Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever

Rating:
Summary: Ballistic Ecks vs. Sever - Um...
Review: If you're into low budget, overly clichéd action thrillers that are short on plot, heavy on action and overpowered by the soundtrack type movies, this is the one for you! This is not the type of movie that I particularly go out of my way for but since it came with high praise from a trusted source and has Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu in it, I jumped right in. As fortune would have it, it's only an hour and a half long which is one of this movies precious few saving graces. Another huge saving grace for this "film" is the casting of Ray Park, an actor whose martial arts skills are quite noteworthy. Perhaps you might not be familiar with his name or previous works, most notably of which was Darth Maul in "Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace and in the first X-Men movie as Toad.

The premise:

Quick and "simple," Sever, played by Lucy Liu, is a DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) agent who for very good reasons has decided to turn her considerable talents against her boss. This attention is manifested through her kidnapping her "boss's" son. In comes Ecks, played somewhat blandly by Antonio Banderas, who is a former FBI Special agent. He is coerced by his former lead agent into participating in the search for Sever and the kidnapped child.

What follows from there is, as stated above, a film predicated by well worn cliché and an overbearing soundtrack. While not leaving one feeling as if they've wasted an hour and a half of their life, it does leave one wondering about Antonio Banderas' decision making process when it comes to the films he's been choosing over the last few years. I would definitely recommend this film only in the manner of it being a rental. {ssintrepid}

Rating:
Summary: Not the worst movie I've ever seen.
Review: "Not the worst movie I've ever seen" is about the best I can say about this, and I'm a big fan of Banderas and Liu. I often wonder why they're not bigger stars (especially Banderas) and I start to formulate a reason when I see a movie like Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. Either they're picking the worst scripts that are offered to them, or, sadder, these are the best roles they're getting and it's the industry that doesn't know what to do with these two. How you can take two such charismatic people, both with excellent physical and comedic timing, and plop them into these lifeless roles is beyond me.

The "plot" is right out of a late night action flick you'd see on cable TV back in the 80s. There's some vague reference to super technology, but it's all mired in heaps of pitiful plot twists. People are mistaken for dead, their children are taken away from them, identities are changed... A story this implausible should at least be FUN so that the viewer can overlook the faults. Another Liu movie, the first Charlie's Angels, at least understands this.

Liu does have some good moves as Sever, though, and Banderas mumbles his way through depression well enough. There are also some decent musical choices. Not great, maybe not even good, but like I said... decent. It's enough to keep me from giving it a single star.

Rating:
Summary: Oh My...
Review: What a horrible movie. I don't even know how it made it to the big screen. The only reason I went to see it was because I am a huge fan of Lucy Lui. Unfortantely, even she couldn't give this flick any hope.
Yes. It is non-stop action. But pointless. Don't waste your time or money.

Rating:
Summary: Poorly written, poorly executed
Review: I don't have very high standards for plot in action movies, so I can forgive the overall weakness of the story line. I can forgive the sheer implausibility even of the basic premise for the film (heck, if I could swallow the premise for The Matrix, I have no right to complain about lame premises ever again). There are two things I can't forgive in an action movie, though, and Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever has both:

First, it prevents two very cool actors from being cool.

Antonio Banderas spends the whole film unkempt, poorly shaven, and slouching. Antonio Banderas does all of the above very convincingly, but having seen him in Desperado (ASIN: 0800130448), The Mask of Zorro (ASIN: B00005MEV1), heck, even Spy Kids (ASIN: B00003CXWJ), I know how very well he does the suave man of action, and I just hated to see him doing his scruffy bit all the way through.

Ditto for Lucy Liu. The thing that makes her so watchable (apart from the fact that she's unbelievably gorgeous) is the way she gives her characters strong personalities that shine through in every scene. Not so in this film. It seems the director wanted her to appear to be a killing machine through most of the film. Her face is completely expressionless until near the end, and I just couldn't stand watching Lucy Liu fighting without knowing how her character was feeling. Was she excited? Frightened? Depressed? There was no way to tell, because her face was just blank the whole time. It could have been somebody else walking around in a Lucy Liu mask, for all I could see of her personality.

The second big mistake this film made is that the bad guys were just way too stupid in the action scenes. I don't like bad guys who line up to get killed, especially if they're supposed to be some kind of super commandos.

