2012 was the year of the dream team and I'm not talking
about the NBA superstars participating in the Summer Olympics. Comic book fans
finally saw most of their favorite superheroes join forces in The Avengers, which was a runaway success.
Lovers of classic action films were pleased to see icons like Arnold
Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, and Jean-Claude Van Damme sharing
the screen together in The Expendables 2.
There's one pairing I don't think anyone was clamoring for and that's Dolph
Lundgren and Cuba Gooding Jr. Gooding won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor
for his performance in Jerry Maguire
and that should have skyrocketed his career. Instead, he's been puttering away
in silly comedies (Snow Dogs, Boat Trip) and overwrought dramas (Radio, Red Tails). Gooding might as well try his hand at action.
In One in the Chamber,
he plays an American expatriate living in Prague named Ray Carver, who
reluctantly works as a freelance assassin. He is hired by crime bosses Mikhail
(Andrew Bicknell) and his brother Bobby Suverov (Leo Gregory) to eliminate
their rivals Vlad Tavanian (Alin Panc) and Demyan Ivanov (Louis Mandylor). Vlad
and several of his men are killed, but Demyan escapes and turns the tables on
the Suverovs by hiring Carver to kill them. In response, Mikhail enlists the
services of a legendary hitman named Aleksey Andreev (Lundgren), known and
feared in the underworld as the Wolf. As Carver precariously straddles the line
between both factions, he must also protect Janice Knowles (Claudia Bassols),
an innocent woman with a startling connection to Carver.
Gooding doesn't make much of an impression as the
protagonist. His forte is in more energetic and lighthearted roles. Here, he's
asked to play the silent, brooding type while spouting superfluous voiceover
narration. It's not all that convincing. The real star of the picture is Dolph
Lundgren, who towers over everyone as the eccentric baddie. Clad in a Hawaiian
shirt and a fedora one size too small, he is described by one character as
"Sinatra on steroids." Lundgren adds some much needed humor to a film
that takes itself too seriously at times.
One in the Chamber
was directed by William Kaufman, who also helmed another DTV actioner in Sinners and Saints. Kaufman is a
competent director and he handles the set pieces adequately considering the low
budget. The movie starts off strong as Carver opens fire on the Tavanian crime
family with a high caliber sniper rifle. There's also a rooftop foot chase, a
couple of quick shootouts, and a fight sequence between Gooding and Lundgren. The
action isn't all that spectacular, but it's the only thing holding together a
loose production cobbled together with bad dialogue and a hackneyed plot.
You never expect a lot from a direct-to-video feature and One in the Chamber only delivers in the
most modest of ways. This is a
run-of-the-mill B-movie that could have used more Dolph Lundgren and less Cuba
Gooding Jr.
Rating: * (*****)
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