User reviews

I expected nothing from this straight to DVD thriller , especially remembering how painful were Lundgren earlier thriller efforts "Cover up" and "Jill ripps". I was somewhat pleasantly surprised . I've got something. One should not mistake "Hidden agenda" with a great movie , but it's reasonably entertaining time waster for a B-movie.

The plot seems to be inspired by the movie "Eraser" , however unlike Schwarzenegger movie it focuses more on the story than action set pieces (maybe because of the low budget) . This is techno thriller with only some action scenes here and there. Average action junkie might be disappointed. The movie actually feels realistic , something like this could happen in real life and that's a big plus for me.

The plot is fairly intelligent. The movie does make sense but it's unfortunately a little bit hard to follow . The main plot twist was too obvious and at the end the story gets muddled. This is one of those films where you can't tell the bad people from the good, so everyone is suspect. It kinda feels like there are too many characters in this movie. At the end not everything feels resolved and not every character motivations are clear. Big minus for that.

Lundgren gives a fine performance. It must have been a treat for him to play smart and classy guy , not muscle man. He gives his character Jason Price enough charm and intelligence to make audience care for him. Maxim Roy is very hot as the femme fatale and gives a okay performance. The rest of the cast is not bad , but nothing to write home about.

Director Marc S. Grenier obviously works on limited budget , but somehow manages to give this movie a certain atmosphere (the snow keeps falling all the time , the shots of city traffic are sped up ). Sadly , he fails when it comes to action scenes. The opening chase at the airport is decent , but things go downhill from there. The action scenes are badly "Matrix" stylized and the camera work is too shaky. The final gun battle is also poorly staged. In the end the action is below average.

The music is pretty cool . It's a quite catchy electronic score . The few CGI effects look like taken from 90's movie. The dialogues are decent.

Anyway , for a B-movie it does what it promises - provides harmless entertainment for one night. Compared to some other Lundgren movies (especially the rest of his DTV stuff) "Hidden agenda" is a quality movie. It remains one of Lundgren's better movies in quite awhile. I give it 4/10. Maybe I'm too harsh , if you're a Lundgren fan , give it one star more.

I admit up front I'm not a fan of this genre. I have never seen a Jean Claude van Damme film, only saw a couple of the Rocky movies, I've seen one Schwarzenegger and one Stephen Segal. Though I knew who Dolph Lundgren was, I'd never seen him or one of his movies.

Tuning into what I thought was a different film called "Hidden Agenda," I got a look at all 6'5 of Dolph Lundgren, the high cheekbones etc., and thought I'd give this "Hidden Agenda" a try.

This film is apparently different from other Lundgren films according to other reviews, but I can't judge it on that basis.

In the story, Lundgren plays Jason Price, a former government agent. His job is to help people disappear. However, it appears that a hit man called The Cleaner has somehow infiltrated Price's group and is knocking off people the FBI wanted to protect. It's up to Price to find out who it is.

This is one of those films where you can't tell the bad people from the good, so everyone is suspect. There were lots of things blowing up, car chases, and fights, but I found it entertaining and involving.

I wasn't familiar with the other actors in the film except for Francis X. McCarthy, but they were all good. The only strange thing was the film had a "dubbed" sound to it, even though it wasn't dubbed. Perhaps they had to re-record the sound in a studio - don't know.

Anyway, not bad for my first Lundgren foray. He's quite good at what he does.

Dolph Lundgren stars as Jason Price a NSA agent who after losing a witness in his protection agency investigates the leak and finds out that there's more then what meets the eye in this mediocre thriller which is definitely a nice looking feature but the plot is just too hard to follow making this for Dolph Lundgren fans who will ignore the plot and just enjoy the action. Still it remains one of Lundgren's better movies in quite awhile.

It's almost become a given that as action stars age, their movies become exponentially worse, and dumber. Dolph has not been immune to this trend as evidenced by some of his most recent outings.

Which is why I was so pleasantly surprised by his latest (and last? if rumors are to be believed) film. HIDDEN AGENDA is by far Dolph's most intelligent, and probably best, movie to date. It is what MISSION IMPOSSIBLE I&II and ERASER aspired to, but failed to deliver.