There's one scene in the film where about 50 of the bad guys' elite assassins go after the heroes in a freight yard. First, when they move out of cover, they do it all together in a nice line 50 abreast rather than filtering in. Then, they clump together in small groups conveniently near to explosive charges, or run single file out in the open between rows of trains all ready for the heroes to empty their machine guns at them.

Now, I'm not what you'd call a great military tactician, but clustering in groups and running around in straight lines when there are people with machine guns and explosives nearby? I'd hope even a Hollywood director could figure out how stupiod that is.

This one achieves depths of implausibility in action scenes not seen since Commando (ASIN: 6305364664)... At least in Commando, though, for better or for worse, Schwarzenegger was able to do his personality thing.

I definitely recommend skipping this one in favor of a Desperado/Charlie's Angels double feature.

Rating:
Summary: People actually gave BALLISTIC 0 stars?!
Review: That was my first reaction even before I saw ECKS VS SVER, but I had read reviews of it, and I was appalled. No movie with Lucy Liu in it could ever warrant a ZERO STAR RATING FOR CHRIST'S SAKE!

I will agree that the film's plot exists only to perpetutate the action, which consists of motorcycle chases, blazin' gun wars, and several great martial arts battles, which include the opening sequence, in which the Chinese "good" assasin Sever (Lucy Liu) "kidnaps" her ex-employer's son, a sequence during which Sever beats the bejesus out of Agent Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas), whose searching for information on his "deceased" wife, and the final fight, in which Sever takes on Ross, whose after a new "invention" she has hidden, and who is played by none other than the great Ray Park!

Notice how many quotation marks I used there? That could explain some of the film's unpopulartiy. By the halfway point, BALLISTIC:ECKS VS SEVER has had so many plot twists, it makes THE SIXTH SENSE's one big big plot twist look silly (well, okay, let's not go nuts here, but you get the idea.)

I am not an especially big fan of Antonio Banderas, but he comes across as a good male lead. It was really Lucy Liu that drew me to this film. Trust me, she is the only one of CHARLIE'S ANGELS who is a REAL martial artist, and she gets her chance to prove it this time around, with none of the over-the-top, pushing-the-envelope type of wire-fu (I'm looking at you, FULL THROTTLE)

Basically, BALLISTIC:ECKS VS SEVER is not half as bad as it is made out to be. Anyone looking for some good action should check it out, and you'll love to see Lucy Liu throwin' some real nice high kicks and just looking like a beautiful ANGEL. (If your'e still not impressed with Lucy, be sure to check out KILL BILL VOL. 1, when she gets to be the villianess.)

Rating:
Summary: Ballistic Ecks vs. Sever - Um...
Review: If you're into low budget, overly clichéd action thrillers that are short on plot, heavy on action and overpowered by the soundtrack type movies, this is the one for you! This is not the type of movie that I particularly go out of my way for but since it came with high praise from a trusted source and has Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu in it, I jumped right in. As fortune would have it, it's only an hour and a half long which is one of this movies precious few saving graces. Another huge saving grace for this "film" is the casting of Ray Park, an actor whose martial arts skills are quite noteworthy. Perhaps you might not be familiar with his name or previous works, most notably of which was Darth Maul in "Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace and in the first X-Men movie as Toad.

The premise:

Quick and "simple," Sever, played by Lucy Liu, is a DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency) agent who for very good reasons has decided to turn her considerable talents against her boss. This attention is manifested through her kidnapping her "boss's" son. In comes Ecks, played somewhat blandly by Antonio Banderas, who is a former FBI Special agent. He is coerced by his former lead agent into participating in the search for Sever and the kidnapped child.

What follows from there is, as stated above, a film predicated by well worn cliché and an overbearing soundtrack. While not leaving one feeling as if they've wasted an hour and a half of their life, it does leave one wondering about Antonio Banderas' decision making process when it comes to the films he's been choosing over the last few years. I would definitely recommend this film only in the manner of it being a rental. {ssintrepid}

Rating:
Summary: Suspend disbelief first
Review: This movie is about family values. It's about Ecks (Bandeiras) defending the family he doesn't know he has, and about Sever (Liu) defending the family she doesn't have.

Get it? No? Me neither.

Oh, and there's a deadly nano-thingie making the rounds. That has something to do with the plot, too. Uh, let's just skip the plot.

