Ambushed (2013) Reviews

• Don't see this movie if you want to see Dolph, Randy, or Vinnie

  diggler_inc2013-10-17

  because they are hardly in it. This movie is marketed to make you think it is an action-fest with these three guys, but it is really a boring movie about 2 wannabe big shot drug dealers played by unknown actors. One looks like David Swimmer and the other looks like James Franco. This film actually played in theaters where I live and I wasted money seeing it. Camera-work is extremely shaky and amateurish looking. Vinnie Jones is hardly in it and the scenes with him are pointless. There is also a lot of pointless and contrived nudity, swearing, and poorly done scenes of people getting shot. This movie is complete garbage.

• great action is hard to come by

  vampiri2013-09-30

  Since I am Swedish I try to keep myself updated when it comes to my fellow Swedes' new Movies, especially Dolph Lundgren, and thus I watched this one as soon as I could. Admittedly, Dolph may have his best years behind him. Still, he has worked with most of the creme de la creme within the action genre, i.e. Brandon Lee, Stallone, Van Damme. To his defence, perhaps he is not handed the best of scripts these Days. I would gladly Watch Men of War, Rocky IV, Universal Soldier, Johnny Mnemonic, Red Scorpion again. Plot: A scarface duo try to move up the ladder. One is uncertain if he really wants to and is involved with a sweet girl and really wants to do something else. Unfortunately for them they are preyed upon by a rogue cop and hunted by the DEA. Sadly, this Movie lacks true depth. I could tell that the writer tried really hard to create depth and credibility for his characters. Instead he fails miserably and all the characters get stuck halfway. Dolphs character has an unexplored relationship with Another DEA agent, one of the bad guys (who really is the Movies hero) cannot deliver a believable characterization of a guy in torment about what to do in Life. The Dirty cop succeeds somewhat better, but the best characters, which do not have any depth to speak of, are the drug kingpin and the hero's partner. Due to this fact that the script tries too much to be a Little bit deeper than most B-Movies and lacks, as well, a really likable hero I can only hand out... ...4 out of 10. Dolph does not deliver, but is excused by having a minor role and the bad script. However, there are some good Points in the Movie: Randy Couture is good as the Dirty cop and the final shootout scene is pretty good as well as the photography.

• Entertaining, recommended for a watch

  arf0032013-10-02

  Picked up Hard Rush for a quick watch over the weekend and I have to say I actually enjoyed it. Sceptical at first however it was in the charts at Tesco's DVD section so I gave it a shot. Where to start? Well, story centres two rising drug dealers who own a club and want to climb the ladder of success in Los Angeles. One named Frank and one named Eddie (who is a Scot). They steal drugs from the wrong man, Vincent. who in turn wants them to sell for him which they do successfully however a dirty cop, Reilly, wants in on the action. All this is happening whilst an FBI agent, Maxwell, is hunting them all down. They ultimately all meet up in a bedroom at the end of the film. Writing was OK. Story lacked in some places and there were areas which were massively underdeveloped. There was a very weak relationship between Dolph and the undercover agent, that part had no impact on the story. Would have really enjoyed the relationship between the two to be taken further. Would have also been nice to see a further developed story line on the relationship between the two drug dealers and ultimately what happened to Vinnie Jones' character at the end. No closure? Also a little more written on Reilly perhaps? On a positive note, some of the characters he created were original and at times extremely amusing and I enjoyed how all webs weaved ended up meeting in one location at the end. I really enjoyed some of the dialogue too, had sound and original elements in it. Bravo. The director did a good job as much as I can see with the budget he was given. Casting was great. I liked the shifts/breaks between scenes. I also like his choice of locations believe it or not. His choice of characters were daring and paid off. Some of the sky shots of the city as well as the shots overlooking the sea helped open it up a lot. Nice work! I must watch more from him. Action. As far as this goes, it was all ground level but solid and acceptable. Fighting scene at the end between Couture and Lundgren was great. They used a rain machine in the last scene and it enhanced the fight. Great choice by the director. Also seeing Vinnie in action was on the money. Acting. Dolph Lundgren is Dolph Lundgren. To the critic who gave this a bad score, you are not a good reviewer. If I wanted to watch Gosling or Di Caprio I wouldn't have picked up this film. This film is not comparable to anything like that. I am sure at a budget level, whatever that may have been, they did a good job. Dolph will not produce anything worthy of a good actor performance so get over it. In this he was acceptable, lets be honest, when his girlfriend was in serious danger at the bar he didn't change his expression one bit but I did care? No. As far as the others, Vinnie Jones was perfectly cast, he did a great job and wow did he beat poor Eddie to a pulp. Always menacing and threatening as ever. Randy Couture, he is one for the future to watch. I thought he played his part well, maybe he could've seemed a little more menacing at times but he did well. He displayed some softer sides to his character which I really enjoyed, wish I saw more of him doing that. Frank, (Daniel Bonjor) never heard of him before this, but he did a solid job and was well suited for that role. I liked his less menacing approach to his character, was good, possibly question the relationship side a little. Eddie, a Scot, Gianni Capaldi (Dr Who's relative), I thought did really well. As explosive as he was I enjoyed watching his crazy antics, excellent excellent casting, changed paces of scenes and was colorful. Did Peter give him tips? The rest were all solid. On a whole, I thought everyone did well and I enjoyed their performances. Why I rated this film so highly? Its exactly where and what this film is supposed to be. It seems like it was developed the best it could be. Its always nice to see a mixture of old faces mixed with new ones balancing out the possibly worn out actors introducing new blood to the screen. I was kept entertained through it and thoroughly enjoyed many aspects of this film. If there is a better film out there made at this level I would like to see it. Thumbs up!

