The bestDolph Lundgrenmovies include several big-budget releases and several lower-budget action films. Lundgren is a Swedish actor who became one of the 1990s biggest action stars thanks to hisbreakout in the 80s in movies likeRocky IVandMasters of the Universe.He joined the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme andSteven Seagal to becomeone of the most famous DTV action heroes of the 90s, but has since moved on to bigger things.
Unlike many action stars like Van Damme and Seagal, who mostly made their names in martial arts films,Lundgren was more of an Arnold Schwarzenegger-type action star,someone who uses his muscles more than anything, unless it’s a big gun. By the 2000s, Lundgren took on roles in some bigger films,includingThe Expendablesseries,and he even signed on to star in a superhero movie as part of theAquamancast. However, for many people, he will always remain connected to theRockyfranchise as Ivan Drago.
In 1987, the Mattel toy franchise, theMasters of the Universe, came to the big screen with a live-action adaptation. The franchise had already seen enormous success with action figures and then a television cartoon, and for the live-action series,Dolph Lundgren signed on to play Prince Adam,also known to fans as He-Man. However, the movie went a long way away from the storyline most fans were familiar with.
Skeletor (played brilliantly by Frank Langella) took over Castle Grayskull and He-Man ends up being transported to Earth, where he meets two California teenagers (played by Courteney Cox and Barry Livingston) and he has to stop Skeletor from getting the device that would help him open a portal anywhere.Lundgren was good as He-Manin the movie, and really delivered the performance that the franchise deserved. Despite its poor reputation thanks to lackluster reviews, it became a cult classic.
There have been three big-screen movies aboutMarvel Comics' antihero, The Punisher.The worst of the three came out in 1989 withDolph Lundgren starring as Frank Castle,the man who kills the villains the legal system lets slip through. However, while it is the worst of the three, that doesn’t mean it is a terrible movie. Instead, it lives up to its reputation as a B-level action flick that has developed a cult following over the years.
The primary problem withThe Punisheris that the character is only a Marvel Comics character in name. He isn’t the military man who seeks vengeance, but a former undercover police officer. The origin story remains familiar, though, with his wife and kids killed in a mafia car bombing, and this gives Lundgren plenty of chances to gun down bad guys as he closes in on the man responsible.
InShowdown in Little Tokyo,Dolph Lundgren teams up with the late Brandon Lee for a buddy cop movie.Lundgren is an American cop raised in Japanwho has little respect for American culture, while Lee plays an American from Japanese descent who doesn’t care about Japanese culture. What they do share in common is that they are both martial arts masters who use their fighting skills to bust criminals.
Showdown in Little Tokyowas Brandon Lee’s first American movie role.
Showdown in Little Tokyoreceived terrible reviews when it was released, but it has since become a cult classic. Easily, what makes it so great for Dolph Lundgren fans is the chemistry he shares with Brandon Lee, in the second-generation star’s first American movie. It is also a film that has received more positive reviews in later reappraisals.
While just a voice role, Dolph Lundgren had quite a nice presence in the secondMinionsmovie,Minions: The Rise of Gru.This film brought the little Minions back, but this time tried to tie in to the mainDespicable Mefranchise, by having them team up with a child-aged Gru when the Minions first met him. The action seesGru wanting to join the super-villain team he idolizes, the Vicious 6.However, they have no time for him and become his enemies.
As for Lundgren, he voiced the character of Svengeance, a member of the Vicious 6. It was a fun performance, and a nice call-back for anyone who heard his very recognizable voice. Another fun piece of trivia is that Jean-Claude Van Damme voiced another member of the villainous group, Jean-Clawed.
WhenSylvester Stallone put together his cast forThe Expendables,he reached out to anyone and everyone who was an action movie star in the 80s and 90s and then brought in some modern-day stars as well. This meant not only getting the big guns, with himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis, but also calling in names like Dolph Lundgren.
Lundgren had one of the best roles in the first film, as a member of the main team who betrays them before eventually finding his way back to their side in the end. This allowed the first movie to have twogreat fights between Lundgren and Jet Li,in a perfect contrast of styles. Lundgren’s role lessened in the sequels, but he was spectacular in the first film.
Dolph Lundgren has a handful of science fiction and fantasy movies in his career. One of the best ishis alien movieI Come in Peace.In this film, Lundgren is a police officer namedJack Caine who meets an alien copwho arrives on Earth trying to stop a drug-dealing alien from his planet who is killing people on Earth to extract something that allows him to make his very addictive drugs.
While the movie is silly in many spots, it is still a pure Dolph Lundgren action flick experience, with the Swedish actor turning in a great performance as the cop trying to stop this alien killer before he hurts any more humans. The movie leans into its more ridiculous tendencies, making it more fun than it could have been otherwise. This is easilyone of Lundgren’s best action moviehero roles.
Universal Soldierwas the biggest andbest action team-up movie for Dolph Lundgren in his career.The sci-fi action film saw him work with Jean-Claude Van Damme, who plays Luc Deveraux, a man killed in the Vietnam War who is brought back to life decades later in the Universal Soldier program. However, he goes on the run when he learns what happened and ends up in a battle for his life.
Lundgren plays Sgt. Andrew Scott, Luc’s enemy who lost his sanity in the Vietnam War and died in battle against Luc. However, he was also brought back to life after his death, and while Luc wants to be left alone, Andrew wants to kill him again. Seeing these two beloved action heroes fighting each other makesthe firstUniversal Soldierone of the 90s' best action cult classics. It also spawned several sequels.
Dolph Lundgren took on his first comic book role inThe Punisher,but three decades later, he had a role in a much larger superhero franchise. In 2018,Lundgren joined the DCU asKing Nereus inAquaman.He was Mera’s father and one of the most important leaders in the underwater kingdoms. It was fun seeing the ’90s action star in a big-budget superhero movie, and he got plenty to do.
Lundgren also returned for the sequel, although it was not as good as the first, and his role was a little less important this time around. However, seeing Lundgren playing a superhero in a major DC Universe movie was thrilling for people who grew up watching him in his low-budget DTV movies for two decades.
After three movies, theRockyfranchise decided to deliver its pro-American Cold War movie withRocky IV.This film had the SwedishDolph Lundgren play the Russian fighter Ivan Dragoand had him become Rocky’s deadliest opponent to date. The franchise continued to raise the stakes, this time by having Drago shockingly kill Apollo Creed in an exhibition fight that went too far.
Rocky IVis the movie that made Lundgren a star.
Not only did Rocky have to beat the bigger, seemingly unbeatable Russian bruiser, but he needed to get revenge for the death of his friend. This made Ivan Drago the most hated villain in the franchise’s history, although he was also a pawn for the Russian government that they threw away when they finished with him.Rocky IVis the movie that made Lundgren a star.
Dolph Lundgren returned as Ivan Drago 33 years afterRocky IV,and it actually made the character sympathetic, which was shocking considering his previous actions.InCreed II,Drago is down on his luck.His country turned its back on him thanks to his loss to Rocky and his wife had left him. He is training his son and living vicariously through him. This leads to Drago’s son, Viktor Creed, challenging Adonis Creed, the son of the man his father killed so many years before.
This set up a situation where Ivan Drago and Rocky Balboa finally mended fences after so many years, and it is able to take Rocky’s most hated villain and turn him into something more sympathetic. This ended up not only being one of the best movies in theRockyfranchise but also the best movie inDolph Lundgren’scareer.
