This made in the late 80's action movie seems to be a lower budget clone of the Rambo movies. It is certainly a product of it's time , because you can smell the anti-Soviet propaganda without even watching the movie. Hollywood made quite a few movies about the evil Russians that were actually entertaining ("Rambo 2","Rambo 3" , "Rocky 4" ) and few that were painfully bad ("Red dawn" , "Invasion USA" ). This movie unfortunately belongs to the second category.
Let's start with the good things. The movie is set in Africa , which is actually an original background for action movie. Are they any other action movies set in Africa ? I don't know - only "Shaft in Africa" comes to my mind. This brings a touch of freshness to the movie.
"Red scorpion" also learns us that communism is evil (true) , war is bad (true) and sends a few messages - think for yourself, don't follow blindly the orders , truth might be manipulated and appearances might be deceiving . It's nothing spectacular , but at least it provides some depth to the whole movie.
The relationship between the main hero and the african bushman is silly , cute , funny and even touching at times. Probably the best part of the movie.
The problem with "Red scorpion" is the fact that for an action movie this is rather mundane & boring film. Im' all in for action movie that treats itself seriously , but it was poorly done. A lot of the running time is devoted to Lundgren wondering around as he develops a conscience. The Russians plan doesn't make any sense , just like their further decisions.
The action scenes are done badly. There is a car chase in style of "Raiders of the lost ark" that is ruined by annoying and inappropriate song by Little Richard. It was supposed to be funny - it wasn't. There is a really big shootout in the end , but it isn't exciting. All the bad guy's have terrible aim and can't shoot straight. There is very little blood and violence here. Hand to hand combat or fighting ? Forget it.
This bad movie was directed by Joseph Zito , an expert of making bad propaganda action movies ("Missing in action", "Invasion USA" - both with Chuck Norris).
Dolph Lundgren who plays the main hero Nikolai Rachenko (funny fact - after his breakthrough role of Ivan Drago in "Rocky 4" here he gets to play another Russian) is passable. M. Emmet Walsh (" Blade runner ") plays an American photographer and is terribly annoying and unfunny. Brion James (" Tango and Cash ") makes an appearance , but sadly disappears at the end of the movie without any explanation ! What a waste. Everybody else give poor performances.
I don't really recommend this movie. Not even for the action junkies . I rather recommend watching one of the Rambo movies. Still it's a little bit better than most of Lundgren movies. There was a sequel in the 90's , but it had very loose connection to this movie. I give it 4/10.
Let's start with the good things. The movie is set in Africa , which is actually an original background for action movie. Are they any other action movies set in Africa ? I don't know - only "Shaft in Africa" comes to my mind. This brings a touch of freshness to the movie.
"Red scorpion" also learns us that communism is evil (true) , war is bad (true) and sends a few messages - think for yourself, don't follow blindly the orders , truth might be manipulated and appearances might be deceiving . It's nothing spectacular , but at least it provides some depth to the whole movie.
The relationship between the main hero and the african bushman is silly , cute , funny and even touching at times. Probably the best part of the movie.
The problem with "Red scorpion" is the fact that for an action movie this is rather mundane & boring film. Im' all in for action movie that treats itself seriously , but it was poorly done. A lot of the running time is devoted to Lundgren wondering around as he develops a conscience. The Russians plan doesn't make any sense , just like their further decisions.
The action scenes are done badly. There is a car chase in style of "Raiders of the lost ark" that is ruined by annoying and inappropriate song by Little Richard. It was supposed to be funny - it wasn't. There is a really big shootout in the end , but it isn't exciting. All the bad guy's have terrible aim and can't shoot straight. There is very little blood and violence here. Hand to hand combat or fighting ? Forget it.
This bad movie was directed by Joseph Zito , an expert of making bad propaganda action movies ("Missing in action", "Invasion USA" - both with Chuck Norris).
Dolph Lundgren who plays the main hero Nikolai Rachenko (funny fact - after his breakthrough role of Ivan Drago in "Rocky 4" here he gets to play another Russian) is passable. M. Emmet Walsh (" Blade runner ") plays an American photographer and is terribly annoying and unfunny. Brion James (" Tango and Cash ") makes an appearance , but sadly disappears at the end of the movie without any explanation ! What a waste. Everybody else give poor performances.
I don't really recommend this movie. Not even for the action junkies . I rather recommend watching one of the Rambo movies. Still it's a little bit better than most of Lundgren movies. There was a sequel in the 90's , but it had very loose connection to this movie. I give it 4/10.