button and let it all out. In a number of car chases bar fights and explosions that makes us watching forget just what a really bad and ridicules, but not at all boring, movie "Direct Contact" really is.

Despite almost pushing 60, he was 52 when he made the movie, Lundrgen looks in tip top shape as well as being believable in the many action scenes that he's in. There's a scene in the film where Lundgren takes his shirt off, which I suspect all the women watching the movie were just dying to see, and he looked in far better shape then even Arnold Schwarzenegger looked at the same age or even ten years younger.