Customer Reviews

Silent Trigger

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Silent Trigger is a solid movie, it's two main charecters are complete with their own personalities. In the begining Clegg "Gina Bellman" is a rookie spotter for "the agency" but a few years later "big fast forward" she is a highly experienced woman. Keep in mind folks, that Gina Bellman is a stuningly gourgeous female and in this movie she looks absolutly stunning. Plus she carries a gun and wears tight black clothing so the eye candy aspect of the movie is deffiantly there. Dolph Lungren is a great action movie actor "even though in real life he doesn't really like being an action charecter". This movie shows the other side of him that you don't see much of in other movies. In this movie he starts questioning his profesion and why he works as an assasin. Clegg also wonders why they are assasins as well. The diologe is great in this movie, Gina Bellmans diologe supports the personality she has, "Strong, Sassy, Sexy" *pefect woman heh?* lol. In real life both Dolph Lungren and Gina Bellman are really cool people who are passionate about acting so thats always a good to know. The movie doesn't get boring at all unlike countless hundreds of Hollywood "blockbuster" movies that just plain sucks. Silent Trigger is one of those movies that doesn't get boring after the 4th time watching it. Everytime I watch it I pick up on something different, it has real life themes scattered in the movie and great action scenes and this great film will get you thinking, guarenteed! I'm praying for a "Silent Trigger 2" to someday be released.

The DVD is not up to the same standards as the VHS tape. It is shorter and is only pan and scan. Usually movies for rental are P&S. Collectors of movies want widescreen and full length (at least what was seen on the big screen).I liked this movie but I am [not happy] that they would release a less that optimal version on DVD. The VHS version is only P&S but atleast the whole movie is there.

What a disappointment it is to hear that this, a 2.35:1 film will be released as a pan and scan DVD. And by Fox of all studios. This is a cool Dolph movie that had a great atmosphere to it but you won't feel it in the cropped confines of 1.33:1. Why they would remaster it with a Dolby 5.1 soundtrack and not even bother to present it in it's OAR is beyond me.

The beginning scene is strange, with Dolph exiting his street-level apartment with his "violin", as if he is about to go amble over to work , in some forgotten, quiet, mill town. The setting is strange..., a huge, modern skyscraper, again, in the middle of an unnaturally quiet city.

Summed up, the movie does not really make sense-yet I still enjoyed the action and sarcastic remarks. Dolph's war weary mercenary character seemed improbable ( why keep working for the "corporation", if you continually refuse to do the dirty work--do they have some unmentioned black mail on him? An explanation would have been nice ).

It is a dark movie and makes no apologies for that, right up to the ambiguous ending.

On an unfortunate note, if you are a fan of the movie ( I am ), then you will be disappointed by the lack of wide screen, and by the missing scenes. We could hope for a director's cut release, but the general lack of popularity of this movie might preclude that.

When a Dolph Lundgren DVD review starts with the words "not a bad movie", you know you must RUSH and buy it, for it's as good as it's gonna get! The fact that I am still a fan of the actor is testament to his vast on-screen charisma rather then his ability (luck?) to pick winning projects.

Well, this is not a bad movie...Waxman is a battle-hardened sniper, working for a non-descript agency, when his moral consciousness comes a knocking, inconveniently, in the middle of an assignement, while he is being assisted by a rookie spotter (the lovely Gina Bellman; check her out in "Couplings"). We hope he's been told to kill whoever hired the girl, for she has no clue (though looks good in tight clothing). Things go from bad to worse and the couple end up running for their lives thru a war torn country. We see them again re-united a few years later, on another assignement (Waxman's moral conciousness must have taken another break during that time). The job takes them to the top floor of an eery apartment building, still under construction. All is not what it seems though. Neither one trusts the other. The girl makes it clear she is ready to "retire" Waxman, should he fail to complete his job this time. And so, obviously,... they have sex (well, research does seem to support the notion that people who have sex during work time are happier in their employment; so, who are we to judge?). High action events take place that derail both characters and lead to a climax that is unexpected to the viewer. Not bad...Really...

All the scenes for the second assignement are shot in the beautifully eery Algonquin Hotel in Montreal, Canada. The location heightens the feeling of isolation the two heroes experience; it sets the mood and works well to support the script, the story, and the character development. However, it is the manner in which the first assignement is shot that makes me knock down two stars off the rating. Naive set set-up, undisciplined and unenthused extras are just a couple of the issues. Unfortunately, we see these poorly produced scenes thruthout the entire movie, in form of flashbacks. With the $10-$15 mil budget these scenes have no right to be there...plain and simple. By contrast, Lundgren's "Retrograde" was shot for less then $2 mil, but with a more believable result! The end product is uneven, frustrating the viewer with its unrealized potential.

