The Package (2012)

Wonderful character development!

The Worst Film Ever

Don't Believe the Hype

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Well, with a cast that includes Dolph Lundgren and Steve Austin it is no secret that this is a movie targeted for a male audience, and you know it is going to be a testosterone-filled movie.However, director Jesse V. Johnson just didn't fully manage to deliver a package, pardon the pun, that would actually suffice and live up to whatever expectations there might have been given the cast list.The story is about Tommy Wick (played by Steve Austin) who is hired to deliver a package to 'The German' (played by Dolph Lundgren). But getting from point A to point B is more difficult than it would seem, as the gangsters and other bad guys just come at him from every direction at any given time of the day.Indeed, the storyline in "The Package" was nothing impressive, and it was so simple that it was bordering on being insulting to the audience. "The Package" offered nothing, absolutely nothing, to the audience that haven't already been done, seen or tried in other similar movies.And it didn't really help the movie out one bit to have Steve Austin in the lead and watch him run around beating up people whenever his acting skills wouldn't suffice; needless to say that he does a lot of beating up people in "The Package".The acting sequences were not particularly memorable, and I can't really claim to be impressed with Steve Austin's fighting or acting skills. However, it was nice to see Dolph Lundgren in a sadistic bad guy role for a change."The Package" is an action movie that come a dozen a dime. These movies are spewed out constantly, and it failed to stand out in the many other movies that essentially offer the same. It simply came and went without leaving any lasting mark or impression.This was mediocre entertainment in every sense of those words. Four out of ten stars, generously given solely because I grew up with watching Dolph Lundgren action movies.

Tommy (Austin) and his partner Julio (Dopud) are Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who work for big shot mob boss Big Doug (Keenleyside). They go around collecting debts for Mr. Big and everything seems peachy keen. One day, Tommy is entrusted to deliver THE PACKAGE to rival crime lord The German (Dolph). Seems simple enough, but Tommy's life is about to get a lot more stressful, because hordes of baddies start chasing him because they want what he's supposed to deliver. Devon (Shahlavi) commands a gang of highly-trained assassins, including token female gang member Monique (Ganderton), and others, such as Carl (Trimble) fight Tommy every step of the way. Tommy just wants to get back to his wife Darla (Kerr) but it's going to be a battle to get there. Will Tommy survive, or will The Package be marked Return to Sender? Find out today...We enjoyed The Package. It had an old-school vibe that we could really get into. All the movie really consists of is a series of fights between Stone Cold and various other characters. For us, the highlights naturally were the fight with Darren Shahlavi, who was so memorable as the baddie from Bloodmoon (1997), the fight with none other than Jerry Trimble, who we thought looked and sounded great, time has been very kind to him and we hope this revives his movie career, and of course the Dolph-Stone Cold battle that the whole film leads up to. Dolph is known only as "The German" - it seems he plays a lot of Russian, American, and now German characters, never any Swedish ones it seems - and it was nice to see him as a baddie after a long string of hero roles. It seems his last bad guy role, or at least the only one that comes to mind, was way back as Ivan Drago.Not to be confused with the Gene Hackman vehicle The Package (1989), this particular The Package makes for entertaining and pleasant DTV action viewing, and has a different look and feel than another Anchor Bay-released Dolph outing, The Killing Machine (2010) (which interestingly also featured actress Monique Ganderton) - so if you're worried that Anchor Bay is just pumping out a mindless, samey stream of Dolph movies, have no fear, that's not the case. Besides, where else will you see Dolph extolling the virtues of a good fruit salad? That alone makes The Package worth at least one viewing. Of course, the classic clichés are also delivered (pun intended?) - the Prerequisite Torture of the hero, the wife of the hero who wants him to quit his dangerous job/lifestyle, and a favorite of ours, when the baddies find a place where they know the hero is, then break out at least one machine gun and proceed to shoot up the place from outside, in an extended shooting scene, rather than go inside, giving the hero ample time to survive.It was comforting to watch a solidly-made modern-day actioner - it always helps to know you're in capable hands (speaking about the writing and direction, and all the other technical aspects, which were all pretty much right on target). Director Johnson had previously made Pit Fighter (2005), so we were familiar with him from that. The Package gets our stamp of approval.

the package 2013 starts Steve Austin and Dolph Lundgren 2 of my favorite guys in a mess of a movie way off then a Steven sea-gal film i say maximum conviction is better then this at least it displays some of his performance displays this is a dull effort.the plot:tommy must deliver a package to a crime boss named the German,as he is on his way some other bad guys also want the package whats in the package is you will have to see .there is so much bad stuff here these makers were not thinking plus why did not Austin read the script when he signed this film,a bad career move as for Dolph Lundgreen he still makes bad films worse then Steven sea-gal he made films with van Dame the action legend but now his career is down.the climax is pure bad as Austin beats up a lot of random bad guys and a chick then he encounters Dolph only to see how bad he is Dolph is the villain here but a bad one he loses instantly.i wasted my money on this film but only because i am a fan of Dolph Lundgren and stone cold Steve Austin there is not much to watch here except these two if you are a fan do check this out other wise Skipp this film an advice to Steve Austin sir please read before you sign the film don't disappoint your fans.My Rating For The Package Is 4/10.

I won't lie, i am a fan of Steve Austin's movie. They are usually low budget action flicks, but they deliver nicely and I'm in for a good time. Dolph Lundgren is also a star that i like, and owns several DTV movies he made, some pretty good, some not that great, but there is certainly more good than bads.This movie and Maximum Conviction(Austin/Seagal) came out nearly at the same time, but i had trouble finding The Package. After having saw the previous Austin movie with Seagal i tough "hey if Austin can make a decent movie with Seagal, he surely can with Lundgren" but i think either the long wait have put my expectation too hight or i was misleaded by the cover.I tough Austin and Lundgren where partners in this, but the facts are that Lundgren end up being the big bad of the movie, even tough the movie present him as a main character and somewhat when Austin's charisma free partner get kill, you are waiting for him and Lundgren to team up together or something to go fight the baddies team lead by Darren Shahlavi.Honestly i can't understand where it got wrong. I mean the mercenary team of Darren Shahlavi was OK, with a little bit more time and dialogue put trough them i think they could had been better villains and Darren proved many time he is excellent at playing the villain. But here they use him more as a sub boss if i can use a video game term. Add a Jerry Trimble cameo(and the guy still delivers pretty good) for another sub boss and you end up wondering where the movie is going most of it.The final twist was kinda disappointing to me, and the fight between Austin and Lundgren is far from being impressive, especially considering the intro scene of Lundgren that was way better. I know Dolph ain't getting younger, but not that many years ago he delivered some pretty cool fight scenes in his recent movie. Must be the robe or whatever... i dunno.In any case, yes its a DTV movie, and yes it ain't terrible, i appreciated seeing Trimble again, Darren Shahlavi work very well with the script he was given. Lundgren dialogues are very OK, i just feel the general story of the movie could had been better, and the fights more impressive. Austin's hand to hand fights also need improvement, especially if they put him against real martial artist... I know he is a brawler, but still...Anyway i am sure Austin's got many more nice action movie in store, and Lundgren will reprise his excellent role as Gunnar in Expendables 3, so it ain't the end of the world that this movie was under my expectation.I would give it a 6.5 could i use this rating, cause i had a decent time, i was just expecting more.