{"id":10847,"date":"2025-01-28T15:18:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-28T20:18:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=10847"},"modified":"2025-01-28T15:18:46","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T20:18:46","slug":"red-scorpion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2025\/01\/28\/red-scorpion\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Scorpion"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Red Scorpion <\/strong>(1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joseph Zito\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Arne Olsen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jay Chattaway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joao Fernandes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 21, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dolph Lundgren, M. Emmett Walsh, Al White, T.P. McKenna, Carmen Argenziano, Alex Colon, Brion James, Ruben Nthodi, Regopstaan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $4.2M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let’s dispense with the obvious. Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV) can’t act, that’s all there is to it. The same could be said of other 80s action icons like Stallone, Norris and Schwarzenegger. They were great at what they did, but none of them were ever handed an Oscar for their efforts. However, their movies still made money so why not try it with Lundgren.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Action movies tend to be dopey. They don\u2019t come much dopier than Red Scorpion<\/strong> which stars Lundgren as Nikolai, a Soviet Special Forces soldier tasked with assassinating the leader (Nthodi, American Eagle) of a rebel movement against Soviet and Cuban forces in an unnamed African country.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In order to gain the trust of one of the leader\u2019s most trusted guys Kallunda (White, Airplane!), Nikolai helps him break out of prison along with American journalist Dewey Ferguson (Walsh, Missing in Action). Dewey is distrustful of Nikolai, but Kallunda believes he\u2019s on their side. Of course, he\u2019s proven wrong when Nikolai makes an attempt on the leader\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I guess it goes without saying that Nikolai experiences a change of attitude after his own people turn on him for failing in his mission. He escapes from the facility and flees into the desert where he\u2019s found by a bushman (Regopstaan) who teaches him a different way to live. Meanwhile, the bad guys continue their attacks on African villages, killing lots of innocent people. Realizing what he must do, Nikolai joins the fight against his former comrades.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Joseph Zito (Invasion U.S.A.), Red Scorpion <\/strong>is a standard action flick with plenty of violence and a lead actor who can barely put together a sentence. Lundgren looks like a tree trunk which is only fitting since his acting style is so wooden. He\u2019s not so much an actor as he is a blunt instrument of death and destruction. He lumbers around grunting monosyllabic dialogue while shooting, punching and kicking his way through whoever gets in his way. He blows stuff up too. That\u2019s what passes for acting in these movies. I\u2019m totally fine with it, especially when Communist baddies are on the receiving end.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Walsh makes out better as the foul-mouthed reporter determined to let the world know what\u2019s really happening in this African country under the oppressive thumb of the Soviets and Cubans. He\u2019s actually perfectly cast as a sweaty, slovenly guy who hates Russians, especially the one in his midst. He never has anything nice to say to Nikolai. Although it\u2019s always cool to see the late Brion James (Blade Runner) play a bad guy, I wish Zito gave him more to do than look mean and put a cigar out on a prisoner\u2019s chest. Carmen Argenziano (When a Stranger Calls) shows up as a Cuban colonel while Irish actor T.P. McKenna (Straw Dogs) plays a Russian general. They both camp it up nicely.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Red Scorpion<\/strong> falters occasionally- okay, frequently. Its politics are questionable. It seems to want to make a statement about the need for military intervention in Communist-controlled countries (it\u2019s the 80s, remember?). It definitely hates its antagonists. It depicts them as lying, ruthless, violent buffoons who don’t think twice about torturing one of their own when he fails them. In a scene likely to make most viewers turn their heads, a Cuban officer tortures Nikolai by sticking long needles through his muscles. It\u2019s like something out of a Mel Gibson actioner. In any event, anything even resembling a statement or message gets lost in all the violence and mayhem.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Aside from its Russian protagonist and absence of American jingoism, Red Scorpion<\/strong> is business as usual for the genre. It could be argued that it marks a shift in Hollywood\u2019s attitude towards the Russians, but it would be a weak argument as well as an unnecessary one. Why would anybody want to make a silly action movie like Red Scorpion <\/strong>sound more important than it actually is? It\u2019s just a B-movie made for action junkies looking for a fix. It has some cool action scenes, but it\u2019s still junk. It\u2019s badly written, directed and acted. It\u2019s badly made. It looks cheap. It has zero artistic value and even less intellectual value. It\u2019s as dumb as action flicks come. It\u2019s also a lot of fun if you can get past the violence against the African people. It\u2019s always gratifying to see oppressors get theirs.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although not an action classic in any way, shape or form, Red Scorpion<\/strong> does what it sets out to do more or less. It also puts Dolph in the company of up-and-coming genre greats like Seagal, JCVD and Bosworth (hey, I liked Stone Cold!). You have to give credit where credit is due, right?\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red Scorpion (1989)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Shapiro-Glickenhaus Entertainment\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence and language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joseph Zito\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Arne Olsen\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Jay Chattaway\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Joao Fernandes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: April 21, 1989 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dolph Lundgren, M. Emmett Walsh, Al White, T.P. McKenna, Carmen Argenziano, Alex Colon, Brion James, Ruben Nthodi, Regopstaan.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $4.2M (US) Rating: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/Red-Scorpion-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10847"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10897,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10847\/revisions\/10897"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}