Customer Reviews

Sweepers [VHS]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Dolph Lundgren is now the king of testosterone-charged action genre, and his acting ability truly shines out as Christian Eriksson in this fast-paced, dramatic thriller. this movie has a lot going for it--impressive african sets, good acting and great special-effects, but also has a surprisingly intelligent script. All-in-all, I recommend this film for some intense viewing and entertainment(watch out for S.A's boy Ian Roberts as a baddie!). A good action movie.

Dolph Lundgren tackles the problem of land mines in this fairly amatuerish,predictable effort.Passenger 57 baddie Bruce Payne pops up as...er,the baddie.

This is not a typical Dolph movie nor is it a typical obscure film. I mean it's obscure, but not in a cool new find way. Perhaps it's due to bad writing and directing but it just seems so different in terms of dialogue and plot development. For most of the movie Dolph sits around and drinks but after about an hour he finally gets down to some action.

He also sounds different. His voice is gravelly. Like he's smoked 100 cigars a day for a decade. But I guess this is him just getting into character, too bad it's not interesting but it's nice to see the effort. There should plenty for Dolph to get his teeth into here and lots of opportunity for a hot-potato of a movie. Land mines are a delicate issue but at some point in the movie it all collapses into standard action-man territory.

The beginning is badly directed, some shootouts seems really false and the trailer is, by far, the WORST I have ever seen. The DVD has plain old stereo sound with a pan and scanned fullscreen picture. Avoid it.

The low budget film fails on all angles to impress or entice the viewer. Everything is just so amateur. Feel free to hit the back button.

So here I am, writing another review for yet another Dolph Lundgren flop and there is little I can say about this film that I didn't say in my others. "Sweepers" is not only a bad movie, it's a bad direct-to-video. The plot, which is so predictable it hurts, concerns a mine sweeper whose son is killed one day by bad guys. Now there is a super mine out in the open and Lundgren must find it. The action is very badly directed and the story is very annoying, like a loud neighbor. I suppose if you like Lundgren, you'll like this movie. But everyone else will want to stay far away.

Oh, yeah! This movie blew up a lot of asses! Dolph Lundgren is the man to take names and BLOW UP ass! The bad guys took his kid's life, he gets to blow them all away!

Sweepers is a poignant movie told against hauntingly beautiful music and breathtaking scenery. It is the story of land mines in Africa. It stars Dolph Lundgen as Christian Erickson, a haunted mine sweeper who decides to leave the service following the death of his son. Claire Stansfield plays Michelle Flynn, a congressional investigator and scientist. The story revolves around the "new" triangle trade of weapons, diamonds, and profit. Although the movie may appear to be a basic shoot-em-up, I found it to be much more intelligent than that. Even at his most manly moments, Lundgren never descends into simple savagery for the sake of doing so. His words always seem to reflect the intellect that one would expect of a mine sweeper, and the sentimentality of any parent trying to cope with the grief of burying his son. Claire Stansfield portrays a truly refreshing heroine. She is an intelligent, talented woman who knows what information she wants, and is willing to get it. She's not to be ignored, or sent on wild goose chases, and clearly feels responsible for the unintended consequences of the proliferation of a weapon she helped to create. She is no TSTL (Too Stupid to Live) "damsel", and doesn't feel that the "hero" should have to do ALL of the heavy lifting. Most importantly, she's not afraid to get a little dirty, and when its time to move! she does so without asking a lot of unnecessary questions.

Although the acting stumbles in a few places, the flow of the movie is fairly consistent. When I saw the headliner (Lundgren), I was expecting another testosterone-packed Rocky IV/Universal Soldier creation. I was mistaken, and pleasantly so. The artistry of the movie, the timeliness of the storyline, and the intelligence of the plot truly impressed me. There are no strange lapses in time, and no anomalous jumps in location to leave the viewer's forehead wrinkled in confusion. That said, the movie has a wonderful soundtrack which mixes some African elements and songs with strong symphonic movements. The cinematography alone is spectacular. The movie is not meant to be a primer on the problem of landmines and never makes any such claim. It does offer some contextual information at both the beginning and the end, enough to encourage individual research.

Many movies about Africa, particularly those of Western production, focus on a few white [enlightened] people in a mostly[backwards] African country. It leaves one with the feeling that the African people are background to the more important white people, and in fact, that all Africans are disenfranchised and all whites motivated by beneficence. In this film, we see a more balanced approach that more closely approximates all people, i.e., that greed and avarice are truly found across the spectrum.

I stumbled across this movie in a value bin a few years ago, and I have continued to give it as a stocking stuffer ever since. I never get tired of watching it, and I am glad to share such a touching and inspiring piece of work about a little understood topic with as many as I can.

I respect this movie because it deals with the problem of landmines in Africa. Whether or not you like Dolph or his acting, this movie is relevant and politically correct. It starts out pretty slow but ends with lots of action and has a couple of surprises in it. Dolph and his costar (Clarie Stansfield) look really good. The problems with the film are that Dolph's voice sounds like he had larangitus during the filming and the landmine they are in search of is supposed to be very sophisticated technology but is really kind of pathetic. On the other hand, in real life, by the time you get as close to a landmine as Dolph's character does in this movie, you are already dead or have at least lost a limb.