This is actually an enjoyable guns'n'fights movie. Liu does the super-spy-babe thing very well, and with less facial expression than Keanu Reeves. Come to think of it, the bad guy doesn't have much in the way of facial expressions either, mostly a big evil grin seemingly held in place with botox and superglue. Lots of things blow up, and blow up in the bad guys' faces. That part was a bit puzzling, though: after the explosions, everyone just gets up and plays again.

If you want lots of gunfire and running around, it's a pretty good movie. Still, I was glad that I had a book in hand while watching it.

Rating:
Summary: Not the worst movie I've ever seen.
Review: "Not the worst movie I've ever seen" is about the best I can say about this, and I'm a big fan of Banderas and Liu. I often wonder why they're not bigger stars (especially Banderas) and I start to formulate a reason when I see a movie like Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever. Either they're picking the worst scripts that are offered to them, or, sadder, these are the best roles they're getting and it's the industry that doesn't know what to do with these two. How you can take two such charismatic people, both with excellent physical and comedic timing, and plop them into these lifeless roles is beyond me.

The "plot" is right out of a late night action flick you'd see on cable TV back in the 80s. There's some vague reference to super technology, but it's all mired in heaps of pitiful plot twists. People are mistaken for dead, their children are taken away from them, identities are changed... A story this implausible should at least be FUN so that the viewer can overlook the faults. Another Liu movie, the first Charlie's Angels, at least understands this.

Liu does have some good moves as Sever, though, and Banderas mumbles his way through depression well enough. There are also some decent musical choices. Not great, maybe not even good, but like I said... decent. It's enough to keep me from giving it a single star.

Rating:
Summary: spy vs. spy
Review: this movie is not to good. The spy vs spy turns midway through as they teaam up to destroy a greater evil and rescue a child. Lucy Lu doesnt have much to say in this film and lets her martial arts do the talking while she comes across stiff as a board. Antonio is a reformed drunk who gets into shape and teams up with her to blow up everything in sight almost. The wierd thing is the explosions just knock the bad guys down not kill them. Later Sever and Ecks can fill them with hundres of bullets.

Antonio mumbles alot and looks around as he falls through the movie in a trance. I really dont know what else to say, both actors tried I guess...everyone proably still made alot of money too. its really a darn shame...

Rating:
Summary: Boom! Kapow! (Whatever Sound a Bullet Makes)!
Review: While I was overwhelmingly unimpressed with "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever", I decided to give it two stars instead of one for two reasons: 1) if nothing else, it is a beautiful looking movie and 2) it does minimally deliver what it promises. As many people who have given "Ballistic" a high rating have pointed out, this movie did not intend to win an Oscar for best picture. Of course, neither did "Die Hard"; but, that movie approached its material and audience with an intelligence that is absent from this film.

"Ballistic" stars Antonio Banderas as an ex-FBI agent named Jeremiah Ecks who has been 'retired' from the agency for quite some time. It seems Ecks went to seed after he saw his wife blown apart in what he thought was an attack on his life. Ecks is brought back into the game when asked to do a job by a former boss(?) Julio Martin (Miguel Sandoval).

Julio asks him to track down a renegade Defense Intelligence Agency agent code named Sever (Lucy Liu). As incentive to play along, Julio tells Ecks that his wife is still alive and that, if he tracks down Sever, he'll give him all the information he has on his wife's whereabouts.

They need to track down Sever because she has kidnapped the child of DIA lowlife Robert Gant (Gregg Henry). The reason that Sever has kidnapped Gant's kid are integral to the plot so I won't reveal them. It's needless to say though that two stars of Banderas's and Liu's draw will not be playing the bad guy for long in this or any film.

What "Ballistic" promises and does deliver is lots of explosions and mayhem. There is one scene in particular where Sever basically takes on the entire DIA, Vancouver police, and all of the FBI agents in Vancouver at a shopping mall. It would not be an exaggeration to say that more bullets are fired in this sequence of events than were fired in the siege of Yorktown.

However, I rate this level of action and violence as excessive. The mayhem scenes in "Ballistic" approach the comical as Sever doesn't really try to take cover; she merely fires away with whatever weapon she can get her hands on until she runs out of bullets and can find another gun.

The acting in "Ballistic" is also a shambles. It appears that Banderas and Liu recognized that a decent effort would be wasted on this film. Only Henry's turn as the corrupt DIA agent has any semblance of quality.

There are much better blow-em-up thrillers than "Ballistic" (like the aforementioned "Die Hard"). I'd bother with them instead.