Dolph plays ex-FBI agent Jason Price, a man who runs some kind of witness protection program. When a ruthless assassin called "The Cleaner" is bumping off supposedly protected people, Price must slowly unravel a complex series of lies, deceits, betrayals and double-crossings.What happened with this film is - it's mid-period Dolph and got lost in the video store shuffle. It's in some kind of nether world between his classic 80's and even 90's outings and his current renaissance. It's hard to imagine someone in '01, while perusing their local video store, not just giving the cover a cursory glance and then moving on. But we can see why Dolph took the role. It's different. He probably yearns to play reasonably non-meathead-y roles like this. In Hidden Agenda, he's smart, he's good with computers, and in his cover as a suave restaurateur, we see his classy side. We applaud this change of pace, but that's not enough to make the movie GOOD, unfortunately.Despite the film's strengths, when the film begins, the audience is treated to a jumble of names and situations, as if the filmmakers assume we already know what's going on. So after some more muddled plot developments and frustrating computer gobbledygook, the movie is halfway over and we're not hooked in and involved with the plot. Even Dolph seems bored a lot of the time. Add to that some confusing and characterless "intrigue" and the end product is what best can be described as an arrested development in the Dolph canon. Yes, there are some nice changes of pace, but at what cost? Plus there are some annoying editing tricks and techno music during the scant fight scenes. The problem is, this film doesn't EARN the tricks. It seems like a cover-up for a lack of something. And therein lies the crux of the matter: The filmmakers should have cut a lot of the fat and talkiness and stripped down the film to a race-against-time battle between Price and The Cleaner. Assuming it was done correctly, this would have given the film the turbocharge it needed to be successful. Sadly, instead, with the technology on display (Icarus and Daedalus?) it's like watching a dramatization of an episode of "90's Tech" on the History Channel.We see what the filmmakers were trying to do...had this film come out in the theater it would have starred Matt Damon (doubtlessly wearing glasses) and been a slick Hollywood thriller like Paycheck (2003) or Hackers (1995). So imagine that formula applied to a Canada-shot DTV product with Dolph Lundgren and there you have it.In the case of Hidden Agenda, different does not necessarily mean better for Dolph fans.For more insanity, check out: comeuppancereviews.com

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. ***

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. $$$/$$$$

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/*****