User Reviews

****SPOILERS**** Insane movie about big time East German Olympic Gold Medal winner Eric Brogar, Dolph Lundgren, defecting to the west. This was after Eric took all the muck and insults that he could handle from his crazed and obnoxious coach Mueller, David Soul, but finds out that the free world is not what he thought it was.

Ending up at a greasy spoon in L.A as a short order cook Eric is very unhappy with his life until his boss Creese, Roger E. Molsey, checking in on Eric, one afternoon.Creese finds a load of newspaper clippings as well as his gold medal and gets the bright idea of having Eric train for the next Olympics.

Trying to be a "Rocky" clone the movie fails miserably since Lundgren is so powerful and intimidating in every scene that he's in, as well as him being a former Olympic Gold Medal winner, when he's competing that you feel more sympathy for his opponents then for him. Meanwhile back in East Germany with the communist government out of business Mueller forms a new Neo-Nazi organization to take over the country and bring back the "Good old Days" of German glory. Mueller now has other ideas on his former "friend" and fellow German Eric Brogar. Mueller also didn't forget Eric's betrayal and took time to pay his father Rodolph, Erik Holland, a visit and gave him a hard and strenuous workout that ends up killing him.

Eric finds love with his American girlfriend Julia, Renee Coleman, and is starting to get into shape for the Olympics when Mueller shows up in town to start an American chapter of his new Neo-Nazi organization. After failing to take out Eric who ended up hammering a number of Mueller's brown shirts Mueller has his gang storm Julia's home. With a couple of his Aryan Supermen Mueller beat the living hell out of Julia's 70 or so year-old father and shoot Creese who came over to have lunch.

Eric who came over later is beaten up and taken hostage by Mueller's goons who plan to blow up a German government "Never Again" rally that is against Mueller's Neo-Nazi party. Mueller is so crazy that he holds off the fireworks until he has a tape of him played on live TV. It's on the tape where he brags about his great ideas for the future of Germany and the world. This gives Eric enough time to escape and stop Mueller and his gang from doing any damage. With the help of the local police Eric finishes off Mueller's Nazi followers. Off-the-wall ending with Mueller getting blasted by Eric some time later when he tries to shoot him at a sporting event, where else, when the alert Julia spots Mueller and knocks the gun out of his hand.

Dopey movie with a very predictable plot and with big bad Dolph Lundgren given a little more meat in his role as the hero with some comedy and sensitive, as well as the usual action, scenes. You have to give the Academy Award to David Soul in one of the most insane as well as overblown and ham acting parts of his career. Soul made you realize why Hitler lost the Second World War. Proving what the saying "With friends like him you don't need enemies" really means.

Being a big Dolph Lundgren fan, I was surprised to see a completely different side of him in this one, portraying him as being a pathetic, injured burnout who flips burgers for a living, while walking down dark alleys with no company beside his portable TV and his beer. When he is menaced by a group of hoodlums, they laugh at him when his trick knee gives out and he can't chase them. This struck me as being very odd, because it was Dolph acting like a regular guy, rather than the sarcastic killing machines he's typecast as. Sadly, as enjoyable as all of the footage of him being a loser (and his inspiring comeback into grade-A Pentathalon runner material), it sort of abruptly switches gears, turning into one of his usual action movies with a nonsense subplot involving neo-Nazis. It's a shame that the whole thing couldn't have been like the first two acts, or this would be by far his best performance, in a close tie with GR13 from Universal Soldier.

This has to be one of the worst films I ever watched. Actually, it was so painful, I could not bear to watch it all the way to the end. Now I know where Americans get the grey image of "communism" from. A completely unrealistic portrait of what life was like in East Germany!!!

Has there EVER been a Hollywood film that criticises or even challenges the assumption that the United States is the greatest most noble most selflessly benevolent country to have ever existed on Planet Earth? I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that EVERY single Hollywood film i have ever seen propagates - to a greater or lesser extent, either implicitly or explicitly - such myths. And, surprise surprise, "Pentathlon" is no exception.

Yes, once again, the bogeyman is Caaaaamunism, this time in the shape of the former German Democratic Republic, as Yankee meathead Dolph Lundgren stars as an East German pentathlete who ends up escaping from the evil clutches of the nasty old GDR, by defecting to the good old Land of the Free and Home of the Brave (don't laugh!) during the '88 Seoul Olympics.