The script is well-plotted and the writing crisp (I noticed it's the same writer, Les Welden, who wrote Van Damme's best recent-memory film, REPLICANT) with some nice one-liners delivered with tongue and cheek savoir-faire by Dolph. But it is the directing which stands out. Marc Grenier, whose other films I have not yet seen, delivered a terrific looking film on what was clearly a limited budget. He also got a nice performance out of Dolph who is usually constrained to one-sentence grunts and kicks. The action and suspense were plentiful as were the twists and turns.

Overall, a must-see for any Dolph fan, or any movie goer who likes intelligent, suspenseful films. It's a shame films like this one get relegated to direct-to-video status when so many other horrible movies find the big screen just because stars are in them. My $8 would've certainly been better spent on this than half the films I've seen this year.

****1/2 out of 5 stars.

Ex-agent(?) Price(Dolph in an atypical role, if he does still sport a gun... and automatic pistol) designed the Daedelus program to hide those who must not be found. He's asked by a criminal(?) named Elkert to help him out with it, and then his friend and colleague(?), Sonny goes under, as well. But something goes wrong, and the team behind it, including our lead, have to determine what's going on, before The Cleaner, the perfect(and anonymous) assassin, finds his next victim. This is a picture of two halves, the first one a thriller(with insipid suspense music), second one an action flick(with an overly techno-sounding score). It holds your attention better in the latter, with numerous reveals to the onslaught of plot twists(at least most of them do surprise us), though by the end, several things feel unresolved(it doesn't help that it has no specific "villain", or a central goal for our heroes), and it consistently feels too vague, to the point where you can't trust anyone. The one-liners are few and bad. Storytelling is severely lacking, with this being immensely confusing. You probably have to watch it several times just to figure out what's even going on, and before attempting to sit through this more than once, well, you'd have to come up with a reason for doing so. The filming is decent, although coverage on the fight scenes(as well as lighting, sometimes) is below average. This uses slow-motion, and sometimes, still frames(...yeah, wrap your head around that one) in those bits sometimes, and it doesn't do so to good effect. There is some violence, strong language and brief sexuality and topless female nudity in this. I recommend this to fans of mindless entertainment. 5/10

Dolph Lundgren is certainly one of those names that often come up when talking about action movies. It is quite strange actually because he has not starred in anything huge in terms of action movies. Well, in the well of direct to video action movies, Dolph Lundgren has a bunch of them under his belt. Now according to the internet, 2001's Hidden Agenda is a direct to video "action" flick but apparaently in South Korea it was released theatrically. Hidden Agenda was directed by a guy named Marc S. Grenier who has not directed anything that I would be familiar with. The film stars Dolph Lundgren, a name people are sure to be familiar with, who has starred in movies like 1989's The Punisher and other direct to video action films like Detention.

Jason Price is the creator of Daedalus, a program that helps witnesses disappear to protect them. Now clients are dropping like flies and it is up to Jason Price to find out who is behind it all.

This film is one of those films that the cover of the DVD straight up lies to you. The first picture that pops up for this film is the one used in the DVD (or rather DVD collection) that I have. On it is a big giant explosion, big city buildings, and machine gun mounted military vehicles. I will tell you that none of that stuff is in the film. Luckily, the cover used here on IMDb is better and more accurate. With that being said, I had some expectations in that I looked at the cover and was like, "You know, this might not be too bad", but yet again I had low expectations because of this being a direct to video action film. I personally would not call this film an action film, so why it is included in cheap action movie collections is beyond me. But there are some action scenes to be seen but only like three scenes are action related and they are not even that good. There was one that was passable but that was in the middle of the film. The film itself is pretty bad. The plot should be simple and engaging but it ends up being hard to follow and I simply do not give a crap throughout the entirety of the film. It seems that the film has a central idea, but branches of and becomes a web of ideas that end up some how being connected. Or at least that is what I think. I have no clue and certainly I am not the only one that feels this way. I have heard that this film's story is the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, Eraser but done horrible. There is supposed to be some twist but it is one that I saw from a mile away. Sure, Dolph Lundgren does "alright" with what he is given. The acting overall is fairly mediocre at best. The soundtrack sounded pretty generic to me in that it basically sounds like any other film's soundtrack. Nothing really to ooh and ahh about.

