Movie Review: Missionary Man

Essentially a retelling of Clint Eastwood's Pale Rider, which is a second-rate rehash of George Stevens' Shane, Dolph Lundgren's Missionary Man simply doesn't have enough original elements to separate it from the rest of the direct-to-DVD fare. Some scenes work, especially those in which the hulking main character Ryder (who remains nameless in the film) wipes the floors with villains, but overall a lack of unique action scenes and noteworthy storytelling prevent Missionary Man from being even slightly memorable.

A mysterious man-with-no-name (Dolph Lundgren), who drinks tequila and reads from a tattered bible, rumbles into town on his old-fashioned motorcycle to attend the funeral of J.J., a friend who recently died by drowning. J.J.'s family won't accept his death as an accident, and blame the local oppressor Reno, a vicious man who rules the town by fear and plots to build a casino on the neighboring reservation to fuel his drug smuggling business. The tall, blonde-haired mystery man quickly causes problems for Reno when he begins to assault hired hands and interfere with Reno's underhanded practices. Soon he finds himself the target of Jarfe (John Enos III) and his murderous motorcycle gang, a motley mob of miscreants out to end the disruption of their partner's plotting - but a powerful wrath of vengeance fuels the steely-eyed stranger and no sin shall go unpunished.

"No sin shall go unpunished" is also the tagline for the film, but oddly enough there are plenty of sins that go unrecompensed - and they all belong to Ryder. An anti-hero vigilante who goes above and beyond murdering for vengeance, Ryder exhibits no emotions as he blows people away with his sawed-off shotgun. What makes his actions even more controversial is the fact that he reads from a bible and imparts the idea that what he does is somehow in league with God. Knocking back shots of tequila nonstop also makes for an interesting contrast in a character that is supposedly "doing the right thing."