• Complete rubbish! 1/10

  leonblackwood2013-09-28

  Review: Bad acting. Bad storyline. Total waste of time. I was expecting to see Dolph Lungren kick some ass against Vinnie Jones, but there hardly in the movie. Vinnie only says a couple of words and he's only in a couple of scenes, like Dolph Lungren who also got plastered all over the poster. Randy Couture is in it quite a bit, as the dirty cop, alongside the 2 awful main characters who over acted all the way through the film. By the end of the movie, I was just glad that it was over. I'm just loosing all faith in any movie that Vinnie Jones is in. Awful! Round-Up: From the beginning of this film it just seemed cheap and terribly made. I actually liked Dolph Lungren in the last 2 movies that I saw him in, but he was underused in this film and his lines wasn't that witty. As for the other actors, I haven't really seen them before, and judging by there performance, I doubt that I'll be seeing them again. As I wasn't expecting that much from the movie, I wasn't that disappointed, but I was expecting a little entertainment at least. I recommend this movie to people who like there crime/drama about drug dealers making a mess of there business. 1/10

• Inconsistent pacing and budgetary issues ruin an amiable effort (Small Spoilers)

  callanvass2014-01-23

  I like Dolph Lundgren. He'll never be considered a great actor, but I consider him to be a fun action hero when he has good material to work with. He makes a lot of STD junk these days, but unlike Segal, he at least tries. This one isn't quite as bad as the IMDb rating may indicate. It isn't anything more than mediocre, but considering that I was dreading it, it managed to exceed my expectations a bit with a solid effort. Ambushed's problem isn't a lack of effort, but major pacing issues and the lack of budget to do anything special with the plot. There were a few times in this film that I was actually on the edge of my seat, due to some suspenseful scenes, then it would take me out by becoming way too talky. The inconsistency really does kill it. It also delivers mixed messages. Our lead, Frank (Daniel Bonjour) tries to get the viewer to believe that drug dealing is a great way to make money and get excitement in your life. In the end, the message is "Crime doesn't pay" , which is indeed the correct message, but I felt it was rather arrogant on writer, Augustin's part. Speaking of Daniel Bonjour, his character Frank is a pretentious idiot. He was a smug know it all that I wanted to smack senseless. The fact that he lives to tell about his tale made me even angrier. Dolph Lundgren is NOT the lead. He has a small supporting role. He is relaxed and charismatic in his part, even if he felt a tad wasted in his role. Randy Couture is OK. His dirty cop role had the potential to be riveting, but I felt he handled it with too much angst and over the top anger. Gianni Capaldi is especially irritating as Eddie. His character is out of control, but not in an entertaining way. He got on my nerves too many times. Vinnie Jones seems to play the same part a lot these days. There is nothing here that you haven't witnessed from him before. He says "F*******er" in almost every scene he's in. I used to like Vinnie, but his loud and brash style has worn out its welcome. There is some action, though it is rather underwhelming. There was some shaky camera work that got a bit irritating. The finale is the best thing about the film. It is very intense with plenty of suspense and violence, but it was too little too late for me. Final Thoughts: I'm glad Dolph is beginning to branch out a bit. This movie does have some good things about it, especially that adroit finale, but there are far too many doldrums in between to really make it worth your while. 4/10