Hidden Agenda is mostly what you would expect. Slow, dull, and boring for the most part. Anything that does deviate from the monotony feels like The Godfather.

I caught this little baby on TV the other night, sweet jesus I didn't expcet it to be good. There it was late at night, in a slot usually reserved for films whihc have Lorenzo Lamas in them or the director is credited as Alan Smithee or Cecil B. Demented.

As soon as Dolph Lundgrens name popped up I nearly switched off immediately, as my mind suddenly wondered to films he has appeared, such classics as Last Warrior and Agent Red. The TV guide gave it a fairly good write up, saying it was pretty decent, but very confusing. What they found confusing I don't know. That is a problem with a thriller like this, if it hasn't got big names behind it, or is starring some high profile star, then people don't concentrate fully when watching. Look at all those people who found the Matrix really hard to follow, they thought little of the idea of Keanu Reeves doing sci-fi and didn't give the film their undivided attention, and actually listened and watched, the same with this film. If you see the name Dolph Lundgren and thriller in the same sentance in a straight to videoer most reviewers will be browsing through magazines and popping their head up at intermissions to watch the butt kicking.

This isn't exactly original or even exceptionally written in any way, but it follows the rules of good thrillers, the twisting plot, the shady characters, deliberate confusing elements early on to add a sense of mystery. The action was okay but there could have been more, they were pretty short really. I did like Lundgren in this, he is actually playing an interesting person, not just big lump number one.

There are a lot better, and with some actual money put into them, but there a lot more worse thrillers than this, I enjoyed it. $$$/$$$$

The biggest effect this film had on me was the element of surprise at watching a Dolph Lundgren film where he doesn't possess a weapon bigger than his arm! Instead, what we see here is a more subtle Dolph, drinking champagne and smoking fine cigars.

After Johnny Mnemonic, almost every single Lundgren film has centred around him and in this effort, he proves a worthy centre piece. I've always liked Dolph, but understand his critics as he has been massively typecast. I advise his doubters to see Hidden Agenda as he gives an understated (by his standards) performance and is charismatic and charming enough to pose as a smooth operating entrepreneur. As expected, in the action scenes, Dolph is brilliant and will keep his hardcore fans happy. Support is adequate. Maxim Roy as the love interest is sexy and puts in a good performance. The supporting cast is unspectacular and simply take a backward stance to allow Lundgren to perform.

The plot is also a surprise as it is intelligent and builds up an atmosphere. When I say intelligent, I'm not talking Oldboy, Eternal Sunshine or The Abyss, but that it is not just a case of blowing stuff up. The plot has fairly predictable twists and turns but they are entertaining enough. The methodology of the identification programs is very interesting and the conspiracy theories do well to keep the audience engaged to the end.

A likable film with a surprising Lundgren in the thick of it, Hidden Agenda is a slightly above average film that is good at killing an hour and a half!

This movie was a surprise to me and I really liked it. Dolph at the time had, had a string of rubbish movies but this came along and had a little bit of depth and a good twisty plot. Think Enemy Of The State, with Eraser and a bit of martial arts. Dolph plays a former FBI agent who runs a witness relocation programme, where he basically hides people away and gives them new lives, for a nice large fee. At the same time he still has the FBI, CIA and NSA all on his case. The NSA allow Price (Lundgren) to use the complex computer system, Daedulas, which he developed, and in return Dolph has to do two jobs a year for them, hiding people they want hidden. The reason that Price now works independently is that he was working for the government hiding away some less than savoury characters and the Pentagon shut down the operation. The story here involves Price getting involved with a government witness, Paul Elkert, about to turn states evidence over a giant massive corporation Icarus (Some Greek mythological names in this film!) and their links to Russian mafia. At the same time the Russians want Elkert dead because he stole an obscene amount of money from them. Price reluctantly agrees to hide away Elkert, knowing full well that the Agencies will be sniffing around him, but Elkert offers him a lot of money and since Price's restaurant (the cover for his real work) is losing so much money, he needs it. So Price and his crew hide away Elkert, doing a real thorough job because the NSA have access to Daedulas and basically know where Prices clients end up. Price makes sure Elkert goes beyond the vanishing point. The problem is that Elkert could be being tracked by the Cleaner, an assassin responsible for many government hits. As the plot progresses Price realises there are people inside the agencies working against and soon suspects his best friend Sonny and Elkerts former assistant Renee as the cleaner, but who is it? The plot moves along nicely and although they allow it to get a bit convoluted at times, simply because its 2 hours of movie material crammed into 90 minutes, it has your requisite twists and some surprising intelligence. Prices organisation is believable, you'd trust him in real life to hide you away unlike the similar government operation in Schwarzeneggers Eraser which was written almost comic book like. Price is an intimidating character, not because Dolph Lundgrens 6,5ft frame of muscle is playing him but because he is an intelligent character. This isn't original stuff but there's a nice quick pace to the movie and as a techno thriller it is a good watch.

