L'expert

Let's face it, Sly Stallone can never be a romantic actor, no matter how hard the poor guy tries. He attempted to be suave and sophisticated in this movie, THE SPECIALIST, but alas, thanks to his rough and

tumble, RAMBO image, Sly fails. Maybe it's just his performance here, or perhaps by the others, especially Sharon Stone, Eric Roberts, and Rod Steiger (Oh God, he was a riot in this movie!). The actors mentioned probably gave their murkiest, most career-ruining roles of their lives, and for what?? The only reason why I found this movie interesting are the action sequences, and my favorite actor of all time, James Woods. Why he decided to be in a cheap flick like THE SPECIALIST is beyond me, but Woods manages to shine as the sleazeball thug who wants Sly's character's head on a platter. Apparently, Woods was the only enthusiastic thespian that walked in this movie's set; about everyone else looked bored. The same goes mostly for the viewer.

Well, let's see. Just off the top of my head, here are some of the features of this turkey. Sly Stallone mumbles so badly that only about 5% of his dialogue is intelligible (though this is probably a plus, given the quality of the writing).Sharon Stone is nice to look at but her acting starts off bad and gets worse in a hurry. Her character is so unlikeable I cheered up when Woods slapped her around. Rod Steiger's accent, which I believe is supposed to be Cuban because he pronounces "you" as "chew" a la Scarface, comes and goes. James Woods plays a parody of himself (this was actually the most entertaining thing about the movie). They show Sly working out, and all he does are ballet-like stretches to show off his bod, and it was not a pretty sight. He is so over-pumped that there are alarmingly bulging veins on every inch of his body visible. Stone and Stallone (has a nice ring to it, huh?) have no chemistry--during their big sex scene, they look extremely bored instead of aroused, as if they are about to doze off but the only thing keeping them awake is to make sure their buff bodies are displayed carefully so they look their best on camera. Continuity is terrible-Sly's character adopts a fluffy grey kitty, which I guess is supposed to make him sensitive (I was just worried he'd crush it accidentally) but in a scene towards the end, the cat is dark brown. I give a grudging point towards the kitty not being killed by the Columbians or Woods--the one thing that I didn't see coming, because every time Sly came home looking for his cat I expected him to find it nailed to the wall or something equally hideous. Woods does have a great scene (a couple, really) where he does a little trick with a pen and some plastique to frighten his office staff. I also laughed at the way he'd constantly be yelling "Shut up!" to characters who hadn't even said anything yet.The movie is, I have to admit, one of those that is so bad, it would qualify as one of those 'love to hate it' movies that you sit around with your friends with to watch and make fun of. Worth renting if 1. you are a Woods fan and find him entertaining in any movie no matter how terrible it is or 2. you have a free rental coming at the video store (or both of the above, like me). If you can't stand all three of the principal stars, skip it by all means.

I'm a big fan of action films, love the explosions, gunfire and fights!

By no means is this a bad movie that you should avoid, its got a good, solid story thats easily understood, Sylvester Stallone puts in a solid performance, however this is surpassed by Wood's evil, cowardly character, pent up on revenge. Stone's performance was however the best in the movie, showing true disgust in the presence of woods, and amazing admiration when in the presence of Stallone.

A few good twists, great explosions, albeit with a couple of random, unneeded fights. Introducing a cat to show the characters sensitive side was pretty bad to be honest.

However this was in no means a bad film, it takes a lot to impress me and in a way, this film did. Not the best action movie ever, but definitely worth the watch.

This seems like a film tailor-made so Sly & Sharon can 'strut their stuff' in the coupling dept. Sharon vamps, Sly warbles thru his lines. Yea, he's got a deep & sexy voice but you can only pick up on what he's saying to her on the phone if you got close-caption on your set! Anyway, they both look VERY fine in this film. James Woods is the pest you'll love to hate being the back-stabber that he is. "Slime" is the only word to use for Eric Roberts role & Rod Steiger's Hispanic accent is fun! See the edited version of this one. It's got a slick color to it that's quite appealing being that it was shot in Miami where everything's bright pink & green.

This movie makes very little sense, with it's brainless script. The revenge plot has been seen a thousand times and then some. The big difference is instead of guns to bring down the bad guys, here we have cartoon like explosions. If it weren't for James Woods, Eric Roberts, and Rod Steiger, "The Specialist" would be complete refuse. Woods especially, carries the film, as the smarmy evil enemy of Stallone. Speaking of Stallone, both he and Sharon Stone have a believability factor deficiency of monumental proportions. In fact the entire movie has a believability factor of less than zero. I've seen cartoons that made me think more than this does. Push button, blow it up, push button, blow it up. That's all there is to this "bomb". - MERK