User reviews

Dolph Lundgren stars as Ryder a mysterious biker who rolls into town (and bares an uncanny resemblance to Gary Busey) and defends an Indian reservation from the local mobsters and bikers that show up in the finale. Missionary Man despite what Dolph Lundgren fans will tell you, is not one of his best movies. Indeed in comparison to his last two directorial efforts this one is the weakest. The problem is that the action is badly edited, the bad guy bikers aren't written well and pose little threat and the film is all grainy and bled out of colors. (Why Dolph didn't shoot this in black and white is beyond me.) The climax has its moments and Missionary Man does remain somewhat watchable through Lundgren's typically commanding presence but with such craftsmanship shown in The Russian Specialist and The Defender one can't help but be disappointed with this one. Plus Lundgren borrows heavily from many superior films such as Pale Rider, High Plains Drifter and Billy Jack. The problem is that he just can't fuse enough novelty to distinguish his work. In the end though it's the sped up action and over-edited camera angles which render this one as a forgettable effort. Not a terrible movie mind you, indeed it is superior to most straight to video movies but Missionary Man is nothing special.

* * out of 4-(Fair)

I couldn't finish the whole thing! I'm a huge Dolph fan, but I wish they'd give him better material. Dolph tries to pull a Clint Eastwood with the "Stranger" routine. It lacks the budget and more importantly, the entertainment to pull it off. It's extremely talky, and the action scenes are very unexciting. It looks really cheap and grainy, and I didn't see the point in the whole scheme of things. Dolph deserves so much more than this cheap crud. When he gets something to work with, he shines. If you want to see a great Lundgren movie, watch The Punisher. He's made good movies in his career, but this isn't one of them. Avoid it!

DUD

I'm a fan of Dolph Lundgren, i think he's vastly underrated and he's charismatic and fun to watch in quite a few movies. Showdown in little Tokyo, Red scorpion, Universal solider, The punisher, I come in peace, Johnny Mnemonic, Rocky 4 and The Expendables are all enjoyable movies. Missionary Man is really bottom of the barrel stuff and i struggled to finish watching it. it looks like a TV movie, the action scenes use a lot of shakey cam and are edited so poorly that it's difficult to tell what is meant to be happening and the acting is soap opera quality. Dolph plays a mysterious stranger who passes through a troubled town and takes down the bad guys and i do enjoy that kind of character despite it being a massive cliche but this movie was just so boring i didn't care. You can tell this was made on a very low budget which isn't always a negative but it hurts this movie a lot because the team who made it obviously had no interesting or original ideas.

I was suckered in to buy this on DVD because the cover was really cool, i like Dolph Lundgren and i'm always looking for action movies. Don't be fooled, it sucks.

The premise for this movie is basically a classical western story – stranger comes to town and delivers justice. The rehashed plot is nothing new , with elements taken from movies like "The outlaw Josey Wales "(1976), "Billy Jack" (1971) , " Walking tall " (1973) and "Pale rider" (1985). Actually the plot is so similar to "Pale rider" you could call "The Missionary man" a remake of Eastwood's classic. It's an The movie has a washed-out, grainy look that doesn't do it any favors. Due to a down-conversion gone wrong from HD to DVD, the picture quality and colors don't match the HD master that was approved by director Dolph Lundgren. I guess Lundgren wanted to do an arty action movie . The sad truth is that Lundgren doesn't seem to know s**t about lighting. All the sets are dimly lit and the characters are in perpetual shadow. My eyes were tired after a while.

Lundgren's character wears sunglasses , rides a motorbike and reads Bible. Sounds cool , right ? Unfortunately the potential for interesting character is wasted. We never get to know anything about him to the very end of movie . He doesn't have any personality and there isn't a real reason for the audience to like Lundgren's character or care about him . The plot holes are terribly annoying - who the hell was the weeping guy , we never learn what Lundgren did for a living , where he came from , what's with his relationship with JJ and Jarfe.

