Dollman (film)

Dollman
Poster artwork
Directed by Albert Pyun
Produced by Cathy Gesualdo
Written by Charles Band
David Pabian
Chris Roghair
Starring Tim Thomerson
Jackie Earle Haley
Kamala Lopez
Humberto Ortiz
Nicholas Guest
Judd Omen
Music by Anthony Riparetti
Cinematography George Mooradian
Edited by Margaret-Anne Smith
Production
company
Full Moon Entertainment
Distributed by Paramount Home Video
Release date
  • November 27, 1991 (1991-11-27)
Running time
 79 minutes (UK)
Country United States
Language English

Dollman is a 1991 science fiction action film directed by Albert Pyun and starring Tim Thomerson as the space cop Brick Bardo, also known as "Dollman"; he is only 13 inches tall. Bardo is equipped with his "Kruger Blaster", which is the most powerful handgun in the universe. The film also stars Jackie Earle Haley as Bardo's human enemy, Braxton Red. Brick Bardo is a character name used by Albert Pyun in films dating back to his second film, Vicious Lips.

The film was produced by Full Moon Features, who also worked with Thomerson on the Trancers series. It was followed by a crossover sequel in 1993 called Dollman vs. Demonic Toys, which is also a sequel to Demonic Toys (1992) and Bad Channels (1992).

Dollman also had its own comic series published by Eternity Comics, who also made comics for other Full Moon films. A movie soundtrack still remains unavailable.

Plot

Brick Bardo is a police officer on the planet Arturos, which is many light years from Earth. One day, a criminal runs into a laundry venue where lots of plump women and their kids happen to be, and he keeps them hostage while police officers are outside the premise. Bardo humorously enters to do his laundry, and the crook is rather surprised by this defiant act. After saving the scared hostages by causing the fat women to faint and fall onto the bad guy by threatening to use his gun to blow a hole through them—"the most powerful handgun in the universe", proclaims a young boy—Bardo, instead of being hailed a hero, is shouted at by the mayor, who knows of Bardo's usually violent methods and Bardo was supposed to be suspended.

The film then cuts to Bardo in his apartment, where a news broadcast implies that Bardo is being framed for the deaths of the hostages in the laundromat, as a setup. Just then, a man begins to fire at Bardo and tells him an "old friend" wishes to see him, before using some device which puts Bardo to sleep. After Bardo wakes up on a desert plain, it is revealed that Bardo's "old friend" is actually his greatest enemy Sprug (who only has his head remaining on a floating jet after all their previous encounters). The two men with Sprug are about to kill Bardo using Bardo's own custom Groger Blaster, but Bardo uses a magnetic field in his hand to retrieve his gun and quickly shoots the two henchmen into bloody chunks. Sprug escapes in his ship with Bardo giving chase. Despite an advertised warning not to enter an energy band, both Sprug and Bardo go through one, eventually reaching Earth where they are shrunken to several inches in height.

The movie then shows various crime acts occurring in The Bronx, New York City. Braxton Red and his gang run things in this part of the city and kill other outside gangsters who find their way into their neighborhood, to ensure control of this urban jungle. Debi, is a young Hispanic single mother who wants the police to do more to protect her area. When Debi is going home, some goons, Hector, Wick, and Jackson, that know about her meddling capture her and threaten her inside their van. As she fights back and tries to get away, the bad guys grab her and almost kill her using petrol, but Bardo appears and shoots Hector in his stomach, mortally wounding him, and shoots Wick in his head, killing him,. Hector and Jackson run off, leaving Debi to wonder if she's in shock due to Bardo being so noticeably tiny. Just as she takes Bardo and his ship away, Braxton Red and one of his gangsters spot Sprug and Sprug tells them that he has a powerful bomb they can use in exchange for them helping Sprug to repair his ship.

Bardo is taken to Debi's house where he is introduced to her excited son, Kevin. Back at the hideout, Braxton kills Hector in a fit of rage, after Jackson explains that it was his idea to burn Debi, since Braxton has feelings for her even though she won't side with him. Jackson said that they were stopped by a little "Dollman" and Braxton doesn't believe that a man that small could hurt anybody, but he takes a lot of the gangsters with him and goes round to Debi's place to demand she tell them where this alleged Dollman is. After they show up to look for the so-called Dollman, Bardo kills all the bewildered gangsters along with Jackson, save for Braxton, who runs away down the stairs but gets seriously hurt. He makes it back to the hideout, bleeding badly, and Sprug knows this is Bardo's handy work. As Braxton is dying, Sprug partially heals his injury after making some demands first, but Braxton recovers and squashes Sprug when he tells Braxton he is his new boss.

Although Braxton is still seriously hurt, he wants to kill Dollman more than ever. Bardo overhears some commotion going on outside the apartment the next day when Debi is coming home from work and being harassed, yet again. Bardo leaps out of a window and grabs onto the side of a car as it speeds off. Bardo follows the entire gang, and they stop near to where the two spaceships landed, as they await Bardo's arrival so they can have their revenge. Bardo enters an underground passage in order to surprise the gangsters who have been waiting for Bardo to show up for to rescue Debi. A huge shootout ensues with Bardo killing most of the gangsters by making their vehicles explode. Debi runs off but Braxton follows her, firing his machine gun at her. Feeling disrespected for keeping her alive for years, Braxton is about to shoot Debi after cornering her somewhere, but Bardo distracts him and shoots off one of his arms. Debi doesn't want Bardo to finish off Braxton even if he is evil, and so Bardo agrees not to kill Braxton, just for her. Then Braxton uses the bomb Sprug had to attempt a last resort murder-suicide, and Debi and Bardo quickly run for cover. Debi, after seeing that Bardo is safe, happily smiles, and Bardo asks her if size counts.

Cast

Sequel

The Dollman character has a post credits cameo in Bad Channels, where he is searching for a girl called Bunny, who was shrunk to be about his size. This is changed to Ginger through editing in the next film, 1993's Dollman vs. Demonic Toys. That crossover sequel uses a lot of archive footage to tell the back story of the various characters. It pits Bardo against four evil toys in a warehouse, who are trying to resurrect their demon master. Bardo even gets himself a girlfriend called Ginger (a similarly shrunken nurse, returning from the movie Bad Channels) and they help a normal sized police officer called Judith Gray to deal with the demonic toys once more, having already dealt with the nasty playthings before, in Demonic Toys.

Releases

Dollman made its DVD debut in the 2005 box set "The Dollman/Demonic Toys Box Set". The film was also featured in the limited-edition boxed set "Full Moon Features: The Archive Collection", a 20th anniversary collection which featured 18 of Full Moon's most popular films.

On November 9, 2010, Echo Bridge Home Entertainment released a triple feature set containing this film, Demonic Toys and Dollman vs. Demonic Toys.

Dollman was released on Blu-ray in the US on December 17, 2013 by Full Moon Entertainment.

Merchandising

See also

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