Action here is not as plentiful as some other Dolph films but since the film is primarily a thriller that isn't important. While the gunfights are strictly routine, with a decent one at the end, the opening action scene is very good, with a well choreographed airport chase, and there are some good fight scenes. Dolph is given free reign to use his martial arts, which is good and the fights are well done, with some crunching sound effects. The freeze frame fight scenes work at times but in others it is overused and breaks up the flow. As well as that the film has plenty of explosions and sells itself as a good Dolph movie.

The best part of the movie is the cinematography which has a nice gloss to it. Sylvain Braunt an Emmy nominee does a great job in making this film look far beyond the 5 million budget and giving at a nice sheen that Van Dammes considerably more lavish films have. Some scenes are extremely well shot and it just gives the film that techno thriller vibe. The direction is functional form Marc Grenier who keeps things moving well but occasionally he lacks conviction while the score is at times grating during the action. The non action score is nice with a tinny synth sound adding to the atmosphere. Another problem is the fact that during production it obviously snowed in Canada where it was filmed and throughout the picture Dolph and his peeps move around the country and no matter how much he moves throughout the states, it always seems to be snowing. For a movie this size they have to put up with the "shoot now or never!" scenario but that doesn't really detract too much.

The cast are good and that helps. In recent years the support cast in some Dolph films have been poor, particularly if you watch upcoming movie Retrograde. However everyone does a good job here and Dolph holds the line well, really doing well with his character and giving him an intensity. Overall this is a very professional effort that puts to shame many Hollywood productions and while its not original and borrows elements off other films it has a depth and level of research that many B-movies don't have. ***

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

If you're an avid action fan,you'd have to have been living on planet Mars for about the past month and a half not to have heard newspaper rumours that apparently Dolph Lundgren,our favourite DTV action star,is quitting acting for 20 years.

If this abhorrent rumour is proved to be true (and pray to God it isn't!) ,then HA is a fine movie to depart on.

The plot is basically a spin on Arnold Schwarzenegger's Eraser,with Dolph as Witness Protection Agent Justin Price,who must put a face to a mystery assasin who's bumping off his people.It is truly as hard-to-follow as M:I-2,and way too jumbled for a movie of this sort.

The action scenes,however,are brilliant,working on both the fight scenes,the gunfights and the explosions.This delivers the goods Dolph fans have ordered with their rental fare,and the Swedish man will always be the king of DTV action movies,no matter what the outcome.

Speaking of the fans,don't let his previous film Agent Red put you off from seeing another movie with him in it,let's just say this is a much more,er,PROFESSIONAL effort.***

This was a pretty good thriller, top acting, fights and some stylish direction. Dolph Lundgren puts in a great performance. The storyline was interesting and I like the fact that some time and effort was put into researching some rather cool devices. The music was pretty good too.

I agreed with MooseLundgren's comment that this B film Hidden Agenda is one of the best films since Blackjack. I liked the style, the way they made this movie such as Price checked into his restaurant (I liked the way the camera went into a circle around Dolph pretty quick twice) before he met Renee Brooks. I think it's time to have Dolph Lundgren returned to Hollywood.