At 90 odd minutes not that much happens. There are many , too many boring, talky bits and few weak, jerky, short fight scenes. There should have been more excitement and edge. Dolph just sort of lumbers around and tries to look cool. The movie is lifeless , uninteresting and forgettable after few minutes.

"The Missionary man" is crap. I give it 1/10.

A mysterious biker (Dolph Lundgren) arrives in a small town in an Indian reservation for the funeral of his friend J.J. and discovers through his family that he was murdered by the men of the powerful John Reno (Matthew Stephens Tompkins). The corrupt businessman plans to build a casino in association with criminals from the North in the town and J.J. opposed to his intentions offering a better option to the locals. The lone vigilante decides to stay in town with his bible and drinking straight tequila and like an avenging angel, bring justice to people.

While watching "Missionary Man", I have immediately associated the story as an adaptation of "Pale Rider" and the character of Dolph Lundgren to "The Preacher" and also to "Billy Jack", and I found that others IMDb users had had the same impression. Like in "Pale Rider", the mysterious stranger leaves many open questions that may give a mystical interpretation to his character. In the end, "Missionary Man" is modern adaptation and very decent remake of a classic. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "O Missionário" ("The Missionary")

No, Dolph, No. That's what I'd tell the Swedish muscle man when he decided upon a career in directing. The actor to Director transfer works if you're Clint Eastwood(Quality Actor and Quality Director). Unfortunately Dolph was never a good actor, so when he turned his hand to writing and directing it could only end one way.

A local gangster is strong-arming the Native Indian townsfolk into building a Casino. Anyone who argues with him tends to turn up riddled with bullets. Dolph Lungdren plays Ryder, a bible thumping shotgun wielding maniac who has an axe to grind. He rides into town on his motorcycle to attend the funeral of his murdered war buddy, but quickly starts a one man crusade to free the town.

This is a hugely forgettable formula movie with plot points and action stolen from better films. You're left wondering if you actually watched it at all, as it evaporates from memory within minutes.

As a director, Dolph is amateur at best. No one bothered to tell him about lighting for a start. All the sets are dimly lit and the characters are in perpetual shadow. With a searing sun above his head there are no excuses. He just had to face his actors in the other direction.

As an actor, Dolph reminds us why he barely had any leading parts in movies ( Red Scorpion is the only one that comes to mind). His face only has two expressions; Square jaw angry and a gurning grin that makes PM Gordon Brown's look genuine.

You can't help feel sorry for Lungdren. He's obviously not been offered much work and has decided to go it on his own. There's a quiet dignity in that. Buying his DVD makes me feel like I've dropped money in a charity bucket: Save the 80's action stars.

Verdict 2/10 It gets two from sympathy.

Dolph Lundgren is the unappreciated underdog of DTV action stars. While many people flock to buy Van Damme or Seagal's latest pics, less chase after Mr. Lundgren's work, and that's a shame. He has something going on. Something good.

MM (Missionary Man) is his third directorial effort, and although it isn't as good as his last picture, it's still interesting and shows some of the class and skillful touches he displayed in The Mechanik and The Defender.

This film is basically Pale Rider with Dolph in the Clint role. Can he handle such a role? You betcha. He plays a mysterious man named Ryder, who rolls into a quiet small town to attend a friend's funeral. Before you can say "trouble" he's already figured out that a rich young jackass is running the place and is behind the friend's death.

The rest of the first and second act is taken up with the plight of the Indians who live in the town. We're shown how modern America struggles with the Indians' beliefs and their way of life. Credit must be given to Dolph for trying to make more than a low budget shoot 'em up.

Unfortunately, as a result of that part of the story, the middle act drags a little. However, a rousing final act, where a gang of bikers turn up to foolishly stop Dolph, kick-starts the picture back to life.

The high noon showdown is BLOODY. Not Rambo bloody, but bloody nonetheless. One poor soul even takes a 12 gage to the face! It's these scenes that show Dolph has an understanding of action greater than his rivals. If Stallone's enjoying a cinematic action rebirth, Dolph's enjoying a DTV rebirth.

