The Peacekeeper (1997)

This routine adventure yarn stars Dolph Lundgren as an unlucky government agent, assigned to keeping the president's nuclear launch codes safe, who becomes embroiled in a mad soldier's plot to bring revenge to the country which left him for dead in Iraq. Essentially though, it's simply another rehash of DIE HARD, with lots of actionless filler thrown in to pad out the running time and a smattering of good bits to keep you watching. This isn't the best, most original film you'll see but it does pass the time if you're stuck.Things start off on a different tack as Lundgren battles the thieves who have stolen his codes. The first thing to really catch your eye is a jaw-dropping roof-top car chase, which has Lundgren's battered vehicle (more bullet holes in it than bodywork) jumping from building to building with the bad guys in hot pursuit. It all ends in as a big explosion as you can possibly imagine. From then on Lundgren integrates himself into their team (cunningly wearing a balaclava) and it becomes DIE HARD 4.The difference here being that hard-man Lundgren is teamed up with the unlikely Montel Williams, better known as a daytime chat show host. Williams isn't bad in his underwritten sidekick role, but his character is only incidental in the proceedings. It's amusing to watch him play a nice guy though. Lundgren is his usual thuggish self, no worse than Van Damme or Seagal here, and displaying his might in a number of low-budget yet watchable action scenes. Michael Sarrazin is the crazed bad guy with a blind eye, and I thought his war victim was quite pathetic. Roy Scheider puts in his familiar role as the US president (something he's becoming quite adept at) and lends some solid support.The low budget is apparent with the inclusion of a number of cheesy computer-animated scenes showing the missile flying through space and the earth's atmosphere. These aren't that poor but definitely don't pass for real. There are a couple of gun and fist-fights thrown in to keep things moving along, and my favourite scene has Lundgren dispatch a bad guy in his way via an axe to the stomach. The ending, where Williams and Lundgren race against time to stop the countdown while the power keeps cutting out, is surprisingly suspenseful and had me on the edge of my seat - although when you think about it the outcome is obvious. All in all this isn't a bad DIE HARD clone, and I fairly enjoyed it despite the many shortcomings.

There is one action scene in this movie that almost makes it worth watching. There's a car chase that eventually ends up with cars jumping from roof to roof. It's quite fun action sequence and the best thing about this movie. Maybe it was an inspiration for the Tumbler chase in "Batman begins" ? Still , Christopher Nolan did it better.There are two big problems with this movie. One is the terribly flat direction . There is no excitement or suspense here (the car chase is an exception). The second one is the weak script. The storyline is not very believable. Some dumb moments were mentioned by reviewer pgspat. Seriously the fate of villain in this movie makes no sense .There are some nice concepts here like the ethics of having a nuclear missiles for self defense or the tragic fate of soldiers , but they aren't explored. Too bad. The movie tries to be a political thriller , but fails miserably.What is Roy Scheider ("Jaws") doing here ? I guess he REALLY needed money… He and Montel Williams are OK in this movie . The whole movie in terms of acting quality is better than typical B class movie. Sadly the movie doesn't have an interesting villain.The film has a slightly cheap look about it which is strange considering the quite high budget (10 mln).Sadly a wasted opportunity for fun movie , because of awful direction and bad script. I give "Peacekeeper" 1/10.

Air Force Major Frank Cross (Lundgren) is a man who plays by his own rules. He went off on his own to deliver rice to the starving Kurdish people. The brass gives him a choice: a court martial, or carry a suitcase with the nuclear codes in it and have the President, Robert Baker (Roy Scheider) be seen with him in a photo-op. Cross chooses the latter, but some baddies, led by Douglas Murphy (Sarrazin) steal the suitcase. It seems Murphy and president Baker have a history, and Murphy is a disgruntled vet of the first gulf war with a real hatred for Mount Rushmore. So, being the loyal soldier that he is, Cross chases the evil suitcase-stealers all over town, dodging countless perils along the way. At some point during his dangerous mission, he meets Lt. Colonel Northrop (Williams). Can the two work together in a race against time before the bad guys blow up the President...and the world? It seems this Nu-Image production was a very earnest attempt at a less-silly Direct-To-Video product. It appears every attempt was made to make The Peacekeeper "Theater-Quality", even if the filmmakers knew full well that that wasn't gonna happen. I guess they, realistically, weren't going to give that same year's The Peacemaker - the George Clooney vehicle - a run for the box office bucks. But it matters not, as Lundgren's dry, cool charm is in abundance. Even though a stab at seriousness was certainly made, perhaps the only misstep they made was hiring - of all people - Montel Williams in a rare feature film role. What, were Ricki Lake, Phil Donahue and Jenny Jones busy? Of course, it's not the first time Dolph Lundgren has starred with a daytime talk show host in a film - everyone remembers The Defender, right? In that one, Jerry Springer is the President. Not Roy Scheider. And of course, there's Citizen Verdict. So there you go. And while you would think Lundgren and Montel would be the ultimate team-up that would zoom you right through any movie, The Peacekeeper is overlong at 98 minutes, is talky at times and has plenty of padding. For example, the plot is, in a nutshell: "Terrorists steal the nuclear suitcase. Dolph wants it back". That's it. Is there any conceivable reason that it should have a running time longer than 80 minutes? And those minutes should have more rock, less talk. The Peacekeeper is at its best in its action scenes, not dialogue. It should have stuck more to what it was best at. For instance, there is a building rooftop chase - the kind normally done on foot - but here it's done with cars! We liked that innovation and there is where the film shines.Yes, The Peacekeeper could have afforded to be a little snappier, but it does end with a freeze frame, highlighting the charm and camaraderie of Dolph Lundgren and Montel Williams. No, that sentence isn't insane, you just have to watch the movie. Or at least the action scenes.For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

I'm a big fan of B movies, just interests me what the producers can pull off with limited budget and what kind of stock footage they steal, or the obvious video game cgi thats overlaced into the video.This movie however has something that other B movies lack. A fairly descent and slightly more believable plot then the recent James Bond movies. Lundgren somewhat performs much better than his other features. It's fun to see Montel in this type of role. Keep an eye out on the dramatic Bruckheimer-like ending sequence, they pulled it off quite well.Other than that, its definitely worth a watch if you're a fan of action movies, B movies, or Lundgren.