Direct Contact

Finding something positive here is about as difficult as spotting a louse with the naked eye in General Drago's fancy fur coat! Maybe the fact that something is always happening, but you'll need to overlook how it’s happening. Lundgren resembles a drunken polar bear with facial paralysis, carrying grenades in his pockets like they're glucose tablets. The sped-up car chases only lack a fleeing squad of Keystone Cops with batons, the gunfights between characters who don't bother to take cover reach almost Western-like proportions (that double shootout in the football stadium was particularly rich), there’s a brief appearance of a noteworthy Volga pick-up (!), and it all culminates with the villainous agent Michael Paré, who can’t hold it together and literally bursts into laughter. My first Direct Contact with Danny Lerner has to be the last, because I simply can’t handle this. Not even if he came up with something ridiculous, like a shark in Venice. (05/08/2022)