Dollman Reviews
Phil H
Super Reviewer
June 16, 2011
Pyun regular Thomerson gives his best 'Dirty Harry' performance here as 'Brick Bardo' (great name :) ) complete with silly shades and a long trench coat, his gritty strong voice barking out silly dialog left right n centre to the wonderfully cliched baddies and gang members lead by a young over acting JE Haley.
This film does seem to have a cult following (nowadays, apon release no) and its easy to see why as its highly enjoyable through its highly nonsensical premise, classic lead character and brilliantly bad effects, Pyun's best film along side 'Cyborg' for sure which I'm sure came as a shock to him.
There is something about this B-movie that I like, its hard to pinpoint as the film is so ridiculous and belongs in a cartoon realm, I guess its the quaint 'Twilight Zone' charm of the plot and the cheesy yet fun effects mixed with some great hammy acting.
Pyun regular Thomerson gives his best 'Dirty Harry' performance here as 'Brick Bardo' (great name :) ) complete with silly shades and a long trench coat, his gritty strong voice barking out silly dialog left right n centre to the wonderfully cliched baddies and gang members lead by a young over acting JE Haley.
This film does seem to have a cult following (nowadays, apon release no) and its easy to see why as its highly enjoyable through its highly nonsensical premise, classic lead character and brilliantly bad effects, Pyun's best film along side 'Cyborg' for sure which I'm sure came as a shock to him.
Luke B
Super Reviewer
July 4, 2009
What starts off as a cheap sci-fi turns into all out comedy. Dollman is the story of a renegade police man from another planet. He crash lands on earth only to discover that in comparison to humans, he is 13inches tall. The film mixes the comedy and action well on it's low budget. Jackie Earle Haley is rather good in his role, but it's easy to see why he took a 13 year break from acting. One of the best twists comes when Haley squashes Dollman's arch nemesis with his hand. The floating head had been built up as the main bad guy but his demise was understandable and necessary. It was amusing to see a hardboiled detective be turned into such an nonthreatening force. It's cheap and cheerful fun, with a sense of humour.
Lafe F
Super Reviewer
July 15, 2007
A cool B-movie. Tom Thomerson was a cool character as "Dollman", who makes the movie greater. The alien planet was a great beginning. The setting was limited when crashed on Earth in the gravel-pit and tenements of the Bronx; I wish more of New York was explored. There are some fun sequences when Dollman is fighting the drug gang. The miniature-size effects were not used often enough; and relied too much instead on low-budget editing effects. A Full Moon classic!
Sylvester K
Super Reviewer
June 11, 2012
It's so bad that it's actually kinda good. It has some really funny moments that was not forceful, just genuinely funny. At least the director tried to make it seem like a well written film, has lots of random subplots and Mexican Exploitation but ultimately it was quite entertaining.
May 20, 2007
A cool film based on the comic book character. Tim Thomerson is awesome as the small man from space dealing with an alien and a gang who threaten the world with a nuclear weapon. A great film with great characters.
January 31, 2013
Dollman is a gloriously cheesy sci-fi/action film that has a wonderfully corny premise, funny humor, plenty of action, and a kick-ass hero. There is never a dull moment to be had in this film because it embraces its goofiness and takes you on a wild ride if you let it. Don't be a pretentious asshole, just let go and have fun with it.
November 25, 2012
Exactly what you'd expect (and less) from a movie of this title and synopsis. I don't know why I bother to watch these types of B- (bordering very close to Z-) movie shit storms and I sure as hell don't understand why I have the desire to watch the godforsaken sequel. Not recommended for anyone other than those who remember the "golden age" of direct-to-video in the 1990s.
Sylvester K
Super Reviewer
June 11, 2012
It's so bad that it's actually kinda good. It has some really funny moments that was not forceful, just genuinely funny. At least the director tried to make it seem like a well written film, has lots of random subplots and Mexican Exploitation but ultimately it was quite entertaining.
May 31, 2012
It's quick and cheesy, but it's a lot of fun. There's plenty of violence and gore and crumby special effects, with a decent little story and fun setting. The over-sized sets were pretty cool and Dollman is an interesting action hero. It's just a entertaining B-movie.
January 17, 2012
Is this a z-movie? Yes. Does it have sloppy moments, questionable science and some laughable special effects? You betcha. Is Dollman one of my favourite movies of all time? Emphatically so. Dollman is one of the finest cheese fests that Full Moon studios ever turned out -- correction, one of the finest cheesefests EVER released. Dollman manages to be engaging, imaginative and unashamed of its perceived flaws. Overall, if you like bad movies as much as I do and you haven't seen Dollman, DO SO! its on Netflix, for godssake, so add it to the cue, grab a bucket of popcorn and suspend belief for a little over an hour. You wont regret it!
