Pentathlon (1994) *

Cast: Dolph Lundgren, David Soul, Roger Moseley

Directed by Bruce Malmuth

Dolph stars an Olympic athlete Eric Brogar who defects to the United States to escape communist rule in East Germany, much to the dismay of his Neo-Nazi coach Mueller (Soul, in a hilariously awful performance) which leads to the murder of Brogar’s father and best friend, feeling sorry for himself Brogar meets up with a restaurant owner who then trains him for his big comeback in the Olympics, only to find his ex-coach looking to ruin his comeback. Pentathlon revolves around white supremacists trying to kill some type of ethnic diplomat and Dolph having to stop them, and while the premise is certainly ridiculous enough to work as campy fun, Pentathlon feels too much like TV pilot, and not even a good one. Dolph Lundgren is merely wooden in the role, and without his fists of fury, he can’t elevate this one on any entertaining level. David Soul though almost succeeds in making this a camp classic. Almost but not quite, as David Soul’s failed attempts at infusing his character with crazed intensity leads to many awkward moments just sadly not enough, as Soul doesn’t have nearly enough screen time. The really deadly sin, is that Pentathlon doesn’t have any real action to justify its predictable plot, terrible acting and ridiculous premise which in turn renders this as a complete bore.