If you would ask any of my friends, they would tell you that I am an 80's fan. Period. Now, in our country, there are hundreds of thousands...probably millions of people who can claim the same thing. So I don't think I'm special or unique, or anything of the sort. I DO think that I'm a TRUE 80's fan, as I enjoy all aspects of the culture of that decade. I always hate people who claim to be fans of 80's music because they like 2 Poison songs (generally "Every Rose Has It's Thorn and "Something to Believe In") and 3 Guns 'n Roses Songs. Half of these people probably don't even know the group who wrote this music. So if you're going to claim to be a fan of something, do your research.
Now I'm not the most fluent in the culture, but I am pretty intelligent, and my area of expertise is 80's movies. While there are still hundreds of them I haven't seen, there are hundreds that I have seen and can quote verbatim. I am one who corrects someone when they misquote an 80's movie, even if they just missed the quote by one word.
So where am I going with all this? Well, just look at the damn title of this post and you'll understand. One of the great villains from any 80's movie is Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. He's also one of the most quotable, when you measure this by the percentage of lines that you can quote from one character. His percentage: 100% (at least his English lines). "I must break you," "If he dies, he dies," "To the end," He is not human, he is like a piece of iron," (that last one isn't even said in English, but it's still quotable. So basically, I'm saying that Dolph Lundgren really did a lot with a little. He made you absolutely hate this character while speaking roughly 7 lines the entire movie.
So wouldn't an actor of this extensive talent warrant Oscar nods, red carpet coverage, and other leading roles. Well, Dolph got some other leading roles: In 1987 he fulfilled a lot of kids' dreams by scoring the role of He-Man in "Masters of the Universe." He also had leading roles in such movies as "I Come in Peace," and "Universal Soldier" (alongside Jean-Claude VanDamme). He then faded into obscurity, securing roles in smaller films that did not get much press, with the exception of "Johnny Mnemonic."
So, what has happened to him since 1995 and "Johnny Mnemonic"? Well, he's now gone into directing. He's been billed as director of "The Defender", "The Mechanik" and "Diamond Dogs." Now, I'm not one to criticize, but He-Man doesn't belong on the Director's chair. He needs to be right there in the action, busting skulls and shooting up villains (or good guys, depending on his role). He would have made a great villain to Shwarzenegger's Terminator in any of those movies. Or he could have played the new Terminator in Terminator 4, yes they're making another one. But I guess he has a right to hang up his boxing gloves, Power Sword, and guns and step behind the camera to make his own films. But I have to say, Drago was just Lundgren's second role in a film and he played it so well that I would have expected much more out of such a promising career. But I guess I'll have to live with, "I must break you" as my favorite Lundgren quote because there probably aren't any more coming. But thank you Dolph for bringing the Cold War and the battle between He-Man and Skeletor right into my living room in such a riveting and memorable fashion.
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