Still, there is enough good action and decent acting on part of Lundgren and Bellman, to make this one of my favourite Dolph movies. When I fast forward thru all the flashbacks, I can almost get the feeling of watching a major motion picture. Not a small feat for a Dolph movie to achieve...

its been a while since ive seen the movie but i can still remember how mesmerized i was by it. its a good movie and all lundgren fans should watch it.

"Silent Trigger" is a bit of an odd action vehicle for both Dolph Lundgren and director Russell Mulcahy (Highlander). The cast primarily consists of only four players - two protagonists, an antagonist, and a consistent bystander - three of whom remain unnamed throughout the movie. The majority of the film takes place with the four characters alone in an empty high-rise building. If it weren't for the action scenes, this might very well have been a stage drama, but even though this is the artsy-est storytelling you're ever going to see in a Lundgren film, it remains one of his best and a fan necessity.

The story follows a mysterious Special Forces sniper (Lundgren) and his rookie female spotter (Gina Bellman, Coupling) - political assassins forced to go their separate when an overseas mission is compromised but reunited for one last job in a derelict skyscraper. Amidst reliving their initial failed encounter via a series of flashbacks, the pair must contend with the maniacal motives of an insane security guard (Christopher Heyerdahl, Sanctuary) looking to get the better of them in a drug-induced rage...though this doesn't seem to bother his mysterious fellow guard (Conrad Dunn, Nero Wolfe) at all for some reason.

Since this is a character-driven piece, acting ability is a must for the performers, and I'm glad to say that for the most part, they come through. Lundgren won't win any awards but he achieves the required balance between secrecy and sincerity needed to make his character likeable, Heyerdahl does well as a chauvinistic man slowly descending into madness, and Dunn remains a rightful enigma until the climax. Bellman has some weak spots that express themselves as unfounded overconfidence, but she eventually ends up performing acceptably when it counts. Even Lundgren's bolt-action sniper rifle has a kind of character to it...

The action is sparser than I tend to like, but in this case, it doesn't hurt the movie. There are approximately three shootouts (all of which include the sniper rifle), one hand-to-hand confrontation between Lundgren and Heyerdahl, and one combination shoot-and-punch in which Lundgren takes on a roomful of special ops soldiers. While the sniping action is good, it's not quite as furious as I had been hoping for, and the hand-to-hand stuff is purely beat-'em-up material - no technical martial arts encounters. Surprisingly, what's there is done with such flair and built up so well that it's satisfying nonetheless: every shot counts, every roundhouse kick has a purpose, and this keeps the action fresh, even though there's not an overload of it.

"Silent Trigger" is a TV production made on the relatively modest budget of $15 million, so expect just a couple of insufficiencies when it comes to the CGI. The extended storyline bugs me a bit: the nature of the entity that Lundgren and Bellman work for is never explained - all we know is that it does not tolerate failure to the point of instructing spotters to terminate their snipers should they not deliver, but saw fit to take them both back for one more mission...even though I was sure that Lundgren's character had gone into hiding. That, including the unsolved significance of the high-rise building, was no doubt included to heighten the sense of mystery, but leads to a bit too much head-scratching for me.

Rest assured, no flaw is not enough to drag the movie down, and even these shortcomings end up contributing to the film's slightly far-out flavor; it has a bit more character because of its imperfections. Lundgren fans may be a bit surprised at the road their hero went down in this feature, but it's nonetheless worth having on your shelf, even for non- Lundgren-exclusive action fans.

Silent Trigger is very professionally done, written, performed, and the cast is PERFECT. HIGHLY recommended for any Dolph Lundgren fans.

I started to look out for Dolph Lundgren films after I saw this one. But it is my feeling that none other is better than Silent Trigger. Very stylish, very moody, overacted in a grand way.

Silent Trigger is a true return to form for director Russel Mulcahy (Highlander, Ricochet). The film is visually amazing, and is full of brilliant sets and some stylish action scenes. It manages to be one of the best action movies I've ever seen. Dolph fits perfectly into his roll as an emotionless killer, while Bellman is attractive but shallow. In the film they are two snipers who are reunited after their last mission went awry in an abandoned skyscraper, where they are supposed to be stalking out their next kill. The film deals in flashbacks with what went wrong in their last mission, until in the end we see everyone is not what they seem. Mulcahy handles the action and pace of the film with skill, and keeps us in suspense to see the conclusion. The DVD could have used more extras, but nevertheless it's still worth buying for a better version of the movie itself, and if you haven't seen Silent Trigger yet, it's a must-buy. It's too bad the movie didn't do as well as it could have at the box-office. Buy it now for one of the most intelligent, well-made action thrillers ever