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Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever

Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever

List Price: $14.97
Your Price: $11.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: much action - almost no story & acting
Review: I saw this movie to get a better impression of Lucy Liu, but she didn't really have much to act or say in this movie. It could have been quite interesting to see a duel of two top star actors, but all you get here is a lot of action around a tiny story - Lucy's character first is a "criminal" but in the end saves a child

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Bang, Bang, and ... Where Is the Story?
Review: "Ballistic -- Ecks vs. Sever," the most unappealing title of recent years, has still an appealing element in Lucy Liu; many people might want to see her give a kick or two to bad guys. Well, you can see some good action scenes (though heavily edited) in which she shows some good martial arts stunts. It is a sad thing, however, that
A) you have no reasonable story.
B) you don't get in fact many actions from Ms. Liu.
C) and you see the worst performance from Antonio Banderas in his career.

Sorry to say that, but it's true. Banderas plays an ex FBI agent Ecks, whom you first find drunk, as usual, and who had a wife and kid in the past ... as usual. And Lucy Liu is some secret agent Sever who was trained for special mission or something, as you know, and she now works alone ... well, as you know. Anyway, Sever kidnaps a boy of the boss of some government organization DIA (Greg Henry), and the event, which should have been made with much exciting shots, is followed by many, many gunshots and explosions in Vancouver.

The film looks like a bad Hong-Kong actioner, in which no coherent story is given. There are several surprisingly memorable shots, but they are not many, and most of all, it is painful to watch that these two leading stars, especially Banderas who seems exhaused, (and ill-used Ray Park, "Episode I" and "X-Men") look very tired and uninterested. Even a kidnapped boy looks tired too, as if he wants to go home, home of his own.

I heard the director Wych Kaosayananda, born in Thailand, made a hit there with his previous film "Fah," which led to this English-speaking film. I don't know, but the film must have shown some promising thing in it. And I admit some stunts are good in his second film. But they are all mixed up with incredibly incoherent story, which is very irritating.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Zero Stars!
Review: Oh my god this was just pathetic. It was funny as all heck but it wasn't supposed to be a comedy. This movie was terrible. Lucy Lu is not a good action figure. She was stiff and slow. She wasn't good in Charlie's Angels so it proves that Lu's friend Banderas helped her land this role.

This movie was retarded and dumb. Banderas' acting ( or should I say STRUGGLING with words ) was numbing and he was wasted. His character ( as dumb as it was ) slowly diminished into a pod without a brain. Lu hogged up the screen with another one of her wooden performances. All she does is stare blank eyed at the camera. The special effects were old-fashioned. T2 did things like this in 91!

Ballistic is just another big movie full of noise and bad acting. For their sakes Lu and Banderas better pray for a hit movie because Ballistic has sealed their careers' fate.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: exlosion after explosion afer yawn after yawn after yawn
Review: well, Banderas and Liu knew what the frizat they wre doing in thisstinkpot. it had some good moments of action and then it turned into a complete disaster with explosions turning into crapfireballsand then the crapfinalewithLiu and Gregg Henry. horrible way to die put that scene was horrible and Talisa Soto was horrible as Banderas' wife. if could of been saved if not based on a video game and if not directed by Kaos(sorry buddy) and the title is a little annoying. they should of stuck with ecks vs sever, not the ballisticontop. and Banderas didnt get anyaction threw this whole movie, he just went on blowing things up. he hardly fought and he hardly moved. whata waste of my money.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: It actually sucks out the fun of a moviegoing experience.
Review: I'm not typically a particularly demanding moviegoer when it comes to action films; just give me well-choreographed mayhem set amidst a plot that makes a little bit of a sense or a few engaging characters and I'll probably be reasonably pleased. Ballistic fails to follow even that, which explains why the film bored the hell out of me. I'm almost hesitant to say this, but the latest straight-to-video Jean-Claude Van Damme schlock might actually be better than Ballistic, which was arguably 2002's worst film (I've never seen Rollerball).

There's something of a plot here, but I'm not entirely sure what the hell was going on. Antonio Banderas plays FBI Agent Ecks, Lucy Liu is Agent Sever, and the two of them are duking it out because they somehow have crossed paths with a wealthy man (Gregg Henry) who is determined to smuggle a small electronic device that can assassinate its intended victim via heart attack. Mixed up in it all is Talisa Soto as Banderas' supposedly dead wife, only she's not really dead. Much mayhen ensues.

Ballistic is directed by Kaos, a Thai filmmaker who apparently wanted his movies to live up to his name. This is his first American feature and he shows almost no ability in crafting an action sequence. Martial arts fights that should get the adrenaline-pumping are so stiltedly choreographed, it'll inspire either laughs or yawns. Kaos also goes overboard on the slow motion, ensuring there's never an opportunity for the fight scenes to build momentum. And this is the only film I can think of where the people involved in a car chase actually follow the speed limit!

