Originally published December 2017

It's a fun tradition to get together with your family and friends to watch movies around the holidays, about the holidays, whether it be It's a Wonderful Life, Die Hard, or 8 Crazy Nights (if you have no other choice). If you enjoy movies like Die Hard and Lethal Weapon, action movies that happen to take place during the holidays, it may be time to add another movie to your list. I'm talking about Dark Angel, also known as I Come in Peace. At the time of this review, the movie is not available for streaming, but it is available on Blu-ray (and on YouTube) and, in my opinion, deserving of your time and money.

Don't get me wrong. It won't unseat Die Hard from the throne of greatest Christmas action movie. If you like the Lethal Weapon series, it probably won't impact your opinion of that either. But Dark Angel draws from these Christmas action classics and will likely entertain you in ways you wouldn't expect.

Pros

• Significant number of explosions

• Dolph Lundgren has shed a lot of his accent by this point and makes for a compelling action hero

• Chemistry and banter between Lundgren and Benben are surprisingly good

• Some fantastic one-liners and goofy moments

• Decent special effects

• Consistent and quick pacing

Cons

• The "roaring" of the main villain gets annoying and is just dumb

• Yuppie drug lord sub-plot is put on hold without a conclusion

• Romance subplot doesn't quite work; it would be better if they were falling in love instead of trying to sort their problems out

Plot & Thoughts

Detective Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren), the determined cliché with the best name on the police force, is walking the razor's edge in trying to take down a drug kingpin and his yuppie cronies known as The White Boys in the city of Houston. His partner is killed during a botched undercover mission, alongside members of the White Boys who were murdered by a mysterious futuristic weapon. Caine is paired with an FBI agent (Brian Benben) to help solve the murders. They soon discover that there is another drug dealer on the loose who may not be of this world.

That last sentence is the real meat of the plot for this movie. Dark Angel is a bad name for this movie; it is also known as I Come in Peace, which immediately insinuates the nature of the movie. There is an intergalactic drug dealer who is going around and snatching up people's brain juice to sell on the space black market and it falls to Detective Caine to stop him. There's another alien who is probably a galaxy policeman that is hunting down this growly, annoying drug dealer who crosses paths with Caine at certain points to drop some exposition. Whenever this guy shows up, there's a lot of explosions and a lot of weird hissing from both aliens. The best they could do to make these guys different from us was to make them seem taller, have them make stupid faces, growl a lot, and have bad haircuts. Nonetheless, it adds to the goofiness and entertainment factor.

What really makes this movie work is the surprising amount of chemistry between Lundgren and Benben. They do the buddy cop shtick, but it works really well. Benben is the up-tight, newbie who is extremely book smart but socially inept, while Lundgren is the tough street-smart dude that doesn't take any shit or play by the rules. They're both walking clichés, but they seem to be having fun with it, which helps sell the fun of the movie. If the buddy cop thing didn't work, the movie would just be another crappy attempt at capturing the Lethal Weapon magic + aliens. It's clear that's what the movie is trying to do, just from the font used in the opening credits. Lucky for Dark Angel, Lundgren has sharpened his acting chops and improved his language skills to be a charismatic protagonist for the role.

TL;DR (Conclusion)

There are various moments in Dark Angel that cause me to laugh out loud with how intentionally or unintentionally goofy the scene is, but nothing I want to spoil, so I'll keep the review short. This is a cult movie that should probably be seen to be believed. It's not going to blow your mind, but it will likely entertain you if you enjoy a good, old-fashioned, mindless action movie. And since it also takes place during the holidays, it's given a reason to be watched as part of the winter film tradition.

Any holiday action movies you think are classics? Let me know what's worth watching in the comments!

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