T. Rigney (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} filmfiend) wrote,@ 2006-03-25 12:18:00 |
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Hard To Kill
Seagal in a coma...with a beard and a kitten. Classic.
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Deciding it was high time to revisit some of Seagal's older efforts, I took 96 minutes out of my not-too-busy schedule to sit down with the big guy's 1990 outing Hard To Kill, a lukewarm revenge flick that's stuffed with broken bones, biker beards, and busted furniture. I always forget how brutal his earlier work is, making me question why I fall back on his recent releases to satisfy my insatiable Seagal addiction. Granted, it's no Out For Justice, but it certainly gets the job done. Plus, it's nice to see our favorite aikido wizard in a film where he actually seems to care about the material, not to mention things like personal hygiene and, well, acting. We also get to see Seagal plays with some boobies for a bit, if that sort of thing appeals to you. Personally, I find scenes featuring Steven and sex to be quite revolting, but that's just me.
Anyway, Hard To Kill stars Seagal as Mason Storm, proving once and for all that nobody has better character names in action cinema than our favorite ponytailed hero, hands down. Would the guy kick as much booty if, say, his name were something along the lines of Bill Jenkins? How about Bob Young? I think not. You see, Storm is a damn good cop. So good, in fact, that he manages to capture a clandestine meeting between a crooked senator and some generic mob types through the magic of videotape. The "bad guys" ultimately discover Storm's little secret, and with the help of some nasty corrupt cops and lots of ammunition, they manage to get the jump on the big guy while he's in the middle of getting laid, which, I might add, is the ONLY way to get the drop on Seagal. Several shotgun blasts later, Storm's wife is dead and he's languishing in the coma ward. Seven years down the road, he suddenly wakes up, gets his hot little nurse to help him escape from some an assassin disguised as a doctor, and hides out in her friend's home while he trains, trains, and trains. Soon, Seagal's back in shape, and he's pretty upset that these guys are still on the prowl. Not for long, mind you, because Seagal knows who butchered his family and he's got a gun. Oh, and mad aikido skills. Word.
There's plenty of action to be found in Hard To Kill, starting with an early scene in a liquor store and concluding with the over-the-top finale in the sinister senator's spacious mansion. The level of bloodletting, I'm afraid, has been kept to a minimum for this one, but that just gives Seagal and excuse to throw people through lots of windows, bookcases, and whatever else happens to be on the set that day. We also get quite a few nasty broken bones, which is to be expected, of course, though it's nowhere near as brutal as Out For Justice or Marked For Death. My only real complaint is that the ending is a little lackluster; I wanted Storm to lay a nasty beatdown to the big cheese, played with scene-chewing glee by William Sadler, an actor that never fails to make me smile. He's pretty nasty in this one, leaving you feeling a bit cheated when Seagal doesn't deliver some serious damage to the guy's grill. The main bad guy ALWAYS get the worst death in these kind of pictures, so why they decided to cut corners this time out is rather confusing, to say the least. Oh, well. Not everyone can bleed as profusely as I would like.
On the story front, Hard To Kill is a pretty basic setup. Bad guys kill cop's family, cop recovers from attack, cop gets revenge. However, there's enough interesting stuff going on to keep you entertained if the action isn't your cup of tea. Keeping Seagal's son alive was a nice touch, and adds some much-needed emotional impact to the proceedings. Kelly Le Brock also shines as the hot nurse/love interest, giving ol' Steven the boost he needs with a quick roll in the hay before he sets out to slaughter those responsible for the death of his wife. Surprisingly, he doesn't spend much time in mourning, despite the love in his heart for his deceased spouse. As soon as some chick is ready and willing for a little lovin', Seagal is there to deliver the goods. By the way -- even though the sex scenes are chaste, they still feel incredibly uncomfortable. Eegads! Keep it in your pants, big guy! Nobody wants to see that!
One of my favorite aspects of Seagal's frequent foray into the cop genre is strangely absent from this outing,. You see, in films like Marked For Death and Out For Justice, our tight-lipped hero has a complete disregard for the civil rights of those he seeks to bash, break, and destory. Oddly, Seagal keeps things by-the-book for Hard To Kill, unleashing only one thoughtless assault on a particularly beefy goon in a Chinatown marketplace. He destroys but two businesses in his pursuit to snap this guy in half, which is pretty tame by Seagal standards. Is it a nice change of pace? Eh, maybe. But when I have my mouth set on a medium extra-cheese pizza, by God, I WANT a medium extra-cheese pizza. Understand?
I'm being really picky here, because I actually enjoyed Hard To Kill quite a bit. It's fun, violent, silly, and features some great one-liners that you can repeat to your loving, caring, nurturing wife, who will roll her eyes and weep for her pathetic excuse for a marriage. Kidding. While it's not as wet as some of the big guy's earlier films, it still showcases Seagal when he was actually a force to be reckoned with in the Hollywood system. Again, watching these earlier efforts makes consuming junk food like Black Dawn and Today You Die quite painful, for sure. While those movies are good in their own esoteric way, his pre-1999 releases were all fairly well done. Goofy, yeah, but solid entertainment nonetheless.
