A two times winner of the European Karate championship, Dolph Lundgren’s impressive physical statue together with his charismatic face were perfect prerequisites for the Swedish behemoth to play only the toughest of action heroes.
His role as Soviet boxing berserker Ivan Drago in Rocky IV was a spectacular debut, and the starting point for a long and successful career that brought us many great genre classics. By now, he’s recognized as one of the great action legends, and in this list we present you the ten most kick-ass flicks he made so far in his long and successful career.
9) BRIDGE OF DRAGONS (1999)
For many people who have only a passing interest in action movies, many of them appear cheesy and ridiculous. But even as true fans sometimes in our heart we know that a movie is only good because it’s bad. We can still love them wholeheartedly, and Bridge of Dragons is one of those movies for me. In a far away land, the ruthless general Ruechang kills the king, and intends to crown himself by marrying the late king’s daughter Halo. Halo manages to flee, and Ruechang sends his best warrior Warchild to capture her. Bridge of Dragons made the interesting attempt to cross a medieval fairly tale with a modern action movie. It could be considered a failure with its tons of mindless action, stiff acting, and dialogues that sound like they were literally taken from a children’s night-time reading book. But somehow out of this mess emerges a film that is really entertaining.9
8) THE EXPENDABLES 2 (2012)
The first Expendables movie saw Lundgren return to the big screen after a long time, and turned out to be a fun medley of old-school action. His role as friendly lunatic Gunner was fairly small, the same goes for the third installment. The second Expendables gave him a lot more room, and albeit still in a supporting role, he gets to take part in some memorable scenes. This time the Expendables are out to get arms dealer Jean Vilain and his five tons of stolen plutonium. The formula is the same as in the first part, ironic humor and old-school action are still a perfect mix. There’s more fun cameos by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger, and in addition to Jean-Claude Van Damme in his first villain role ever, we are treated with one of the rare recent appearances by maestro Chuck Norris himself. Another great aspect is that Lundgren gets some opportunities to poke fun at himself.
7) THE PUNISHER (1989)
The first adaptation of the Marvel comic book series is a really nice piece of 1980s action fare. It’s certainly on par with the two other Punisher movies that followed in the 2000s. Frank Castle is The Punisher, an ex-cop whose family was murdered by the mafia. Since then, he’s been living underground (literally), and killing dozens of mafia members. The Yakuza take the opportunity to fill the power vacuum created by Castle, and he finds himself in the middle of a bloody turf war. The Punisher was the first R-rated Marvel movie, and started a tradition that almost all of them (most notably the Blade and Deadpool series) were better than everything else emerging from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Lundgren portrays a grim character with a tragic background that find himself regularly at the center of all sorts of mayhem, such as a throwing grenades at an endless stream of ninjas coming down slides in an arcade hall. The Punisher scores high as a kick-ass action movie with with Lundgren in top form.RELATED:
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6) THE RUSSIAN SPECIALIST (2005)
In the 2000s, Lundgren started to direct some of his movies, and The Russian Specialist (aka The Mechanik) is his best work as a director by a good margin. It’s another low-budget actioner, but one that turns out to be a gripping and intense affair. Ex-Spetznaz operative Nikolai lives a secluded life in the US. He is asked to free a millionaire’s daughter from the captivity of Russian mafia boss Sasha, who killed Nikolai’s wife many years ago. Nikolai returns to Russia to carry out his mission and get his revenge. A personal tragedy intertwined with a human trafficking story sets a dark tone for the movie, and the film lives off its dense and depressive atmosphere to large extent. All characters are fairly fatalistic, and there is rarely an uplifting scene. The action sequences fit right in, they’re brutal and raw, and culminate in a spectacular 40-minute finale with the vibe of a classic Western showdown.
5) SKIN TRADE (2014)
Tony Jaa and Dolph Lundgren team up in Skin Trade to crush a human trafficking ring run by the Serbian mafia in Thailand. This topic is not the best premise for a “fun” action movie, and Skin Trade is indeed pervaded by a grim atmosphere throughout with some fairly brutal violence and disturbing scenes. The story moves at a frantic pace with tons of great fight scenes for both Jaa and Lundgren. Lundgren shows that he’s still got it, and delivers another intense portrayal of a tragic character. Not unexpectedly, though, Jaa steals the show from him in the action scenes. His martial arts prowess is one of the best to ever be seen on screen, and even though in Skin Trade his stunts and fights do not have the insanity of movies like Ong Bak, it’s all still very impressive. Skin Trade is a rare gem of modern action cinema, an uncompromising action thriller that has everything any action fan could ever wish for.
4) RED SCORPION (1988)
Lundgren’s second movie in a lead role put him yet again in the role of a Soviet character, just like in Rocky IV. Spetznaz operative Nikolai is sent to an African country to assassinate a local rebel leader. Arriving there, he witnesses the atrocities committed by the Soviet military and their Cuban allies. He discovers his conscience, switches sides, and the show is on! Red Scorpion gets a slightly unusual vibe thanks to many moments that have an almost meditative atmosphere for an action movie. There is a particularly kitschy interlude where Nikolai gets rescued from dying in the desert by a tribe of indigenous people, and is imbued afterwards with the mystical powers of the red scorpion. The film still features plenty of violent escapades with shootouts and explosions filmed against the beautiful backdrop of the Namibian desert. Especially for the showdown the pyrotechnics department went completely nuts, and must have booked a fair amount of over-hours.
3) SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO (1991)
Two wise-ass LA cops that also happen to be martial arts masters go after a Yakuza gang. On the side they indulge in a friendly macho competition with testosterone levels amped to the absolute maximum. With Showdown in Little Tokyo, we got the unstoppable combination of Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee as cop buddies. The film may be Lundgren’s most upbeat performance in an action movie, with him and Lee cracking corny jokes all the time. The movie was another upward step in Brandon Lee’s career, which ended tragically with a deadly accident while filming The Crow only a few years later. Lee certainly had the looks, charisma and fighting skills needed to become more popular. Just like with his other classic Commando, director Mark L. Lester is only interested in campy action and nothing else, and gives both Lee and Lundgren plenty of opportunity to show off their martial arts skills.
2) ROCKY IV (1985)
Rocky IV is a spectacular sports drama with a jaw-dropping intensity. It’s epic, schmaltzy, and political, but that is what makes it so unique, it’s uncompromising in every respect. A great cinematography and soundtrack do the rest to create the ultimate sports action movie. The Soviet boxer Ivan Drago visits the US to showcase his superior skills, and Rocky and Apollo Creed accept his challenge. Rocky’s fight against Drago becomes extremely personal, and culminates in a fina; confrontation between the two on Russian territory. Rocky and Drago fight the proxy war between the US and the USSR in the most entertaining way one can imagine. Lundgren’s character Ivan Drago is a robot-like creature, unable to show even the slightest compassion. Dolph was not really an actor in his first role, but his impressive physical statue, threatening posture, and top-notch fighting skills opened up other doors in Hollywood for him.