"Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever"
Review: "Ballistic:
Ecks vs. Sever"
Posted on October 2, 2002 by The Crystal Lich
If the title sounds like a comic book, just remember it's directed by someone
that likes to abbreviate their name to 'Kaos.' Of course, another warning
sign should have been that it was written by the man credited for writing
"Spawn," the movie.
Antonio Banderas is agent Jeremiah Ecks, a superspy (on loan from "Spy Kids,"
no doubt) who's been burned out since losing his family. After the child
of a government official is kidnapped by a mysterious assassin name Sever
(Lucy Liu), Ecks reluctantly takes the assignment in exchange for information
about his family. Sever turns out to be a one-woman demolition squad that
only Ecks has the courage to chase down. What he discovers will no doubt
be the perfect excuse to cause as many explosions as the special effects
budget can handle.
It could be said this film is as bad as Billy Zane's "The Phantom" (Slam
evil!) with the exception that this film is at least fun to watch even if
it doesn't make any sense. At every opportunity to do something clever, the
film goes right over the edge and kills every sense of believability. In
exchange, we do get to see a few violent stunt sequences, but essentially
this film is nothing more than three sets which get blown to bits. Unfortunately
and EXACTLY like "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider," the middle sequence is by far
more enjoyable than the mandatory explosive climax, leaving little to remember
about the film once it ends.
Lucy Liu is cast as the 'shadow' agent, a low-level assassin that appears,
kills, and vanishes without a trace. Unfortunately, other than a few fight
sequences (likely choreographed by Ray Park, playing an enemy agent), Lucy
has nothing to do but look knowledgeable about her weapons and spy gear.
Even if her character was supposed to have been played to act emotionless,
the camera captured her to look more like a zombie.
Therein lies the film's second problem. The title bills "Ballistic" as a
competition between two master spies, but the trailers let you know early
on that they're on the same team against another threat... essentially destroying
half the film's story. Due to a budget constraint on players, that doesn't
leave much of a mystery as to who the 'real' villain is. Couple that with
a montage of clichés about how bad life has been for all the victims
involved (all shown in slow-motion flashbacks as necessary), and all you
have left is a no-surprise series of explosions and violence while Banderas
looks like he's not trying to laugh at how bad it all is.
To give credit where it's due, it's filmed well, the players look like they
had fun making it, and it goes by pretty quickly. Too bad they couldn't have
fleshed it out, recast it, and turned it into a television pilot; it would
probably hold up much nicer on a smaller screen. Still, hold onto your money,
because the upcoming film "The Transporter" (which reportedly was pushed
back a month to avoid any comparisons with films like "Ballistic") looks
like the real kick-butt sleeper hit action fans have been waiting for to
get them through until the holidays.
(one and a half skull recommendation out of four)
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