With the 2024 presidential election abuzz, nationwide issues like the border crisis remain hot topics. A new feature film directed by and starring Dolph Lundgren, alongside Kelsey Grammer fresh off his Frasier reboot, takes us to said border for an action thriller that sees a certain MAGA-type detective turning a new leaf as he embraces Mexican culture for the sake of public safety. Wanted Man is straightforward, formulaic stuff that we’ve seen before, a sort of combination of all the racially charged cop films you’ve ever seen. But it’s entertaining enough seeing Ivan Drago himself finally lean into his old age while trying to save the day.
Make America Learn — Again
Meet Johansen (Lundgren), an aging detective who is on his way out — not in life, but with his job. He’s plagued by outdated policing methods that might just make you cringe in the first act. Watch as he rambles in a strip club with his police pals about how Mexicans keep coming to America with nothing but problems. Yes, cringe indeed.
Thanks to the MAGA-esque mindset, Johansen has already created a public relations problem for his department by the time we meet him. To save face, they send him down to Mexico to save the day — against his wishes, of course — and track down a sex worker named Rosa (Christina Villa), who also happens to be the witness of two DEA agents getting murdered in a sort of drug deal gone wrong. This death sequence serves as the film’s opening, perhaps reminding us Soderbergh fans of that early scene in his Oscar-winning film Traffic, when the agents played by Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán pose as dealers in a secretive plot to take down the drug lords. That scenario in Traffic ended well for them; the one in Wanted Man, however, not so much…
Leading up to the Mexico mission, we see a couple of familiar faces back in the States. Anyone who watched the hit series 24 on Fox back in the day will remember fan-favorite Curtis, played by the agreeable Roger Cross. In Wanted Man, Cross is sporting a beard but playing Johansen’s colleague with the same sort of subtle intensity that we grew to love earlier this century on the small screen. Cross’ screen time is limited, however, and the plot keeps moving.
“I’ll take a couple of tequila shots for you,” says Johansen to his boys’ club colleagues as he parts ways with them and heads to the border. Fortunately, the seemingly predictable movie is soon saved by the talents of Mexican actors playing the locals who will help out Johansen when he arrives. That includes Officer De La Cruz, played with upbeat pizzazz by James Joseph Pulido. His loosey-goosey banter opposite the stoic Lundgren while driving around Mexico marks one of the film’s highlights, and it’s too bad Pulido isn’t in the film for longer…
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Not Many Surprises In Store
Luckily, De La Cruz leads Johansen to the next shining star in Wanted Man — Rosa, played to fierce, arresting perfection by the drop-dead Christina Villa. Based on her filmography, she is relatively new to the Hollywood scene but perhaps has a bright Tinseltown future ahead of her. A deadly raid and shootout ensue while Johansen escorts Rosa towards U.S. soil by vehicle, leaving him temporarily useless as he then spends time recovering from a bullet wound inside Rosa’s family home.
Seeing Dolph intertwine with Rosa’s relatives is emotionally sweet stuff, but it all feels very contained, with the film’s unfortunate micro-budget quite noticeable across the board. Of course, we know that the villains will swoop in at any moment, and you don’t have to be a film buff to guess who is ultimately behind all the evil antics threatening Johansen and his witness. Star power like Kelsey Grammer — who also happened to star in an Expendables film alongside Lundgren years ago — perhaps isn’t enough to keep our attention, although it is a nice change of pace seeing him break bad in this more serious project. The fundamental storytelling here all feels very generic, but Lundgren does deserve a tip of the hat since he’s wearing so many hats of his own: star, director, co-writer, producer. Go, Dolph, go!
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Honestly, an entire film about a conservative Swedish-American stuck with and learning the ways of Mexican culture might have been a far superior end result of a feature. But since we’re bombarded with the seemingly repetitive shootouts and “crooked cop” bantering, you’ll most likely find yourself scrolling on your phone during the bullets stuff, and then looking up once Rosa returns to the scene to scold and remind Johansen not to trust his janky peers. Serpico would have a field day here.
They say that “half of acting is reacting,” and you might even find yourself chuckling at Rosa’s deadpan “are you serious” facial responses whenever the oblivious Johansen keeps reiterating that his police pals are their ticket to safety. It’s like seeing Warwick Davis’ wide-eyed looks during that iconic scene from HBO’s Life’s Too Short, where Liam Neeson (playing himself) marches into Ricky Gervais’ office and says he wants to get into comedy.
From Quiver Distribution, Wanted Man is now in theaters, on-demand, and digital.
Release Date February 1, 2024
Runtime 1hr 25min
Pros
- Dolph Lundgren is great, giving a surprisingly realistic and nuanced performance.
- The concept is fun even if it’s not capitalized on.
- James Joseph Pulido is a small, upbeat highlight among the cast.
Cons
- The film’s tiny budget is sadly obvious, as it looks cheap.
- The plot is predictable and the action is repetitive.
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