I mean, it says a lot about the US film industry, that even in 1994 (when this appalling film was made) they just couldn't resist the temptation to drag the memory of Communism through the dirt some more. The truth of course is that, while the former Communist regimes of the Eastern Bloc were far from perfect, they did provide a substantial social safety net for their people in terms of relatively good working conditions, pensions, free health care, free education (including at university level!), affordable housing, etc, etc. The destruction of this social safety net since the collapse of Communism has resulted in widespread misery across Eastern Europe, particularly in the former Soviet Union itself, where at least 3 million are estimated to have died as a direct result of the wiping out of the old Soviet welfare state.

In response to my comments here, the apologists for western capitalist imperialism will no doubt point to the likes of those who were killed whilst trying to flee across the Berlin Wall from East to West. To those people i would say the following: Firstly, how many people were actually killed in such circumstances during the lifetime of the wall (1961-1989)? Answer: 171. While terrible (as any deaths are), this number pales into insignificance when compared with (to pick just one example from the many available), say, the number of Afghan civilians killed during the US bombardment of that country in late 2001 (scholarly estimates put the figure at at least 3,700). The difference is, of course, that the US capitalist ruling class cares passionately about civilian death when it can be used as a stick to beat Communism with, yet remains blissfully nonchalant about civilian death when it occurs as "collateral damage" during one of the countless wars of US imperial expansion. And it can hardly be argued that the US ruling class at least cares about its own people. How many have perished as a result of the perennial refusal to go against the interests of the Health Insurance industry lobby by establishing a free national health service for America? How many have perished as a result of the relentless attacks on welfare support since the late 70s? And this is before you've even mentioned things like Huricane Katrina, or the small matter of whatever happened to the Native Americans (can genocide only be something that the Nazis did to the Jews?).

Now the supporters of American Imperialism here might well still argue that surely the very fact that people attempted to escape across the Berlin Wall from East to West, demonstrates just how repressive the GDR regime was. Well actually, all it demonstrates is how much more affluent life in West Berlin was. Such a point is hardly controversial. Everybody knows that capitalist First World societies have a lot of wealth. What fewer people appreciate is that most of this wealth comes from the intensive exploitation by western corporations of cheap industrial and agricultural labour in the West's neo-colonies in the Third World. The Eastern Bloc (on principle) had no such neo-colonial relationships with Third World countries (Cuba, for example, sold sugar to the USSR at six times the market value, because the USSR believed in helping Third World countries rather than exploiting them). As a result, of course life in East Berlin was grim and grey and austere compared to West Berlin - a fact the US exploited to the hilt by pumping more and more money into West Berlin, effectively dangling the consumer lifestyle before the eyes of the East Berliners. "Anything", in the words of an internal CIA memo since declassified, "to make the Commies look bad". The idea, of course, was to bleed the GDR of its productive population, and thus bring the Communist state to its knees. With the end of the GDR, western big business could look forward to the opening up of vast new labour and consumer markets to exploit. This was always the goal of the US anti-Communist strategy. As with the more recent example of the Iraq War, it was never anything to do with "spreading democracy" (capitalists do not know the meaning of the term). On the contrary, it was everything to do with advancing the economic interests of the mega-rich US big business ruling class.

And finally, why is it that apologists for western imperialism have a problem with a wall built in Berlin to keep Western spies out, yet have no problem whatsoever with a wall built in the Occupied Territories to keep poor Palestinians out of the luxurious villas of the Israeli colonists, nor with a proposed wall built along the Rio Grande to keep poor Mexicans out of the US? In fact, isn't every anti-immigration law enacted by a rich western state effectively a wall? It appears that, for the imperialist apologists, some walls are more equal than others.

For an honest view of the history of the German Democratic Republic, i strongly recommend you read Mary Fulbrook's excellent 2004 book, "The People's State". Don't expect films like "Pentathlon" to tell you the truth!!

The stage curtains open ...

Oh, for the love of everything decent, that was awful. That is one of the worst movies I've ever seen or wasted my time on. It is a jumbled mess from the very beginning to the lackluster ending. Watching the previews made it seem like it was going to be a good movie based on an original idea. Unfortunately, the idea was better than the movie was.

The story begins with a young german boy in training, Eric Brogar, being humiliated by his coach in front of all the other boys and their parents because he fell down right before the finish line in a race. The coach, Heinrich Mueller (David Soul), calls him a failure ... kicking the boy while he's down. Years later, Eric is grown and a part of the German Olympic Team with Mueller as the team coach and this time, he wins all the events and receives the gold medal. But, he decides to defect and leave Germany, and despite being shot in the leg, he escapes and makes it to the United States. Soon after, his father is killed, the Berlin Wall comes down, he loses his girlfriend, and he becomes bitter with his new life. And then he finds friendship with a burger joint owner. After he gets back on track and cleans his life up, his old coach shows up again.

