Bullet Points: Hard Night Falling

Dolph Lundgren is a macho badass and one of my favorite actors. When I found out one of Dolph’s latest films, Hard Night Falling, was streaming on Amazon’s Prime Video service, I jumped at the chance to give it a watch despite its low rating on IMDb. Let’s see if IMDb knows what they are talking about or if Hard Night Falling is actually worth your time?

• The Plot: Ever seen Die Hard? Trick question. Yes, Hard Night Falling is a Die Hard concept film. I’ll call it: Die Hard at an European Villa. Dolph Lundgren plays an Interpol agent, who is late to a party his estranged wife and daughter are attending. The party is crashed by a baddie and his goons, and it appears like they are searching for buried treasure. It is a good thing Dolph is late. It is a bad thing for the baddies. Dolph is able to save his daughter, but his wife is taken hostage. Who will die and who will bleed before Dolph gets his revenge and possibly saves the day?

• The Action: One of the reasons Dolph Lundgren is a personal favorite is because he rarely acts lazy. Dolph still has some good moves as he gets older, but admittedly he has always been more of a weapons guy. Dolph slits a bad guys throat, shoots some fools is the face, and he even finds time to practice a little bit of hand to hand combat. Dolph’s fellow Interpol agents also help, which is not something you always get in Die Hard inspired films. Nothing jumps out in the action department, but the action that Hard Night Falling does contain is fun to watch. 

• The Baddies: No Hans Gruber in this bunch. The main villain, Goro (Hal Yamanouchi), is all about finding the buried treasure under the European Villa. On a ruthless scale Goro is about a 5 out of 10. In all honesty, the bad guys are as dull as month old stale bread. But you still can not wait until they die hard!

Hard Night Falling currently has 3.4 rating on IMDb. That is pretty bad. However, we should always take that rating with a grain of salt. Hard Night Falling sure as hell isn’t that awful. This definitely isn’t a Rene Perez film without Robert Bronzi awful. Hard Night Falling is a watchable but sorta forgettable action flick. I would say it is more like a 5 out of 10.

Now here are some Bonus Bullet Points to wrap up my review…

• The Team: Dolph’s team had a couple of badasses. But the most badass was Emma (Natalie Burn, Acceleration). Burn proves she is another awesome lady of action. 
• Italy: The movie is filmed in Italy with an international cast. I was unfamiliar with a lot of the actors, and I had never seen any of the director’s work. It is directed by Giorgio Bruno. At least the director has a strong Italian name.
• Rumor Has It: The film was originally titled 4 Towers and Bulletproof Action favorite Scott Adkins was attached as the lead hero with Dolph in the role of the lead villain.