I actually do like Dolph Lundgren. I take a lot of heat for enjoying his work because for no apparent reason his work is critically bashed over and over and over again. Hidden Agenda was an extremely good action flick. The plot reminded me a little bit of the film "Eraser" but i personally think this is better. Dolph gives a solid performance and proves that he can still kick ass. The plot did over-do itself at some points but not enough to totally confuse you. With a better budget i believe this film deserved a box-office run. I mean come on, if Pokemon 4ever and Powerpuff Girls: The Movie can make it to the big screen..someone please tell me why the hell a damn good Dolph Lundgren flick cant.

This was a surprisingly good film I must say. I didn't expect much and only got it out because of a rather nifty name and front cover, but then again how many Lorenzo Lamas films have had good names and covers? Lots, and how many have been crap? All! So after 90 minutes I was pretty happy. I like films like Spy Game and Enemy of the State and this film is similar. While not as good, it does do a better than most job of it and does so with a 5 million budget.

I thought the script was pretty good; there is a sense of mystery running throughout the film and the way it is written is quite smart especially when you consider that most b-movie scriptwriters are probably the real life versions of Ernest or Kelly Bundy (arf arf!), but this film made a surprising and efficient thriller. The sense of mystery that meanders through the film is good, its like an episode of the X-files, you need to leave things in a sense of wonder before revealing all at the end, and this film succeeds where most of its type would fail.

The cast are surprisingly good. Dolph Lundgren has rarely been as interesting. His character is imposing for reasons other than his muscles and large stature, he is intelligent and domineering and he runs a tight nit crew. The two ladies are good particularly the sexy foreign bird. As I said Lundgren is pretty good. It's a fairly simple role for him, which is good, while it also adds dimensions and he has an aura about him. Some of his lines are great and he delivers them with intensity and aplomb.

Now to the action, well if you like martial arts then this will not let you down. There are some cracking fight sequences with some good use of freeze frames. The opening action scene is the best, its pulse pounding and exciting and ends after an impressive car chase down an airport runway. I did find that, like most economically challenged movies, that the shootouts were quite average, trying to hide the fact that the can't afford the same amount of squibs that John Woo would use for the emptying of a single clip, still there was only really two shootout bits and the second was much better. Also some great explosions, they looked cool and were well filmed. Even in the biggest films, explosions can be a let down, but not here, you can't go wrong with an explosion at night time in falling snow, it looks so cool. Sorry, I sounded 12 years old for a second!

The star of this film is undoubtedly the cinematography. It is great. It gives the movie a glossy sheen and makes it look like it should be showing in your local cinema, instead of plonked straight into your ps2 or DVD player.

Overall I would say that hands down it beats Arnold and Sly's recent films, in fact all of Arns since True lies. Definitely worth a watch, unlike most straight to video flicks, the good points outweigh the bad. ***1/2/*****

I saw this on TV and really enjoyed it. It was a low budget little thriller but for a Dolph Lundgren film it had some brains. My boyfriend made me watch it as he loves those action movies and watches Dolph films a lot, not to mention Van Damme, Seagal. I know the names of more action stars than is healthy for a girl.

This had a good twisting plot and Dolph I have to say is a cool guy. The action was pretty good, some nice martial arts and I really liked the editing. Anyways when I saw on IMDb that it had 3.9 I was taken aback, because it was a good movie. When I went to cast my vote I saw that the actual average rating was 5.9 which is fairer, but this weighted average thing I can't grasp. How on earth do you go from 5.9 down to 3.9. I know about ballet stuffing but thats ridiculous.

Hidden Agenda is a film I'd recommend to those who like a good thriller, its better than some dreadful films I have seen in theatres for sure. 7/10

I liked this. A friend told me to hire it out so I did and I thought its really good. I loved the lighting they had in the film, it kind of looks like it got some inspiration off the Matrix in that department. The fights were pretty good too, Dolf kicks ass!! The only down point would be that the end was not as good as the beginning and the music wasn't great, but I thought it had a good storyline. B+

I got this as part of a special offer down at my local blockbusters. 3 ex-rental vids for 15 quid, not bad. I got two A-list films and couldn't decide on the third so I saw that this had Dolph Lundgren in and thought, "Rocky 4, that was a cool movie, I think I'll get this". I think I have seen two or three of his movies since Universal Soldier, and I must say they were a little on the stinky side, very cheap and crapply done, except for this film where he has a very big gun (literally a gun, that wasn't a knob joke).