I've already said it, but this movie is such a mess. There is absolutely no rhyme or reason behind Mueller's actions, no real plot line to follow, the acting in the movie is atrocious, the action scenes almost seemed to be done in slow motion, and there are no characters worth cheering for ... not even Eric. It seemed that the actors didn't even really know what identity they were supposed to have from scene to scene. And the music ... wow, the soundtrack to this film did not fit. Nothing in this movie gels or makes any sense ... at all.

This is a terrible movie. I highly recommend that you pass this one by if you haven't seen it yet. It is (so far) the absolute worst Dolph Lundgren movie I've ever seen. I can't stress that enough. Done, over with, moving on. Thank god.

Pentathlon is not an enjoyable experience, and despite the fact that I dig Dolph as an action hero, I was bored silly during this movie. It's clearly inspired by Rocky, only Rocky didn't have a lack of action, a poor story and horrible dialog to sit through. One of the worst things about this movie is David Soul's performance as the villain. He is WAY too over the top and laughably campy, he ruined much of the experience for me and he didn't mesh well with Dolph at all. As I said I'm a Dolph fan, he's far from a great actor but his charisma and presence is awesome to say the least, so when I found this for 2 dollars at a VHS blowout sale I decided to pick it up. Dolph's rigorous training scenes are impressive and the bantering with Roger E. Mosley as Creese was somewhat fun, but the action is clearly lacking. I'm a film buff, but I enjoy B-movies and low-budget movies as well, I'm very open-minded, but Pentathlon has nothing out of the ordinary and to be honest it was a waste of 2 bucks.

Performances. Dolph Lundgren tries really hard, but his accent works against him and some of his dialog is absolutely awful. He has charisma to spare but that can only take him so far. David Soul is laughable as the villain. On more than one occasion I wanted him off my screen for tarnishing the quality, he obviously knows he is in a below average movie and disgustingly tries to camp it up. He's better than this, much better, watch Magnum Force to see what I mean. Roger E. Mosley is fun as Creese, but did test my patience with his act sometimes. Renée Coleman is pretty wooden as the love interest.

Bottom line. Definitely one of Dolph's lesser works and not even enjoyable for B-movie value. It's boring and will annoy you to no end. Avoid it.

2 1/2 /10

Guilty pleasure, all the way! I can't put down this movie cause it was a lot of fun to watch it, the director kept it simple, with some wrong doings but those can be excused. It's generic and almost dumb but you'll feel good through the whole thing.

"Pentathlon" transforms Dolph Lundgren (oh, in the 1990's, the best of times to watch him!) into a super gold medalist during the Cold Era who defects from East Germany to the U.S., much to the anger of his demanding coach (David Soul), during the Seul Olympics. Living in America, he's a complete nobody, working as a cook but with the help of his boss he has a chance to return to his passion: being an athlete But after the collapse of the Soviet regime and the reunification of Germany, the coach - now allied with a Neonazi group - goes to America to join Nazi group in America, and if possible, to recruit his former athlete to the cause (terrorism, obviously).

I think you've already drowned into the amount of absurd throw in just this basic plot line, but to hell with it. As an action flick is quite good, except for the insanely goofs here and there (the one with the gun is amazingly laughable, with the bad using a Walter PPK-like pistol that sounds like a revolver and with a silencer that doesn't work), and some shameless plot holes as well - what bothered me the most was the inconsistence concerning David Soul's character. How in the world someone so loyal to the Communism becomes part of a Nazi group? Nevermind. Works better as a comedy vehicle with positive scenes with Dolph's boss turned to coach, played by Roger E. Mosley. Laughs are granted with this dude. And if neither that can help you, at least the movie offers a quality camera work capturing the splendid and hunky leading man.

A severe case of a movie so bad that it's good. Enjoy it. 6/10

This has got to be one of the five best movies of all time, it is absolutely amazing. Dolph should have won many academy awards already in his illustrious career, but he tends to be overlooked. When I think of exciting action, I think of Dolph Lundgren. Dolph is also very versatile, he can play almost any role, from the sinister yet likable Ivan Drago, to the amazing Major Frank Cross, and who can forget him as He-man, I thought he should have got best actor for that. In this film he does an excellent job as Eric Brogar, he truly shows that anyone can go to the Olympics, if they train hard enough. Keep on making those great movies Dolph!!! GO DOLPH!!!!!!!!!!!