Mason Storm is cool as hell, but he's no Gino Felino.
Seagal in a coma...with a beard and a kitten. Classic.
---
Deciding it was high time to revisit some of Seagal's older efforts, I took 96 minutes out of my not-too-busy schedule to sit down with the big guy's 1990 outing Hard To Kill, a lukewarm revenge flick that's stuffed with broken bones, biker beards, and busted furniture. I always forget how brutal his earlier work is, making me question why I fall back on his recent releases to satisfy my insatiable Seagal addiction. Granted, it's no Out For Justice, but it certainly gets the job done. Plus, it's nice to see our favorite aikido wizard in a film where he actually seems to care about the material, not to mention things like personal hygiene and, well, acting. We also get to see Seagal plays with some boobies for a bit, if that sort of thing appeals to you. Personally, I find scenes featuring Steven and sex to be quite revolting, but that's just me.
Anyway, Hard To Kill stars Seagal as Mason Storm, proving once and for all that nobody has better character names in action cinema than our favorite ponytailed hero, hands down. Would the guy kick as much booty if, say, his name were something along the lines of Bill Jenkins? How about Bob Young? I think not. You see, Storm is a damn good cop. So good, in fact, that he manages to capture a clandestine meeting between a crooked senator and some generic mob types through the magic of videotape. The "bad guys" ultimately discover Storm's little secret, and with the help of some nasty corrupt cops and lots of ammunition, they manage to get the jump on the big guy while he's in the middle of getting laid, which, I might add, is the ONLY way to get the drop on Seagal. Several shotgun blasts later, Storm's wife is dead and he's languishing in the coma ward. Seven years down the road, he suddenly wakes up, gets his hot little nurse to help him escape from some an assassin disguised as a doctor, and hides out in her friend's home while he trains, trains, and trains. Soon, Seagal's back in shape, and he's pretty upset that these guys are still on the prowl. Not for long, mind you, because Seagal knows who butchered his family and he's got a gun. Oh, and mad aikido skills. Word.
There's plenty of action to be found in Hard To Kill, starting with an early scene in a liquor store and concluding with the over-the-top finale in the sinister senator's spacious mansion. The level of bloodletting, I'm afraid, has been kept to a minimum for this one, but that just gives Seagal and excuse to throw people through lots of windows, bookcases, and whatever else happens to be on the set that day. We also get quite a few nasty broken bones, which is to be expected, of course, though it's nowhere near as brutal as Out For Justice or Marked For Death. My only real complaint is that the ending is a little lackluster; I wanted Storm to lay a nasty beatdown to the big cheese, played with scene-chewing glee by William Sadler, an actor that never fails to make me smile. He's pretty nasty in this one, leaving you feeling a bit cheated when Seagal doesn't deliver some serious damage to the guy's grill. The main bad guy ALWAYS get the worst death in these kind of pictures, so why they decided to cut corners this time out is rather confusing, to say the least. Oh, well. Not everyone can bleed as profusely as I would like.
On the story front, Hard To Kill is a pretty basic setup. Bad guys kill cop's family, cop recovers from attack, cop gets revenge. However, there's enough interesting stuff going on to keep you entertained if the action isn't your cup of tea. Keeping Seagal's son alive was a nice touch, and adds some much-needed emotional impact to the proceedings. Kelly Le Brock also shines as the hot nurse/love interest, giving ol' Steven the boost he needs with a quick roll in the hay before he sets out to slaughter those responsible for the death of his wife. Surprisingly, he doesn't spend much time in mourning, despite the love in his heart for his deceased spouse. As soon as some chick is ready and willing for a little lovin', Seagal is there to deliver the goods. By the way -- even though the sex scenes are chaste, they still feel incredibly uncomfortable. Eegads! Keep it in your pants, big guy! Nobody wants to see that!
One of my favorite aspects of Seagal's frequent foray into the cop genre is strangely absent from this outing,. You see, in films like Marked For Death and Out For Justice, our tight-lipped hero has a complete disregard for the civil rights of those he seeks to bash, break, and destory. Oddly, Seagal keeps things by-the-book for Hard To Kill, unleashing only one thoughtless assault on a particularly beefy goon in a Chinatown marketplace. He destroys but two businesses in his pursuit to snap this guy in half, which is pretty tame by Seagal standards. Is it a nice change of pace? Eh, maybe. But when I have my mouth set on a medium extra-cheese pizza, by God, I WANT a medium extra-cheese pizza. Understand?
I'm being really picky here, because I actually enjoyed Hard To Kill quite a bit. It's fun, violent, silly, and features some great one-liners that you can repeat to your loving, caring, nurturing wife, who will roll her eyes and weep for her pathetic excuse for a marriage. Kidding. While it's not as wet as some of the big guy's earlier films, it still showcases Seagal when he was actually a force to be reckoned with in the Hollywood system. Again, watching these earlier efforts makes consuming junk food like Black Dawn and Today You Die quite painful, for sure. While those movies are good in their own esoteric way, his pre-1999 releases were all fairly well done. Goofy, yeah, but solid entertainment nonetheless.
Mason Storm is cool as hell, but he's no Gino Felino.
