DOLLMAN (1991)

DIRECTED by Albert Pyun.

SCREENPLAY by Charles Band, David Pabian and Chris Roghair. 

STARRING  - Tim Thomerson as Brick Bardo,  Jackie Earle Hayley as Braxton Red,  Kamala Lopez as Debi Alejandro,  Humberto Ortiz as Kevin Alejandro, Frank Collinson as Sprug.

PLOT - On the far off planet of Arturos, maverick cop Brick Bardo is having a bad day. After rescuing a bunch of hostages from a laundrette, Brick is ambushed by his arch enemy, Sprug. The mutilated madman tries to gain vengeance on Bardo for the various injuries the cop has inflicted upon him. Brick turns the tables on his foe and Sprug escapes by flying off planet

Brick pursues Sprug and the two end up flying through a dimensional rift. They arrive on Earth only to find that the rift has shrunk them both. Brick Bardo is now only thirteen inches tall.

Sprug teams up with a group of local gangsters led by the psychotic Braxton Red, whilst Brick rescues a young single mother, Debi, who is trying and failing to stop the drug dealing gang pushing Crack and Heroin into her run down Bronx neighbourhood.

Can the diminutive lawman survive on this harsh new world ?

DIALOUGE  - "Shit, Giants ! A place full of giants. I hate giants !"

PERFORMANCES  - Jack Deth himself, Tim Thomerson plays the role of Brick Bardo, the thirteen inch alien cop. As with his Jack Deth character, Thomerson makes for a perfect, down at heel maverick cop. Bardo's methods are unconventional and uncompromising and he doesn't take any crap from anybody. Thomerson adopts a Clint Eastwood style of line delivery, practically scowling his way through the dialogue, it works to put over the point that the character of Bardo is basically Dirty Harry...in miniature. Thomerson looks like he's having a blast in the role and plays up to the stereotype as opposed to it merely being an impersonation of Eastwood.

Future Hollywood character actor Jackie Earl Hayley plays Braxton Red, leader of the drug dealing gang. Hayley gives probably the most three dimensional performance in the film. Red is a jumped up nobody, an opportunistic psychopath. He knows that he's living in a poverty ridden hellhole, he knows that he's never going to get out of the ghetto in which he has spent his life, but he's determined to be king of the rat heap all the same. Hayley is traditionally quite an intense actor and he brings that same intensity to the role of Red. This is quite an early role for Hayley and he was to go on to do bigger (but not necessarily better) things, he played Rorschach in the film adaptation of Alan Moore's Watchmen (a film which pissed Moore off so much that he demanded his name be taken off it) and later became the new Freddy Kreuger in the ill advised remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. Hayley was good but the film was terrible, besides NOBODY can play Freddy like Robert Englund, so it's futile to even try.

Frank Collinson plays Bardo's arch enemy, Sprug. Sprug is a brilliant character, he's had so many clashes with Bardo and lost so many body parts in the process that he's now just a living severed head attached to a floating disk. Collinson plays Sprug with permanent mad, staring eyes and camps up the O.T.T character brilliantly. The joke is, that during the first half of the movie Sprug is portrayed as being the main bad guy and you expect him to be the bane of Bardo's life until the end of the film, but he's not been on Earth five minutes and Braxton Red just squashes him with the palm of his hand. It comes totally out of left field and it's great.

Poor old Sprug, just goes to show, there's always someone bigger and nastier waiting around the corner no matter how powerful you think you are...

Kamala Lopez plays Debi, the single mother who befriends Brick and takes him in. Debi is a fiesty and dedicated mother to her young son, Kevin, determined to ensure he gets the best chance in life and doesn't fall into the gangbanger lifestyle that resulted in his father's death. Lopez has some nice scenes with Thomerson as the two discuss thier respective pasts and it makes for a convincing onscreen friendship that builds between the two. A mention must be made here of Humberto Ortiz who plays Debi's young son, he manages to circumvent the standard rule of kids being annoying in movies by the fact that he gets all the best lines and delivers them with excellent comedy timing, especially when he's berating Brick - "Is everybody on your planet an asshole ?"

SFX - Dollman isn't a massively effects heavy movie. Most of the effects are in the first half of the film where we get some pretty cheesy spaceships and model shots. The character of Sprug is probaby the main special effect being a flying human head. In close up shots it's the actors face, in long shots it's a dummy's head strapped to a remote controlled flying disk and it shows.

There's a few examples of decent practical gore effects in the early scenes where Brick is literally blowing criminals to pieces with his super powerful gun and some impressive pyrotechnics later on in the final showdown scenes.

SEX & VIOLENCE - Body parts fly everywhere when Brick uses his supergun. It's splatterific. However, when Brick arrives on Earth and is shrunk, his gun shrinks with him and as a consequence his bullets aren't as devastating when they hit people, although they can still spectacularly blow up vehicles. It's inconsistent.

RATING  - Dollman is a lot of trashy fun. It's first half on Bardo's home planet is definitely more entertaining than the second half. Once Bardo arrives on Earth the story slows down slightly. It's not a deal breaker though as things do pick up again for the film's climax. 

With some decent performances and cool character concepts elevating the whole thing, Dollman manages to rise above its budgetary restraints and is a fun little slice of early 90's sci-fi action.

Overall rating - 3 and a half shrunken cops out of 5.