There was a lot of, as my friend says, slow-motion hair tossing.The story is about a rogue agent Sever who has made off with a microdevice that kills at the press of a button. Ecks is another government agent brought in on the case to find Sever and retrieve this device. They soon realize their real enemy isn't one another, but rather Sever's old boss. Bang bang, boom boom. You can guess the ending.
I predicted the ending by watching the trailer. With that piece of the suspense missing, watching the film became a bit tedious. Sure there were lots of explosions and high-tech devices, but in the end you ask yourself "Wasn't that unnecessary?" Even gratuitous I might say. It's also hard to believe how, super-spy or no super-spy, Sever manages to obtain the arsenal of a small army and a BMW X5? (I suppose on her super-salary.)
I'm SO disappointed with this film! Watching it will only give the producers the misguided notion that this is acceptable .... So don't.
LEAP rating (each out of 5):
============================
L (Language) - 1.5 (Lucy Liu has like 5 lines in the whole film, Banderas mumbles. It's a miracle they can have a coherent conversation.)
E (Erotica) - 0 (n/a)
A (Action) - 4 (Lots of explosions.)
P (Plot) - 1 (A seventh grader can write you a better story.)
Rating: 
Summary: It deserved to be a big hit at the box office
Review: Normally I stand by movie critics and consider myself a fan of the more arty, intelligent pics. But if you avoid Ballistic: Ecks verses Sever due to all the bad reviews, like I almost did, you'll deprive yourself of one of the most exciting action flicks to come around in some time. These are undoubtedly some of the best and most original explosions ever filmed, including many cars and trucks doing triple somersaults in the air. Lucy Liu is very charismatic as a tough, trigger-happy secret agent. And forget all those critics who called the plotline incomprehensible. They must be stupid 'cause the plot is clear, easy to follow and an interesting compliment to the many scenes of well-staged, extended action sequences.
Rating: 
Summary: pretty bad
Review: What happened in this movie is very simple, the director and producer decided the create a movie with as many explosions and gun shots as possible. They wanted in to star Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas. They simply decided that with all 4 of these things going for it, no one would miss a plot.
Rating: 
Summary: 1.9 EPM (explosions per minute)
Review: I went to see this with a friend and when we got to the ticket window, I asked the kid working if Ballistic had a plot. He said, "No, not really." I said, "Excellent, we'll take 2 tickets!"
I generally am not a fan of movies without a plot, particularly action movies without plots, but since I knew going in that this move did not have one, I wasn't disappointed.
I noticed this movie borrows, for lack of a better word, from several other movies. The Matrix influence is obvious, with Lucy Liu's character doing cartwheels like she was Neo and techno rock playing in every action sequence. Also, we have the origami artwork, courtesy of the movie Bladerunner. And a very famous sequence was lifted from the Orson Welles movie the Lady from Shanghai, where the lovers meet in the aquarium.
What the movie lacks in originality it more than makes up for by the sheer number of things that blow up. I mean, the only way this movie could've been better is if the projection room blew up after we left.
Rating: 
Summary: The Best Film Of The Summer, Hands Down
Review: From the moment the first truck drove through another car to the tune of "The Name Of The Game", I was enthralled by this masterwork of explosions and pointless plot devices. Does anything make any sense? NO! Did I understand how Lucy Liu could single-handedly annihilate a city block? Double no! Did I love every one of those 32 explosions? Yes! Basically, you want explosions, you're set. You want something else? Go rent Country Bears.
Rating:
Summary: sooo awful
Review: Whomever rated this movie anything over 1 star is either a kid, or just an idiot. I mean rarely is the day that I'll go online to pan a movie, but after sitting through that last night... Look it's a basically a BAD late-night showtime/cinemax film, with two credible stars (I went to see it for Lucy as well). I watch a lot of garbage/crap, all the time in fact, that was just so bad. I'm really not going to go into it, since its already been said, but it's the most cliche filled, awful, completely non-sensible, confusing movie I think I have ever seen in at the theatres.
Rating:
Summary: Very Impressed!
