Such a frustrating disappointment

How sad is this?

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Spetnaz (Special Ops) veteran Nick Cherenko leaves Russia after his son and wife are killed in a gunfight by drug lord Aleksandr 'Sasha' Popov's mob men. He's threatened with exposure as illegal car mechanic in L.A. by a fellow ex-pat tycoon who offers him $500,000 to liberate her kidnapped daughter. He only takes the job when told the capturers are Sasha's goons again. The mission's long path to find the girl and escape over the Finnish border, where his team is to be paid, is littered with blood and corpses. Unlike the crappy movies that Steven Seagal stars this days or even the days of post 2000 this is another great Lundgren movie and pretty dark if you ask me and the final act of the film was pretty strong it's a great fun for a straight to DVD sequel and for the type of low budget action movie they actually did a pretty cool job.

Nikolai Cherenko's family is killed in a gunfight by a drug-lord, "Sasha Popov" He stays away for a while and starts working as a mechanic. When he is offered a bunch of money to rescue somebody's daughter, Nikolai jumps at the chance when he learns Sasha is involved. This is another STV dud from Lundgren. The storyline is actually interesting, but it's executed poorly and I was pretty bored for a lot of the duration. There is action, but not nearly enough of it. It's dreary and cheap looking as well. Dolph actually plays a pretty badass character. He excels at anti-heroes, but will somebody please give him a decent script? I only recommend this to die-hard Dolph fans3.5/10

This to me is one of the better Dolph films to come out of the 2000's. I appreciate the simplicity of it but what makes it stand above the rest id the quality in the acting. Dolph is very good as Niko the mechanic. Ben Cross as well as the other guys are very good. The climax in the film makes it for me. The fact that Dolph directed this makes me wonder why doesn't he direct all the films he stars in. The Defender was good too but I like this one better. This is not your typical wall to wall action film, but the action scenes here as well as the shootouts are very good. Nothing new with the story, but it's crafted in a way that looks as if it was new.

I had read some encouraging reviews but still watched this with some trepidation (you can't always tell if some reviewers have seen more than one film!). After just watching a depressing B&W French movie called '13' I was in the mood for a good old action fest. I am happy to report that Dolph didn't disappoint. I found the plot to be fairly well structured, not perfect, but it has engaging characters and the straight forward revenge plot suited the mood I was in.After the fight scenes and chases the action ends with a shootout reminiscent of the "OK Coral". This encounter is set up quite well and the final gunshot is very creative whilst giving some satisfactory closure to the viewer. The scene is very effectively shot, rather like the bad guy actually! I understand that the film is released as either "The Russian Specialist" or "The Mechanik". Incidentally the term Mechanic used to be a slang reference for a hit man; although you don't hear it much now.Make no mistake, this movie isn't Oscar worthy but I do appreciate it for what it is. I found this a better viewing experience than other DTV fodder being put out by faded 80's action stars. I look forward to his next project and in the mean time I will re visit some of his earlier work such as Man of War and Red Scorpion.