The look of the film is also noticeable. Lundgren has bathed the film is a dark sepia look and the music is subtle and underused.

The supporting players are a slight letdown. Some seem like community theater actors, while others, especially the Native Americans, come off as genuine and real. John Enos III rocks up as the lead heavy, Jarfe, about thirty minutes from the end, and that's a shame. His character should have been in the whole picture.

Incidentally, Dolph does the best he can with the very modest production values he has. Note to Sony: Give these stars more money to play with. Granted, they don't need $100 million, but are a few back more out of the question??? (Dolph, if you're reading this, put Enos in another one of your movies. He was cool.) And onto the man himself. As I said in my review for The Mechanik, Dolph has grown into his skin. He's comfortable and relaxed. He's the same in MM and I'm sure if he keeps getting good material to make, he will continue to relax and look good. It seems the days of the awful Storm Catcher and The Minion are behind us.

Hopefully, Dolph will continue to put out quality efforts like this. I can only imagine what would he would do with a bigger budget and better actors. It's okay though, because for now, we've got The Defender, The Mechanik and Missionary Man to enjoy.

Good work, Mr. Lundgren.

I just saw the film. And seeing it it reminded me of the Clint Eastwood film Palerider. It was sort of the same story but in a modern time. Why I say this is because of so many similarities: - man presumed dead by the gangsters, hired gangster believes he killed him many years ago (just like in Palerider) - holy man with the bible (just like in Palerider) - alone against the gangsters (as many films)

The similarity is maybe to similar. Maybe too similar to call it written by Dolph Lundgren. More like partly written by Dolph Lundgren. The base of the story is 100% Palerider.

But the film it self is good. Like the modern twist of it. But it is Palerider.

MISSIONARY MAN is a straight-to-DVD action flick, directed by and starring Dolph Lundgren. The film's plot takes the form of a modern-day western, with the Native American inhabitants of a run-down town finding themselves oppressed by the self-appointed rulers who run the place with an iron fist. A Bible-thumping, motorbike-riding preacher (Lundgren) soon rides into town, planning to clean things up.

This is a low rent flick all the way, clearly inspired by the likes of Eastwood's PALE RIDER, although of course it can't hope to hold a candle to any of the "proper" Hollywood classics. Instead it's an ordinary little movie featuring no-name cast members and a handful of fight scenes that are hardly memorable. The best thing about this is Lundgren himself, more for his presence than his performance, towering over everything as he does.

Unfortunately, something went wrong with this film during the post production process, leaving it a visual mess. Almost every scene is too dark, the colours are gone and the whole thing looks drab and muted. The plot serves as a hanger for the fight action, but the choreography is poor and muddled. I expected more from Lundgren, I have to say; MISSIONARY MAN is distinctly humdrum, and far from the actor's best.

The story here is actually a pretty good one, nothing new but still good.

The movie though has a couple of issues. The first being the fights, this is Dolph not De Niro, I'm primarily watching this for action. The choreography seemed to go out of the way to avoid displaying the fights?

Secondly, I'm not a cinematographer by any stretch, but the film seem to have been shot through a brown filter. So the colours were muted and the film looked dirty gritty and unclear, and not in a good way.

Otherwise its alright.

Would have been good if they kept to the clean missionary man theme. Too many scantily clad women in this movie for me to relax and watch it. I am grossed out by it.

I did not care for this Dolph flick for several reasons: It is not much more than a bad modern day remake of the excellent Client Eastwood movie 'Pale Rider'. Just swap motorcycles for horses & indians for miners. The ending was like 'Pale Rider' & 'Shane'. I did not care for the anti-Christian blasphemy or the anti-white racist innuendos. I had hoped for better from Dolph.