I enjoyed this film. I must admit I only watched it because I am a bit of a David Soul fan. However, it took quite a bit to get used to David Soul in such a different role than the type he played in Starsky & Hutch. Nevertheless, it was quite exciting, and had me trying unsuccessfully to work out what was going to happen. I found the acting quite good. David Soul did a good German accent. It also had Roger E Mosley (TC from Magnum), playing a good role too. I am glad I saw it.

As someone who's seen almost 30 of Dolph's movies I have to say this is one of the standouts from his filmography. Most of the movies he makes are quite entertaining and simple, mostly existing for Dolph to kill a bunch of guys and save the day. This one is quite different as it's probably the most ridiculous movie he's ever made. It's even more ridiculous than Bridge of Dragons which exists in some weird alternate fantasy universe where all the countries in the world have merged. In Pentathlon Dolph is an Olympic athlete who competes for East Germany and after certain circumstances force his hand, he flees to America. However, despite him trying to get away from everything and start a new life his communist coach has other ideas in mind and tracks Dolph with the intent of killing him! If that doesn't sound amazing then you should skip this movie. But if it does sound great you should give it a watch as the movie gets even better later on, especially in the last act which is absolutely incredible in its absurdity.

Dolph Lundgren stars as an Olympic athlete who is looking to make his comeback. However not only does Lundgren face the hurdles of getting back in shape, quitting smoking and pulling himself out of a depression he also has to contend with a psychopath/neo-Nazi coach (David Soul) who is still obsessed with him after Lundgren defected years before. Dolph Lundgren is really one of the most inconsistent action stars in the business, for every enjoyable action flick he makes (The Punisher, I Come In Peace, Universal Soldier,Army Of One) there is more that are just plain terrible (Cover-Up, Masters Of The Universe, Red Scorpion) however in sheer dullness few of his titles live up to the painfulness of Pentathlon. I admit that the plot hints at some fun, with Lundgren facing a neo-Nazi army while training for the Olympics but sadly this is supposed to be character driven and in the hands of Lundgren, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that he's in way over his head. Lundgren tries extremely hard to make the part credible but he fails and instead contributes one of his worst performances to date. Lundgren of course can be effective mainly when he beats up on various bad guys but we instead get too many scenes of Lundgren soul searching and hence this is as dull as it gets. David Soul is amusing in the role, adding a wisp to his villainous scowl which almost makes up for the horrendous story but overall let's face it, placing him against Dolph Lundgren is nearly impossible and it's hard to believe that a director (Who helmed Nighthawks mind you!) could believe in the idea that a fight between Lundgren and Soul would even be close. Worst of all there is next to zero action, it's as if Lundgren wanted to try and act and despite his best efforts, one will never appreciate him for anything more than just providing mindless action and nothing else beyond that. Lundgren has a screen presence sure, but he's not a great actor so if you take away his ability to fight then it's no secret the movie is bound to be a disappointment.

* out of 4-(Bad)

Pentathalon is absolutely hilarious, Dolph definitely at his prime. So many ridiculous scenes from the trashcan window throw to Brogar run. I have gotten so much enjoyment from this film i feel i should pay Dolph. I am still curious as to why Dolph flushes the toilet after I think it's Offerman gets beat up over the toilet. Do not take this movies seriously though because its just worth it to actually think about it.Hutch from the old Starsky and Hutch is the old Nazi guy who you can't understand a single word he says because he is so crazy. Its also great because Bruce Malmuth stars in it as well in which he also wrote the story for. This was definitely the movie that made Dolph more passionate about making such hilarious films.

The funniest thing about this movie is that the story may seem implausible actually happened in REAL life. Read the book "Tod dem Verraeter" (2000) by Heribert Schwan. It tells the TRUE story of olympic athlete, Lutz Eigendorf, who escapes East Germany and is tracked down allegedly by Stasi and murdered. This movie seems like a bad joke by comparison.

The movie requires a LOT from Dolph Lundgren in terms of acting and poor Dolph is just TERRIBLE here. It's a truly cringe worthy experience . Lundgren tries extremely hard to make the part credible but he fails and gives one of worst performances in his career. David Soul who plays the villain is also INCREDIBLY ANNOYING. Overall , the acting in the whole movie is awful.

"Pentathlon" is full of stupidities, full of logic and historical holes (Nazis don't have anything in common with Stasi ! ) , full of clichés and stereotypes (a completely unrealistic portrait of what life was like in East Germany ). Lack of action, a poor story and horrible dialogs. It doesn't work as a drama , even less as action movie. I admire Lundgren's ambition , but this movie simply sucks. The training sequences and the bantering with Roger E. Mosley as Creese was somewhat fun. However it can't save this movie. Better watch "Rocky". Director/writer Bruce Malmuth has made an good action movie before – "Nighthawks" with Sylvester Stallone and Rutger Hauer. Better watch that movie instead of this crap. I give it 1/10.