February 8, 2011
I give this movie 5 stars with all the irony I can muster. Is it good? No. Is it entertaining? God yes.
thirdman
November 22, 2009
With being disappointed with the past couple of Full Moon movies I've given a chance, I wasn't expecting much out of Dollman. To my surprise this film was a lot better than its silly premise seemed like it would be. Most of the film's strength was with its great lead character Brick Bardo, and the great performance by Tim Thomerson. Thomerson, who is one of my favorite actors to have worked with Full Moon, once again slips perfectly into his role (like he did in the Trancers series) and really brings Brick Bardo to life.
Sure, Bardo could be considered a knock-off of Dirty Harry. But really, what film of Full Moon's couldn't be deemed a slight rip-off of some other film? I liked the arrogant way Bardo spoke and how he had almost no respect for anyone, even the people he is saving. At the start of the film he is trying to rescue a bunch of people being held hostage in a laundromat, all while insulting most of these hostages for being overweight. And he had one hell of a gun, which could explode someone on his planet, but was reduced to causing huge wounds on Earth's much larger humans.
The film could have used some slightly better villains. Sprug doesn't go to much use in the movie, and he and Bardo's rivalry doesn't pan out much. I did like Jackie Earle Haley as Braxton Red, a gang member who Thomerson wants to bring down because of his criminal ways and the mistreatment he gives to a woman who befriends Bardo. Haley was fine in his performance, but the screenplay doesn't flesh him out more than a standard goon for Bardo to go up against.
Dollman is nicely paced, decently filmed and has another great score like so many other Full Moon movies do. The film is also easily one of my favorite films from this studio, which is a major plus. The film has a slight sci-fi vibe to it, and I typically dislike the science fiction themed films that Full Moon releases. But this one mixes its sci-fi aspects with its action elements in a way that made for one of the best experiences I've had from this studio.
On his home planet of Arturus, Brick Bardo (Tim Thomerson) is one of the toughest cops around. Playing by no one's rules but his own, he employs a take no prisoners way of taking down bad guys. This of course doesn't sit well with his superiors, nor the crime bosses that plague the streets with crime. After chasing down his archenemy Sprug (Frank Collison) in his interstellar space ship, Bardo crash lands on our planet. The problem is that while Bardo was a regular sized man on his planet, he is only about 13 inches here on Earth.
With being disappointed with the past couple of Full Moon movies I've given a chance, I wasn't expecting much out of Dollman. To my surprise this film was a lot better than its silly premise seemed like it would be. Most of the film's strength was with its great lead character Brick Bardo, and the great performance by Tim Thomerson. Thomerson, who is one of my favorite actors to have worked with Full Moon, once again slips perfectly into his role (like he did in the Trancers series) and really brings Brick Bardo to life.
Sure, Bardo could be considered a knock-off of Dirty Harry. But really, what film of Full Moon's couldn't be deemed a slight rip-off of some other film? I liked the arrogant way Bardo spoke and how he had almost no respect for anyone, even the people he is saving. At the start of the film he is trying to rescue a bunch of people being held hostage in a laundromat, all while insulting most of these hostages for being overweight. And he had one hell of a gun, which could explode someone on his planet, but was reduced to causing huge wounds on Earth's much larger humans.
The film could have used some slightly better villains. Sprug doesn't go to much use in the movie, and he and Bardo's rivalry doesn't pan out much. I did like Jackie Earle Haley as Braxton Red, a gang member who Thomerson wants to bring down because of his criminal ways and the mistreatment he gives to a woman who befriends Bardo. Haley was fine in his performance, but the screenplay doesn't flesh him out more than a standard goon for Bardo to go up against.
Dollman is nicely paced, decently filmed and has another great score like so many other Full Moon movies do. The film is also easily one of my favorite films from this studio, which is a major plus. The film has a slight sci-fi vibe to it, and I typically dislike the science fiction themed films that Full Moon releases. But this one mixes its sci-fi aspects with its action elements in a way that made for one of the best experiences I've had from this studio.
SteveMiller
September 17, 2008
"Dollman" is a fun, fast-paced sci-fi action comedy where Tim Thomerson gets to show off his roots as a comedian even while playing one of the toughest action heroes to ever grace the silver screen. (Has any Bruce Willis characters taken on an army of giants carrying automatic firearms? How about Vin Diesel? Arnold Schwartzenegger? James Cagney? Douglas Fairbanks? No, they have not!) Thomerson has some very funny interplay with his new giant friends, even while doing a very funny take-off on Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry character in the way Brick Bardo talks and carries himself. (The opening scene on Bardo's homeworld where he deals with a hostage situation in a fashion that would make Harry proud is one of this film's high points.)
