Pentathlon

I had initially only heard of the pentathlon through the title of this movie.  And then about a month ago a buddy of mine told me what it entailed.  There are five events that the athlete has to compete in and they include swimming, running, fencing, horse riding and shooting a gun.  My friend described it as “the movie villain training event” which is a great summation and one that I totally agree with.  So because the 2012 Olympics are underway I thought it would be fitting to check this one out.

Dolph Lundgren (Universal Soldier: Regeneration, Johnny Mnemonic) plays Eric Brogar, an East German athlete competing in the 1988 Seoul games.  His coach is Heinrich Muller (David Soul (Salem’s Lot, Magnum Force)) and he’s a neo-Nazi crazy sonuvabitch.  He wants Eric to cheat by taking some sort of drugs but Brogar refuses and wins the gold anyway.  Eric then promptly defects to the U.S. to escape his miserable life in communist Germany and his coach.  Well only a couple of months later the Berlin wall falls and Brogar feels like an asshole.  He becomes depressed and an alcoholic.  Years later Muller decides to commit a terrorist act in America right before the 1996 Atlanta games.  Eric pulls himself together (with the help of his boss/trainer at the local rib shack…I’m not kidding) and decides to compete once again but gets caught up in Muller’s bullshit.

If that sounds like a lot of story, I guess it kind of is.  The plot changes pretty frequently but it never gets confusing.  I like how quickly things move in this.  It’s not an action movie really but there’s a bunch of exciting shit.  Like the constant tension between Muller and, well, everyone, the comeback of Eric, the defecting scene towards the beginning and the terrorist plot towards the end.  It’s all good.

It’s interesting that this is an R picture.  I can’t help but think that if something like this was made today it would be PG or PG-13.  These guys went for it and had cursing, Nazis, terrorism and people getting shot and beat up.  I especially like that Eric uses some of his pentathlon skills to battle the bad guys.  There’s a scene where Brogar has a sword fight and another where he shoots some henchmen.

You know, Dolph Lundgren is a better actor than I think most people want to admit.  I mean he was really menacing in Rocky IV, kind of sad and pathetic but mean as hell in The Expendables and Universal Soldier, totally whacked out in Johnny Mnemonic and even sweet, caring and vengeful in Showdown in Little Tokyo.  He’s got some range to him.  In this one Lundgren has inner demons that he has to triumph over as well as some real life demons, the fucked in the head coach.  Sure, maybe his accent isn’t consistent throughout but I feel like I’m in good hands with Dolph.  Like whatever comes up he can deal with it and we’ll eventually pull through this shit together.

And I have to mention that the director is Bruce Malmuth who did Hard to Kill right before this.  He also did the unfortunately boring Nighthawks starring Stallone.  Pentathlon was the last thing he directed before he died.  Between that and Hard to Kill, he went out on top in my eyes.

So yeah, I would recommend this movie.  The bulk of it has less to do with the Olympics than I expected but it’s still a fun time.  Not great but not bad.  It’s perfect for a one time watch.