3 Star

The Selfish, The Needy and the Opportunist.

After  a hiatus of eleven years, action man Dolph Lundgren (Rocky IV, Masters of the Universe, The Expendables) returns to directing in Castle Falls. Both directing and staring in a story written by Andrew Knauer (The Last Stand, Ghost Team One), all-out action, just bring your popcorn.

Mike Wade (Scott Adkins, Legacy of Lies, The Legend of Hercules) is an MMA fighter coming out of the Atlanta Gym, he has been away with a shoulder injury, and now he wants to get back in the game. But his manager Vince (Dave Halls, Darlin’) has other ideas, he thinks Mike is too old and washed up. Wade puts it all on the line to fight his new golden boy, if he wins he is back on the card, if he loses he takes the hint and walks away.

Mike gives his gloves to a couple of local kids, then drives his  pick-up truck to Birmingham Alabama. It is late so he sleeps in the truck, and when he wakes on Friday morning he starts looking for work. He is in luck, his experience in construction gets him a job at the derelict Castle Heights Hospital, helping with the demolition before it is razed to the ground by dynamite.

Across town, penitentiary guard Richard Ericson (Dolph Lundgren) is worried about his ailing daughter Emily (Ida Lundgren,  Command Performance). He finds out that the insurance policy does not cover the experimental treatment she needs for her blood. He needs to find $400,000 to pay for her treatment.

At the Fordham Federal Penitentiary, inmate Damien Glass is watching television when he sees a news report on the Castle Heights Hospital and its soon demise.

The thing is, before he was put away, Glass hid three million in cash in the derelict building. He wants it back, so he phones his brother Deacon (Scott Hunter, All Eyez on Me), who has a crew including his girlfriend Kat (Kim DeLonghi, The Last Son of Isaac Lemay) to retrieve the cash. Also, at the prison is Lando (Eric Gray, ) and Damien blames him for the shortage in cash.

Fearing for his life, he makes a deal with Ericson to get moved to a safe wing.

I love it when you think selfish.

Who will get to the cash first, the man with a sledgehammer, the man with a knife or the gang with the guns? The race is on.

More importantly, who will walk away with it?

It’s nice to see Dolf again, and he does a nice job keeping the pace of the film flowing. With plenty of action from the start and plenty of action in the nail-biting finale.

Castle Falls is available on Digital from 20th December 2021, and Blu-ray and DVD from 10th Jan 2022