It might be the New York setting or the way the street gang behaves, but "Dollman" feels more like a Troma Film than a typical Charles Band production--it's closer in feel and tone to "Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD" than any Band film I've seen so far. This isn't a bad thing, though... it can lead to all sorts of "what-if" fantasies regarding possible creative bi-costal team-ups by two of the greatest B-movie moguls of the late 20th century, Charles Band and Lloyd Kaufman. (How about "Toxic Avenger vs. the Demonic Toys", "Surf Nazis Must Kill the Puppet Master" or "Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD: The Case of the Killer Bong" anyone?)
The film is blessed with a talented cast, all of whom are perfectly cast in their parts and who have good lines to deliver. The special effects are passable and the action and humor is top-notch.
Unfortunately, this is another Full Moon feature that is simply too short for it to be as good as it might have been. This would have been a much stronger film if more time spent on developing the characters in the movie, primarily some of the connections between the people Bardo encounters Earth-side. (For example, there seems to be history between the gangleader and the single mom, but we never get to learn what that is. Knowing that could have lent more impact to the film's conclusion.)
It's also unfortunate that instead of adding such character development scenes, the filmmakers chose to pad the already brief running time with several stretches of random city scenes. Director Albert Pyun establishes the rundown Bronx neighborhood every effectively when Brick Bardo first crashes there, but then he establishes it again and again, for no real good reason. The end result is a film that clocks in about 70 minutes, but it really probably just shy of an hour long.
However, the padding isn't to the degree where it's destructive; it's just a shame that it's there in place of more important story matter that should have been present in the film. Despite its flaws, "Dollman" is one of the best films to issue forth from Charles Band's idea factory and it's another reason why the late 1980s and early 1990s is the Full Moon Golden Age.
Dollman
Starring: Tim Thomerson, Kamala Lopez, Jackie Earle Haley and Humberto Ortiz
Director: Albert Pyun
Brick Bardo (Thomerson), the toughest cop on the distant world of Auturus, crashlands his spaceship on Earth while pursuing a dangerous criminal through a spacial anomoly. He proceeds to defend a single mother (Lopez) against a violent gang in the South Bronx, proving that size isn't everything because Brick stands only ten inches and he now in a world of giants.
"Dollman" is a fun, fast-paced sci-fi action comedy where Tim Thomerson gets to show off his roots as a comedian even while playing one of the toughest action heroes to ever grace the silver screen. (Has any Bruce Willis characters taken on an army of giants carrying automatic firearms? How about Vin Diesel? Arnold Schwartzenegger? James Cagney? Douglas Fairbanks? No, they have not!) Thomerson has some very funny interplay with his new giant friends, even while doing a very funny take-off on Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry character in the way Brick Bardo talks and carries himself. (The opening scene on Bardo's homeworld where he deals with a hostage situation in a fashion that would make Harry proud is one of this film's high points.)
It might be the New York setting or the way the street gang behaves, but "Dollman" feels more like a Troma Film than a typical Charles Band production--it's closer in feel and tone to "Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD" than any Band film I've seen so far. This isn't a bad thing, though... it can lead to all sorts of "what-if" fantasies regarding possible creative bi-costal team-ups by two of the greatest B-movie moguls of the late 20th century, Charles Band and Lloyd Kaufman. (How about "Toxic Avenger vs. the Demonic Toys", "Surf Nazis Must Kill the Puppet Master" or "Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD: The Case of the Killer Bong" anyone?)
The film is blessed with a talented cast, all of whom are perfectly cast in their parts and who have good lines to deliver. The special effects are passable and the action and humor is top-notch.
Unfortunately, this is another Full Moon feature that is simply too short for it to be as good as it might have been. This would have been a much stronger film if more time spent on developing the characters in the movie, primarily some of the connections between the people Bardo encounters Earth-side. (For example, there seems to be history between the gangleader and the single mom, but we never get to learn what that is. Knowing that could have lent more impact to the film's conclusion.)
It's also unfortunate that instead of adding such character development scenes, the filmmakers chose to pad the already brief running time with several stretches of random city scenes. Director Albert Pyun establishes the rundown Bronx neighborhood every effectively when Brick Bardo first crashes there, but then he establishes it again and again, for no real good reason. The end result is a film that clocks in about 70 minutes, but it really probably just shy of an hour long.
However, the padding isn't to the degree where it's destructive; it's just a shame that it's there in place of more important story matter that should have been present in the film. Despite its flaws, "Dollman" is one of the best films to issue forth from Charles Band's idea factory and it's another reason why the late 1980s and early 1990s is the Full Moon Golden Age.
Dollman
Starring: Tim Thomerson, Kamala Lopez, Jackie Earle Haley and Humberto Ortiz
Director: Albert Pyun
