Wanted Man review – Dolph Lundgren goes south as racist cop on a mission in Mexico

Lundgren directs and stars, alongside Kelsey Grammer, in an action movie about a Californian cop who clashes with a drug cartel while recovering from injury

With seven films under his belt since 2000, Dolph Lundgren has quietly amassed a sizeable directorial portfolio of B-movie action flicks but this Mexico border jaunt is less fun than his 2021 buddy flick Castle Falls. It’s also an appalling advert for the Californian police force, with the Dolphster taking the role of Travis Johansen, a racist patrolman caught roughing up the Latino citizenry; an interesting decision by his boss, then, to send him to “fucking Mexico” on a diplomatic mission to repatriate a pair of prostitutes who are potential key witnesses in the murder of some undercover DEA agents.

Things go south in all senses, and Johansen – laid up with a gut wound – has to convalesce with the family of Rosa (Christina Villa), one of his supposed charges who is now understandably nervous about the ability of America’s finest to protect her. Every time he reaches for his phone to try and contact old running buddy Brynner (a Hawaiian-shirted Kelsey Grammer, giving the impression Wanted Man is an Expendables spin-off), another wave of cartel members comes knocking. But, in another fail for the Five-O, Johansen never seems to twig – or anticipate a plot twist as visible as a tree on a desert skyline.