Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)

As I watched this sublime work, I became aware that this is unlike the others. Whereas many films will insist they are different, this film embraces what could make it the same to become different. This embrace of what an action film is makes Ballistic highly entertaining and watchable. When added to the pot with unique cinematography and a perfectly subdued yet omnipresent soundtrack, you have a ballet of bullets that seems to slide past as if a dream, and can truly help you to grasp the intricate threads of self-similarity running through the universe, such as those between a cauliflower and an explosion. An exceptional film, 10/10

"Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" is not just a dumb title for a film, it's also a really, really dumb film. It's the sort of horribly written film chock full of non-stop action that seems to be written for folks who found the Rambo films too intellectually taxing. One stunt after another after another after--all strung together with conspiracy film clichés--that, in a nutshell, is this film.The film starts with the jaded FBI agent (Antonio Banderas--who seems half asleep in this role) being forced to rejoin....oh never mind, you know how this crappy clichés will go. And ultimately, he'll be force to join his old nemesis, the super-dangerous Lucy Liu (!!) to fight the powers of not-niceness that threaten to control the destiny of the Free World. And so, to do this, they punch and kick, blow up stuff and kill. This is punctuated by kidnappings, mayhem and conspiracies--none of which seem anything more than plot devices.Overall, not a lot to provide interest to anyone--even stupid people. Silly--just the sort of action film you might expect Jethro Bodine to make--if he was real and had his uncle's millions to finance this dud. I could imagine him directing this thing and shouting "Hoo-Wee--we gots lots of double-naught spies!!".

With all of the harsh and negative criticisms of this film let's look at what is good... Sorry, my mind was still left on dumb because this movie has about as much intelligence as my 3 year old. But does it take a genius to realize the crew took the pay day and revealed their inner latex S&M fetish? Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu look terrific and are pure eye candy, as is the cinematography. If only more attention was spent on the script as the detail and focus on the rain drops, then we would talking about a genre definer. Gregg Henry still can chew a scene like it was Body Double again. Ray Park proves he can butcher an accent like anybody else can but at least he puts forth an effort to stretch the limitations of the script and make something unique. Best of all is the shoot out in the Mall which can be placed amongst any popcorn flick and excel, and that scene should actually be studied and broken down to the blue print because I wouldn't have minded 2 hours of that instead of a thing called PLOT intruding itself in this movie. To save yourself some headache, turn down the volume and put on your favorite techno music mix and watch the movie that way, trust me it still makes sense.

Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever doesn't deserve to be called an action movie. As a matter of fact, its not a movie, its a jumbled mess with no plot, wooden acting and just plain atrocious. One of the worst movies I've ever seen and I want one and a half hour of my life back. There is absolutely no redeeming value in this piece of garbage, it headlines Banderas and Liu in their worst roles ever, one can only wonder why the two of them agreed to do this garbage. The dialogue is monosyllabic and the plot, if there ever was one, is distasteful. Also, the excessive and unnecessary use of explosives reached to an annoying and "make-me-want-to-kill-the-director" level, I just wanted it to be over with this device of mental torture. I strongly urge you not to watch this piece of junk, steer clear from it at all costs and erase it from your memory forever.