Anyway this film, despite being a cheapo, has some class about it. Theres a pretty good script that keeps you guessing till the end and it looks pretty darn good. I thought the fight scenes were great too, Dolph was whipping out some martial arts moves, I never actually knew he was a martial artist, you would never guess. Dolph himself is quite good, I've seen worse actors on the big screen (Hayden Christianson) but he seems to have come along way since films like He-man.

Overall, I would say that if you like this sort of thriller, with a few twists and a sense of mystery, you can't go far wrong with this. You'd be better off buying it down at your local Blockbuster if they have it ex-rental, its only about a fiver on tape. 8/10

Hidden Agenda succeeds where lots of other movies fail, because it has a pretty good plot. The action sequences are staged well, and Dolph is not bad at all in his role. He stars as Jason Price, who is an ex-special agent who comes out of retirement to protect his friend who is also a witness, and soon gets caught up in a conspiracy where nothing is as it seems. The direction in this movie is competent and well handled. I hope to see more of Marc S. Greinier in the future. For once an intelligent action thriller that doesn't waste our time. Overall, Hidden Agenda is a worthwhile flick. I give it a 4/5

Dolph Lundgren stars as Jason Price, an ex government agent who is now the owner of private witness protection agency with his powerful system Dedalus. However, something gets really wrong. His friend is killed, and of his costumers is missing.Also, many dangerous guys are after him, including a mysterious hit-man 'The Cleaner' . His only chance is to solve this puzzle before it's too late. This is an intriguing thriller with a lot of suspense and action scenes. A must see for every fan of Dolph. Interesting and professional. Just great! You should definitely try to see this one. It's a fun ride! Dolph looks great as always. You will enjoy in it.

The movie has a very mysterious twist to it. You don't know who is good and who is bad, along with surprising scenes that you won't believe are possible to occur. The movie is exciting and incredible. The movie includes two hot chicks, and other scenes that'll make you say "wow, how did that happen?" I recommend the movie to mystery and action fans.

Jason Price is an ex-agent for the NSA, specialising in making witnesses etc disappear into safety. When he is approached by a mob boss, he agrees to help him disappear in return for cash. However when Price's friend is killed despite being on a safe run, Price realises that his client is in danger from hit man, The Cleaner. The stakes are raised when he realises that The Cleaner is inside the organisation itself.

Lundgren films are great things – it is very rare that you're disappointed because the bar is set so very low. In this case I had low hopes for the film as I had never heard of it and it was premiering on channel 5. However it is actually a little better than I thought it would be. The plot is a little too complex but it is possible to strip it down and ignore the bits around the core. The action is lacking for a Lundgren film – it has fights and gun battles but they aren't very exciting or spectacular.

Many reviews here have praised this film because it is a good Lundgren film. I agree because it is higher than the usual standard, but that does not mean it is a really good film – because it is not, it is watchable but it just lacks a bit of spark to make it enjoyable.

Lungren is good – I've always liked him and think he is as good as Seagal yet he seems to get the bigger deals. Here he gives his usual performance but is enjoyable. The rest of the cast are good, but I must admit that the majority of the support characters failed to stand out to me – the plot was so convoluted that I lost track of names too often.

Overall this is an interesting film that is good for a Lundgren film but is not THAT good. The plot is far too convoluted to flow freely and the action scenes lack real invention or spark, using jumpy edits in place of style. A solid film for B-movie thriller fans but outside of that most will struggle to get past the flaws.

The reason l put the question marks is that this film although having some good fight scene's is far to involved...

Plus l don`t know what the director and cameraman were doing but the filming was to say the least funny and l don`t mean ha ha funny....it went slow then fast then slow then slow then fast fast fast....god it was all l could do keeping up with it....

Sorry but only worth a 4/10