The Defender (2004)

Lance and his team are bodyguards for NSA's head, who is sent by the president to a secret meeting in an empty hotel outside Bucharest. During the meeting, the hotel is attacked. By whom and why?

Director:

Dolph Lundgren

Writer:

Douglas W. Miller

Stars:

Dolph Lundgren, Jerry Springer, Shakara Ledard

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Dolph Lundgren	...	Lance Rockford
Jerry Springer	...	President of the United States
Shakara Ledard	...	Kaye
Thomas Lockyer	...	Stevenson
Caroline Lee-Johnson	...	Mrs. Jones (as Caroline Lee Johnson)
Gerald Kyd	...	Morgan
Ian Porter	...	Newell
Howard Antony	...	Parker
Geoffrey Burton	...	Jamal
Iddo Goldberg	...	Scripts
James Chalke	...	Lee
Leigh Zimmerman	...	Reporter
Steven Elder	...	Tech 1
Radu Florescu	...	Aide
Ovidiu Niculescu	...	Officer

Storyline

Today - the global war on terror rages on. The United States will not give an inch against terrorists, especially Mohamed Jamar, considered to be the worst of them all. Jamar has been missing for months, but his network continues its function. The President stands firm before the world, but behind the scenes his teams are working to find the final solution. Jamar represents a paradox: he can never be killed, because if found dead he would become an instant martyr. If caught he must be tried. If he is found guilty he would become a martyr and further inspiration to acts of terror. If acquitted, the policies of the entire western world would be destroyed. So he must remain invisible. Roberta Jones, the head of the National Security Agency, is working to ensure he remains invisible, forever. Under the guise of attending an Eastern European conference on Terror in Romania, she attends a secret meeting with Jamar at a secluded hotel outside Bucharest. No one knows about this meeting and ...

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Plot Keywords:

interrogation | torture | the white house | fight | hotel | 

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Taglines:

Fighting The War On Terror.

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Genres:

Action

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Bauer Martinez Studios

Country:

USA UK Germany Romania

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 October 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

La sentinelle

Filming Locations:

Bucharest, Romania

Box Office

Budget:

$6,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bauer Martinez Studios, Defender Production, Frame Werk Produktion GmbH & Co. KG

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Directorial debut of Dolph Lundgren.

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Goofs

The map used several times throughout the movie to represent Romania is of Western Canada (ranging from B.C. to Manitoba, focused on Alberta, with a huge red area on Saskatchewan).

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Quotes

President of the United States: You messed with the wrong country and you fucked the wrong President!

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Connections

Referenced in Making of 'The Defender' (2004)

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Soundtracks

Inside
Performed by Somnium
Written by Somnium
Published by Cutting Edge Music Holdings
Licensed Courtesy of Snappi Music

User Reviews

Dolph's suicide attempt ....

Dolph Lundgren's directorial debut almost put him in the same category as Orson Welles and Ed Wood, namely those who wrote, stared and directed their own movie. Dolph saved his word processing skills for the sophomore effort, namely the Mechanik.

The porn-named hero (Dolph) of this movie is Lance Rockford. In 1991, he commanded a unit in the Gulf War. After they were ambushed and captured, 2/3 of his unit are executed in front of him. By this I mean everyone except Dolph. I you haven't figured it out ... he only commands two men. This is a low budget straight to DVD (Seagal-like) movie. What did you expect ?

Fast forward back to the present where he is a secret service agent protecting some government secretary. He and his team are recruited/asked to protected this secretary on the way to some peace conference in Bucharest, Romania. She's not there for the conference though. She has a covert rendezvous with someone. While at this meeting, mercenaries are sent in to eliminate the secretary. What could possibly be going on ?? It's not as exciting as you would think. Actually, most of the movie is quite boring.

The scenario that ensues is part Assault of Precinct 13, part conspiracy, part Steven Segal and a whole lot of predictability. The sets are dark and poorly lit. I could barely make out anything. Don't even waste your time on this movie. You are lucky to be watching this movie on a Sunday afternoon in June on Spike TV or at 2 AM on Cinemax while you are inexplicably trying to stay awake.

There are some stand out moments. For example, Jerry Springer plays the cigar smoking, workout-while-I-talk-on-the-phone President of the United States. Yes this is not a typo. It is correct. Shakara Ledard is the other standout actor/actress in the movie. She is essential the eye candy, too bad she can't act. The other surprise is to find out that "the Dolph" was still alive and kicking. You wouldn't know that from his face though. He's looking very much like a tan Frank Langella's Skeletor (Masters of the Universe). I guess he must have borrowed the makeup. He also seems to have gotten acting advice from Steven Seagal. Steven has taught Dolph the proper way to shoot a gun. This movie also gives us the duel between Dolph's 9mm Beretta and a Sniper rifle. I bet you can't guess who wins ?

Dolph's return and directorial debut is atrocious and boring. I have heard better things about the Mechanik. Hopefully he has learned from this abomination. I was going to give this movie a 1 or 2, however, I have to give a little credit for filming and some production that occurred in Romania. Until my review of the Mechanik, I highly recommend seeing Red Scorption, Rocky IV, Universal Soldier, Masters of the Universe or Showdown in Little Tokyo for your Dolph fix.