My tag line says it all... anyone who gave this a high rating is lying. Just plain stupid and totally unbelievable. Do anything else for 90 min.

only the last scene has real action(except in content and required mood), but because all the other elements are in place you might not even notice. for the general viewer, this is an interesting flick about and with MODERN native Americans and their way of life on the last reservations.from the way they educate the children, to interesting cultural aspects; well documented i actually felt like i learned something beside watching a "classic" revenge movie. "old school" clichés that never get old if done properly.

it is a classic suspense build-up plot; nothing special but simply can not find anything wrong other then being slow at times. however the movie has a lot of shots and visuals that contain artistic images that will not let you loose interest. all actors are decent and in some scenes really good.the best component, i would argue, are the costumes, and to certain extent the well chosen environment; it goes very well with crating the mood required to sustain the simple but effective plot.the biker's gang in the last 30 minutes is well done very menacing and looks real.John Enos III as their leader performs excellently.the soundtrack is nothing spectacular but fits properly as mood definer.

now about Dolph Lundgren; if you have grown up on such flicks as "the red scorpion" you might enjoy this a lot providing you not expecting any sgi fights. he aged decent and his "cold" tone got better and feels more "real". as a director he seems very decent will be checking his future productions hopefully will not be disappointed.he is way better in substance then Stallone is in his "rambo 4"(pointless action). seems like this project is dear to him from the way he handles dialogs, subject matter and the body language on display.

overall i enjoyed it. however i do not agree at all with any "Missionary" men especially "born again" Christians. from a vintage point of view i liked it, but in reality this only creates just yet another type of extremists/extremism.i do not find "cool" preaching the bible to the native Americans ,that got almost exterminated in the past because the "white man's God". however there are some details, for example regarding the facts of how the catholic church and "education" tried to forbid them speaking their own language(s) so they "convert" properly...

I would say this film has a good atmosphere of subtle menace, combined with lots of action. It's good vs evil and as such doesn't deviate from the standard plot - but the acting is good for a tight budget film.The violence is graphic so as such is not recommended for children - in Canada we would rate it 14 yr minimum age but with parental guidance for language, graphic violence, and sexual content - even if it's implied mostly. The actual filming is quite good, and in a different decade would probably be a good Eastwood flick. Films such as the Dirty Harry series, or even his spaghetti westerns. This film reminded pacing-wise and character-wise, of The Good The Bad and The Ugly for instance. I must confess that all that was missing for it to be on par with the aforementioned films was for Dolph to have a defining quote a la "Go ahead, make my day".

I love all of Dolph's movies, when I read the story line for this one I saw Pale Rider all over it. That is still one of my favorite Clint movies, Dolph does a great job of adapting that story line to his movie. The only cheesy part of the movie is when he does his BillyJack impression, it made me cringe with the 'I'll hit you with my right knee and there's nothing you can do about it' then makes the guys drop their drawers. Besides that, I like the movie as well as the cast. I thought the grayish tint to the movie was a nice touch. I really enjoy a good action movie with good acting instead of all the special effects and Dolph pulls it of well(no surprise there).

I seem to be digging much of Dolph Lundgren's recent output, but while I quite liked Lundgren's "Missionary Man" (which was produced by Andrew Stevens)… however there's no denying the material is lifted right off Clint Eastwood's mid-80s symbolic western "Pale Rider". So much, that there are set-pieces and plot threads that are quite identical, which leaves you thinking it must be some sort of homage. From the first encounter with some thugs involving timber bats, the fascination of a young girl falling for the stranger to the almighty vicious final standoff between the stranger and some bikers that he might share a past with. And that's only a few. It's a western at heart with a modern day face-lift. Lundgren co-wrote, directs and also stars as the stranger who enters town on his motorcycle not just carrying a bible in one hand, but looking for retribution with the other. Sinners better repent, as Lundgren is going to be breaking some bones and taking some lives. There are a lot of confrontations; therefore it means the reckoning is upon those who stand in the way of justice with numerous broken bones and corrupt dead folk. The leering action is brutal and quick, but well captured by Lundgren with his crisp styling. The story is mechanically told, but never does it get too heavy-handed with its themes. The performances are spot on. I like Lundgren in the leading role, bringing that right temperament. Mixing broodiness with mystic. Matthew Tompkins and John Enos III make for effective villains. Clichéd, but bruising action entertainment.

"What's your poison?"