Once, a young athlete Eric Brogar lost a running competition. And then he mentally promised himself that he would continue to achieve victory at any cost and devoted his life to the pentathlon. It was only thanks to such perseverance and determination that he got into the German Olympic team. For Eric, sports became the meaning of life, he devoted himself to hard training. And now, unexpectedly for him, he found himself in a situation where he had to choose-an important victory or a free life. It happened after the tragic death of his father. Eric is simply convinced that the famous Stasi is behind this tragedy. At the same time, he has a serious conflict with the coach, which becomes the last straw...

After a brilliant victory at the Olympics, the athlete decides to take a desperate step - he runs to America. Teammates detain his pursuers and thereby give him a chance to escape. But once in the States, Eric realizes that he is not an Olympic champion here, but only an emigrant, of whom there are thousands here. The people who now surround him do not care about his past records and awards. Now he needs to learn how to survive in an alien world surrounded by indifferent people. Will he be able to rebuild his life without help and support?

Things got even more complicated when Eric was discovered being followed. He realized that he was being hunted, since his country does not intend to forgive such a betrayal. There are only two months left before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the athlete is well aware of this. Will his champion skills help him save his own life?

This movie was so much painful to watch. I regret seeing it at all. Watch out from the commie boogieman. That and the nazi hiding under your bed. This movie is such a joke.

A fun and very entertaining sports / action film that's truly underrated! Dolph Lundgren - star of a whole bunch of epic actioners from THE EXPENDABLES to RED SCORPION - is on fine performance as this Pentathlon player. Is there nothing this man can't do?! What we have here is a slightly different Lundgren vehicle - it's less about shooting up baddies and more about competing...with Nazis, naturally. Instead what we get is Dolph film in which his character is not only a powerful and strong bad-ass, but sensitive and very funny at time. PENTATHLON is a mighty fine sports film which is perfect for the Olympics fever that's spreading around with the build up to the 2012 event.

Acting along side Dolphy is the brilliant Mr David Soul (from SALEM'S LOT, STARSKY AND HUTCH and the hilariously offensive JERRY SPRINGER: THE OPERA). His performance is equally great, in which he plays a cold, evil Nazi hell bent on winning at any cost. And I mean ANY cost! PENTATHLON is a fantastic film for any and every action and sports fan. The perfect piece of entertainment for the Olympics build-up too. The new Anchor Bay Blu-ray is presented in glorious high-def, this release is the best you'll ever see it!

Another shot of Dolphine straight to the system.

Pentathalalogram is a movie about swimming, surprisingly, and there are no bullets.

However, there are: swimming pools, water, treading water, the butterfly and the backstroke and bathing suits and diving boards but nobody dives.

Dolph here plays Dolph who plays a swimmer who gets chased by his former coach because he is just so awesome and swimmy that his coach falls in love with him in a nice way and stuff.

Unfortunately, Dolph does not explode any aliens in this one or decapitate any children but hey, you gotta take the wheat with the chaff and this is pretty chaffy.

Pentagram/Rhombus

I found this movie a big disappointment. This is sad because it has good actors, good production values and a fine plot. But after awhile it just becomes another dull thriller that runs out of ideas. Dolph is the German gold medalist in the pentathlon who flees to America to get away from his mad Nazi coach (David Soul). Some years later, his coach comes after him and the action starts. David Soul is very good as the coach, and plays the part menacingly and convincingly. Dolph is very good in his role too, and gives one of his best performances ever. There are some good action scenes, but apart from that the whole thing begins to go downhill. This was a pity considering it was released after the excellent Army Of One, which I think is Dolph's best movie by far. Pentathlon is still a good flick, just not as good as I expected. It's still a great movie to watch to kill time. Overall I would recommend you get Army Of One instead though, it's much better.

While at the Olympics, Eric Brogar (Dolph Lundgren) escapes communist West Germany & flees to America. But after hearing that the no-goodniks have killed his father, he starts on a downward spiral until Creese (Roger "T.C." Mosley), his burger manager, starts training him for the Olympics again. Then Mueller (David "Hutch" Soul), Eric's commie former-trainer shows up. Will Eric prevail and find true love with Julia (Renee "Evil leaper from Quantum Leap" Colemen)? This film was overall enjoyable to me for some reason. Not great, mind you, but enjoyable as a time-waister. The acting's servicable enough.

My Grade: C

Where i saw it: Showtime beyond