Blackjack

Joh Woo has used over and over the slow motion scenes in his action sequences and he always finds a special trick to regenerate his style.But this time,it is a little too much clichéd.Your libido will be absorbed by the blond fluffy bunnies swirling around Dolph Lundgren's muscles and the action scenes are totally unrealistic but this is where all the fun comes from.John Woo always tended to stylize his movies and this one is no exception to the rule.His obsessions for choreography of bullets and killed bodies, as well as friendship and honor, are strongly embedded in all his movies. Unfortunately this movie was made for TV and it demoted the result.

This is differant for Dolph Lundgren, usually he only does B-Grade movies, but this one is a little differant. Its an enjoyable John Woo film with great action and great acting, But what the hell is up with him not being able to look at the colour White, that was a bite stupid. anyway I really enjoyed this film and would recommend it to anyone.

7/10

John Woo, whose film resume consists of classic action films

such as "Face/Off" and "Hard Boiled," steps into the world of

television in this action-packed, yet awfully dull thriller. Big

Swede Dolph Lundgren stars as Jack Devlin, a bodyguard with a

penchant for arming himself with so many handguns in his body,

it would make Charlten Heston blush! Devlin is hired to guard a

hot fashion model named Cinder (the fine Kam Heskin) from a

vicious serial killer on a huge ego-trip.

"Blackjack" has many fine looking stunts, with cool gunfights

and pyrotechniques that trademark John Woo's style of film. Yet,

this movie isn't as violent as his previous films, because

obviously it was shown on the USA network. In other words, a

cable channel can't go for excessive gun-induced violence.

Also, the editing in this film was lousy and trite as well.

There was a scene where Devlin shoots a guy several times,

supposedly killing the assassin. But later, the same man comes

up unharmed, ready to try to waste our hero twice! Huh??! What,

is that one hitman immune to bullets?

The acting in this film is at least more decent than the

production values. Hey, Lundgren still needs to work on his

lines, but compared to his past movies, at least the script is

much smarter. Maybe it's just the actor who needs improvement.

Overall, "Blackjack" is a good movie, but it ain't great folks.

Go blame that on the fact that it is a

Put simply, Dolph Lundgren is the real one man army!!



Swedish-born Lundgren is Jack Devlin, a bodyguard for hire who holsters guns all over his body and uses playing cards as deadly projectiles. He can take out an group of at least a dozen men armed with automatic guns with only the use of his pistols. Talk about unbeatable. This guy could teach Rambo lessons! Devlin's got one weakness, though, and that is the color of pure white. This is done so he's not portrayed as a complete superman!



"Blackjack" is a prime John Woo film, which is filmed in an expertly way. But that doesn't mean it's perfect. This film has a lot of drawbacks!! For example, Devlin has an unlimited supply of ammo, meaning he never had to reload his guns! That was an error that should have been corrected. But the dumbest mistake in this film is the fact that Devlin has a phobia of the color white! That is the dumbest fear ever since being afraid of having peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth (I'm not kidding!!) Plus, there were instances where Devlin touched a couple of white objects (i.e. doors) and he didn't react to them! Those were one of the weirdest and most boneheaded doozies ever shown on TV, and with a master director like John Woo, they should have been corrected!



But, despite all those miserable errors in this film, "Blackjack" is really a very enjoyable action flick, with great stunts, great performances (especially of Lundgren's, this has to be his best role for a very long time) and cool action sequences, which is typical John Woo-style adrenaline rushes. Watch this movie if you're in the mood for a guilty pleasure!

First and foremost this was never intended as a movie. So I do think that should be taken into consideration when viewing.

This was a TV pilot for a show that was never picked up.

After this the pilot was restructured and released DTV to capitalize on Dolph Lundgren's popularity in DTV market.

It probably had the opposite effect and really harmed his career.

Although it got released before, Blackjack (1998) was filmed after Dolph Lundgren's two previous films, Fallen Knight (1998) and Sweepers (1998), that he had made back to back earlier that year (1997).

This 'movie' as an hour long TV pilot would probably be quite fun. It's mostly set up and introducing us to the world of Jack Devlin played by Dolph Lundgren, a U. S Marshal who protects high-profile clients when it comes to a matter of security.

The character Jack Devlin is hit with a strange phobia - fear of white color.

It's a very silly premise but Dolph Lundgren is quite charming in the role. We get introduced to characters that would have been recurring characters in a TV show.

The action for a TV show at the time is actually handled quite well.

'Alias' and 'Dark Angel' would come out a few years later so there was clearly a market for this type of TV spy thriller.

Sadly we will never know if this could have worked as a TV show.

This is more of a curiosity for Dolph Lundgren fans. It would have been fun to see him pursue a TV career as 'Blackjack' seem to represent a real downtrend in his output and popularity.

I do think this film harmed his career and it is evident in the movies he did after this. The quality of his output declined.

I don't think I would recommend this but, if you have low expectations and view it as a curiosity in both Woo and Lundgren's careers you can enjoy some of the action.

It's very slow and unnecessarily long.

1.5/5 stars. Fans only.