Ultime vengeance

Wow. The Seagal movies just keep on coming. Right after I commented on 'Out For Justice', I caught the horrible 'Out for a Kill' on pay TV, and then 'Hard to Kill' came on after that on free-to-air. With any luck, the most awesome of all Seagal's movies - 'Under Siege' - will be on sometime soon, but for now, 'Hard to Kill' was rather awesome.

Seagal plays Mason Storm, a cop investigating links between some mobsters, crooked cops, and crooked politician, and suddenly everything turns into a 'Kill Bill' prototype: The bad guys kill Storm's family, and leave him for dead. After waking up from a seven-year coma, Storm sets out for vengeance.

'Hard to Kill' is an entertaining action movie. The amount of limb-snapping may be lower than usual for a Seagal movie, but the fight scenes are good. An added bonus is the fact that 'Hard to Kill' features some of Seagal's best lines and moments ("I'm gonna take you to the bank, Senator Trent. To the blood bank!"). The hide and seek scene has got to be the best scene Seagal has ever filmed.

'Hard to Kill' rates as one of my favourite Seagal movies, and certainly much better than anything he's done lately. Seagal fans should get a kick out of this - 7/10

The picture talks on the police agent called Storm(Seagal)whose family is wiped out by a corrupt politician, he is severely wounded and spends several years in coma.He awakes and executes a terrible vendetta, the happenings go out of control ,causing an incredible body-count against numerous evil-doers(William Sadler,Branscombe Richmond).He is only helped by a gorgeous nurse(his wife Kelly Le Brock,now days is divorced)and a good cop(Frederick Coffin). The film is combined of unstopped action,shoot out,violence,fighting, romance between both protagonists and a minimum characterization.Beside abundant fist fights in which body parts are slice off and limbs are slit or blasted apart.Savage and brutal killings make only recommended for those adults no squeamish and with strong stomach enough to take it.The movie gets a certain similarity with Charles Bronson films from ¨Death wish¨series for the matter,the avenger,thus the main personage ,the Vigilante, makes of judge,jury and executioner.It's a run a mill action movie because from the start until the end the action packed is continued ,in fact ,the final confrontation is breathtaking and extremely violent.The film is from Steven Seagal first period when the movies were of middling or high budget(Above the law,Marked for death,Out of justice,On deadly ground,The patriot),nowdays are of bow budget(Out of kill,Submerged,Foreigner,Black Dawn). The picture has an atmospheric synthesizer music fitting to action by David Michael Frank,nicely cinematography by Matthew F. Leonetti and is well realized by Bruce Malmuth.The motion picture provides fast and furious amusing and action nonstop with no sense developed with fast pace and movement.It's a must for the Seagal fans.

Steven Seagal is a hard man to kill. Especially when he's out to stop corruption. Watch out thugs and government officials (oh we know how corrupt they are). As Seagal hands out plenty of broken arms, but before getting warmed up (although he does encounter some thugs in a shop outlet) he's gunned down in his home with his family murdered. After being comatose for 7 years he awakes and now he's out to settle a score. All the best moments come when Seagal is laying flat in bed doing nothing and everything after that is a bonus. Where can you get a comatose Seagal with long stringy hair, a fuzzy beard, Kelly Labrock asking if he wants a little pussy and then putting a little kitten by his head. Oh there are some priceless dialogues… also Seagal's usual philosophical banter. Before exacting revenge… He's targeted but escapes from the hospital while still lying in his bed. On the run he recovers with Labrock in a secluded house that she's house-sitting. Now we go through the motions… Seagal's motions. Healing physically and mentally… the Buddha way. Being stoically humorous, running up hills, breaking wooden planks and thinking of the past. Then he gets a little bored (decked back in black leather jacket, tight jeans and sporting the slick ponytail); but he doesn't have to go to them as they come to him. His almighty senses come to light (you know that sixth sense) and formulaic taut action erupts. Simple-minded revenge - brutal, scorching and explosive. Don't think about it (ridiculously plotted), just enjoy it. It's a tough, unpleasant barrage of set-pieces and we know how Seagal enjoys playing fair. The bad guys are your typical smarmy lot and cop a beating, a painful beating. "I'm gonna take you to the bank… . The blood bank".

Steven Seagal, whether you love him or loathe him, he's the martial arts action hero that just won't go away. That's partially the premise of "Hard to Kill," the 1990 vehicle obviously meant to throw the pony-tailed, then-sixth-degree Aikido black belt into the action foray with Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Norris, but missed a few steps along the way and it would be another two years after when Seagal would find success in 1992's "Under Siege."

It's true that Seagal has yet to make a perfect film in his thoroughly uneven and distinguished career, but "Hard to Kill" certainly ranks as one of his best and one of my personal favorite pictures of the actor. Two years after breaking and busting the heads of corrupt CIA agents as Nico Toscani in his electrifying 1988 debut "Above the Law," Seagal returns not as the pony-tailed Toscani but as Mason Storm, the most unstoppable cop SOB that ever lived.

After getting home movie footage of an aspiring political candidate (Bill Sadler) conspiring with shadowy underworld types on tape, Storm is tracked down by corrupt cops and nameless and faceless goons and they shotgun the unstoppable SOB into a seven-year coma while also wiping out his wife and young son. O'Malley (Frederick Coffin), Storm's dedicated Internal Affairs friend, whisks him away into a coma-care unit under the assumed name of "John Doe."

Seven years later, Storm awakens and with the help of gorgeous nurse Andy Stewart (Seagal's then real-life, lovestruck wife Kelly Le Brock, who manages to catch peaks at our hero's anatomy), he trains intensely to regain his strength using the Oriental healing arts, renews his Aikido skills, and sharpens his eyes with that good ol' police-issue. All this culminating in some very nasty, neck-breaking, arm-twisting action.

As somewhat mis-directed by Bruce Malmuth and written by Steven McKay, "Hard to Kill" is undoubtedly one of the actor's most competently skilled performances because he's able to rise above the average material and make it his own. The problem may be with Seagal though. He snaps a few wrists and what's this? - he throws out one-liners - most of which are quite corny and fall flat on their face and simply put aren't Seagal's strong points. His strengths are in the arm-snapping and finger-breaking.

But still, Seagal's fists of fury are at their best (because that's what he does best) because this time around, he's mad and it's wise to not get characters played by Steven Seagal mad. Pretty soon after Storm has regained his skills and strength, the corrupt cops and goons that put him into his coma come back to finish the job. And this time, he's ready.

The action begins to pick up about half-way through and from there on in it's non-stop, which is true Seagal fashion, if you get my drift. But with "Hard to Kill," it's the seven-year Storm, and there's no letting up.

6/10

An American action thriller; A story about a police detective who uncovers high-level corruption and is attacked and his family are left for dead. In time he decides to pay them a visit. This is a lively and ambitious revenge flick and does a little more than simply string fight scenes together. It has some similarity to "Commando" (1985) in the way the action flows - villains are disposed of with great efficiency because there are so many to get through and there isn't much depth. Seagal and Le Brock strike up a friendship which is appealing but when this transforms to love interest it feels false because it is rushed and convenient to the plot progression and no more. The film wastes no time in satisfying the audience's bloodlust but uppermost in its appeal is the charisma of Seagal and his aikido movements to disarm his foes.