Plot: A subway construction crew uncover a mysterious key beside the skeleton of a medieval Templar knight. This leads to the appearance of the Minion, a demonic entity that is capable of inhabiting and passing through human bodies. Stars Dolph Lundgren.
Sadly, this movie doesn’t involve Dolph Lundgren punching those annoying animated yellow characters in the face, but instead sees him battling Satan, which is also noteworthy. Interestingly, Dolph does appear in The Minions movies, which is a nice little bit of trivia.
I remember writing an awful review of this back in 2012, which some wonderful human being was kind enough to remind me about recently on Twitter. Isn’t Twitter great? Aren’t negative people such a boon to humanity? Anyway, I deleted the article because it was so badly written that I frankly deserved the criticism.
I hadn’t watched this movie in many years, but good old Tubi knows exactly what I want to watch, and there it was. I have to be honest, I enjoyed it a lot more this time around. In fact, I remembered very little about the film from my previous viewing. This was only the second time I’d ever watched The Minion, and maybe it’s because I’m older now, but I picked up on a lot more of the religious lore. It also makes for a fun double bill with End of Days, as both movies revolve around stopping the Devil in the lead-up to the new millennium.
I like Dolph’s character here because he isn’t some wisecracking tough guy; he’s a Templar Knight who is essentially a warrior for God. His mission is to stop The Minion from obtaining a key that will unlock a doorway and literally unleash the Beast upon the world. I also enjoyed Françoise Robertson as Native American archaeology expert Karen Goodleaf. Dolph doesn’t swear, and he doesn’t even kiss her at the end. Instead, she vows to join the fight, which I thought was a nice twist.
This is almost more of a horror thriller than an action movie, but it still has enough action to keep things moving. We get a few fight scenes, a shootout at a police station, and the finale becomes a genuine race against time to stop all Hell from breaking loose.
The score features some cool electric guitars, although I will admit the film feels very much of its era with that unmistakable late-’90s vibe. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it does date the movie a little.
Overall, The Minion (aka Fallen Knight) was far better than I remembered. It isn’t one of Dolph Lundgren’s best movies, but it’s far from his worst. The characters are interesting, the mythology is surprisingly engaging, it has some decent action, and it’s a mostly well-paced 90 minutes.