Review: What a great movie!...The movie was 100% pure adrenaline. The action sequences were well done and very plentiful, but what was equally impressive was the plot. The storyline wasn't always obvious and you had to figure out what was really going on. It was enjoyable to be entertained by the relentless action and simulaneously be challenged by the storyline. While the action was good, it was not bloody, and did not merit the R. One swear, no nudity --- it's definitely a PG-13 experience. Lucy Liu's character wasn't emotionless..., but was driven. She had something she desperately needed to do and she was focused. Rather than being emotionless she was in control of emotion, and rather than sobbing like some wimpy character, she took charge and channeled her emotions with butt-kicking flair. This is a movie that I am going to see again - worth every cent of the $9 admission - and I will buy as soon as it comes out on DVD.
Don't deprive yourself action hero fans! See this one right away!
Rating:
Summary: absurdly inept espionage thriller
Review: "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" has been saddled with not only one of the worst movie titles in recent memory, but one of the worst screenplays as well. The film's third-rate espionage plot makes no sense at all and serves basically as a [weak] excuse for endless explosions, shootouts and double-flipping car chases, which have become the standard accoutrements for virtually every action picture since "Bullitt" in 1968.
The problem with "Ballistic" is that the viewer can never tell who is doing what to whom or why - and we never care. The film is really all about style anyway. How else to account for the rather ludicrous image of Lucy Liu - looking more like a fashion model out on a shoot than a trained killer doing the shooting herself - strolling in elegant slow motion through the streets of Vancouver, wiping out what seems to be an entire hit squad with a combination of superhuman marksmanship and Matrix-like kickboxing moves? With her ankle-length designer coat and her icy-cool demeanor, she looks like Calvin Klein's idea of what the well-dressed assassin should be wearing this season. It's enough to reduce the whole enterprise to the level of comic absurdity - and, indeed, I often found myself laughing out loud at many of the ostensibly serious shenanigans occurring in the film. The flashbacks, which are obviously intended to clarify the characters' relationships, are so poorly done that they actually end up making the whole story more muddled and confusing. (And, although the child-kidnapping scenario is never as offensive in this film as it is in "Trapped," one can still question the propriety of filmmakers running to this theme with the kind of frequency they seem to have been doing of late).
Antonio Banderas makes up the other half of the film's title (he is Ecks, she Sever), and one only wonders what he could have been thinking about when he signed on to co-star in this particular project. "Ballistic" is utterly dispensable moviemaking: here today, forgotten tomorrow, a film utterly without distinction, conviction or purpose.
Rating: 
Summary: Let's try Ballistic: Waste of Money vs. Horrible Acting
Review: Recently, the action-packed Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever came out. My God, what a terrible film. The film features amazing and hi-tech action sequences but that's about it. Antonio Banderas plays depressed, solitare Agent Jeremiah Ecks. He must fight his supposed rival enemy Sever, played by gorgeous Lucy Liu. I should add I only did see this movie due to Lucy Liu, and maybe the action. This film came in No. 4 in its opening weekend, what a surpise. I thought it would come at No. 10. Too bad! Ballistc is rated R for Strong Violence, but it seem that it could have been PG-13. It essentially contains, loud, thundering gun battles, explosions, cars flipping in the air and Lucy Liu and Antonio Banderas. The film is directed by a man named Kaos, whoa what a cool name. His real name is Wych Kaosananda, I wonder which is preferable. Perhaps, the one that you can pronounce. If you see this movie, you're losing 90 minutes of your life and 6 dollars. See a good movie! NOT BALLISTIC!!!! In theaters everywhere, September 20, 2002.
Rating:
Summary: Great if you're into pain...
Review: I figured it couldn't be THAT bad. It has Lucy Liu for chrissakes. Oh, how wrong I was. First of all, the whole plot revolves around things that aren't explained very well, like, why the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency, I assume) is in Vancouver, why the FBI is in Vancouver (instead of the CIA, which is for foreign intelligence), why, if agent Sever is trying to "protect" this kid, does she go into a crowded mall for apparently no reason other than to sip some Starbucks? A lot of other questions crop up and there are, frankly, no good answers.
The only thing that was good about my movie-watching experience is that I laughed pretty hard through it. I guess if you're a fan of cheesy movies, this one comes close to winning this year's award for cheesiest. If you're a fan of decent-to-good movies, don't bother watching. If you're a Lucy Liu fan, her part is small, and she doesn't show anything off. If you're a martial arts fan, this movie seems promising, but it fails to deliver -- even with Lucy Liu as a badass killer AND Ray Park (Darth Maul) in a battle "to the death". Their fight is lame and ends with a whimper.