I feel a bit sorry for the cast here, particularly Lucy Liu, whose martial arts talents are squandered here. To date, she hasn't been much of an actress, but she looks and convincingly acts tough so such a role here must have seemed like a good idea. For Banderas, this is the third film where he has trouble with mysterious women. I've heard of typecasting, but never to such a ridiculous extent. The only thing keeping this guy's career afloat is Robert Rodriguez and that Spy Kids franchise.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: A slick but empty actioner with a wafer thin "plot"
Review: Ecks (Antonio Banderas) & Sever (Lucy Liu) are rival assassins who both want to get their hands on a new high-tech killing device, giving them the power to eliminate their opponent and become #1.
This mind-numbing film is just an excuse for lots of balletic gunplay & "Matrix" style martial arts & weaponry, shot in the style of a music video.
The film is visually slick (Directed & co-produced by Kaos & Produced by Andrew Stevens & Elie Samaha) & admittedly there are some good stunt sequences, but for the majority of BALLISTIC's running time you'll probably feel like your head's packed full of cotton wool- but this is the opinion of a guy who hates techno music. The film seems to be geared towards pubescant boys, who will probably enjoy the frantic camerawork. Others are advised to take a sea sickness pill before watching it, or you may just want to avoid BALLISTIC altogether. Antonio & Lucy deserve far better than this. At least we don't have to worry about a sequel. I hope.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of Antonio's best in awhile
Review: When I first heard of this movie I was saddened. Ok here's Antonio Banderas teaming up with Lucy Liu fighting each other. yeah that'll be a great movie. I couldn't have been more wrong. Now don't get me wrong it's not the best action movie in the world or anything incredibly spectacular but it's surprisingly really good. Both main characters have stand out performances and the one-liners and action scenes are really good. If you are a fan of Antonio or Lucy for that matter and enjoy lots of action then I highly recomend buying this movie.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: My New Worst Film
Review: I can¡¯t understand why this film was made. It¡¯s so appalling and so bad that someone involved in the production must have noticed something. Everything in every area of filmmaking is wrong with Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever. Even the title as Banderas and Liu are not in competition with each other.

Here¡¯s the plot. Oh, wait a minute, I can¡¯t tell you what the plot is because it doesn¡¯t exist. It just a massive load of old cobblers. And what¡¯s even worse is that the nonexistent plot is full of holes. Make sense? No didn¡¯t think so. It¡¯s not even worth watching to see what I mean.

The dialogue is the truly worst ever. At least the bad dialogue in movies such as Dolemite is eternally quotable. Ray Park¡¯s acting makes Jean Claude Van Damme and Steven Seagal on their worst day look like Laurence Olivier. The ¡®action¡¯ is so basic it feels like a made for video production, it lacks anything resembling sophistication and excitement.

I¡¯m surprised Alan B. McElroy wrote this. He¡¯s done some good stuff (Wrong Turn, Spawn Animated Series) but this must have been something he wrote without much inspiration. Every writer comes up with a turkey but WHAT a turkey this is. Still, a bad script can sometimes make for a good movie if the delivery and direction has skill behind it. that ain¡¯t the case here.

Positive energy does not surround this film!

The DVD is in Dolby 5.1 and 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WORST MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN!
Review: I hated this movie. it was honestly the worst movie i've ever seen. for the longest time the characters dont even talk so u dont even know who anyone is or what's going on and when u find out what's goin on u hate the movie even more cause the plot is so horrible. don't rent it. the action scenes aren't even good. soooooooooo bad.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A great big, towering, collossal, redundant, fecal dungheap!
Review: Even though the above title summarizes this film, I shall continue for the sake of those want the gory details. AVOID THIS MOVIE LIKE THE PLAGUE. [Note: In spite of my experience with this film in the theater, I am going to consider giving it a shot at the MST3K treatment thanks to one of my fellow reviewers evaluation...] Hey, here's another short summary: I saw this film in the company of an 18 year old male who thinks Armageddon is one of the best films ever, AND loves Antonio, AND loves Lucy... HE hated it! "We went into this with the best of intentions..." We really did. We expected to really enjoy this. What did we get? Inane, and incomprehensible plot and script. Kaos? It takes true talent to produce this much choreographed mayhem but render it devoid of any entertainment or interest. The comparisons made with XXX are somewhat credible, but that film is at least 2-3 times better. And The Transporter?? At least 10+ times better! There are at least SOME things to enjoy in XXX, and The Transporter was hugely entertaining. This one should have gone into the cage with The Gimp®, never to see the light of day again.


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