Cheap Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever (Video) (Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Talisa Soto) (Wych Kaosayananda) Price

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Customer Reviews of Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever

Boom! Kapow! (Whatever Sound a Bullet Makes)!
While I was overwhelmingly unimpressed with "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever", I decided to give it two stars instead of one for two reasons: 1) if nothing else, it is a beautiful looking movie and 2) it does minimally deliver what it promises. As many people who have given "Ballistic" a high rating have pointed out, this movie did not intend to win an Oscar for best picture. Of course, neither did "Die Hard"; but, that movie approached its material and audience with an intelligence that is absent from this film.

"Ballistic" stars Antonio Banderas as an ex-FBI agent named Jeremiah Ecks who has been 'retired' from the agency for quite some time. It seems Ecks went to seed after he saw his wife blown apart in what he thought was an attack on his life. Ecks is brought back into the game when asked to do a job by a former boss(?) Julio Martin (Miguel Sandoval).

Julio asks him to track down a renegade Defense Intelligence Agency agent code named Sever (Lucy Liu). As incentive to play along, Julio tells Ecks that his wife is still alive and that, if he tracks down Sever, he'll give him all the information he has on his wife's whereabouts.

They need to track down Sever because she has kidnapped the child of DIA lowlife Robert Gant (Gregg Henry). The reason that Sever has kidnapped Gant's kid are integral to the plot so I won't reveal them. It's needless to say though that two stars of Banderas's and Liu's draw will not be playing the bad guy for long in this or any film.

What "Ballistic" promises and does deliver is lots of explosions and mayhem. There is one scene in particular where Sever basically takes on the entire DIA, Vancouver police, and all of the FBI agents in Vancouver at a shopping mall. It would not be an exaggeration to say that more bullets are fired in this sequence of events than were fired in the siege of Yorktown.

However, I rate this level of action and violence as excessive. The mayhem scenes in "Ballistic" approach the comical as Sever doesn't really try to take cover; she merely fires away with whatever weapon she can get her hands on until she runs out of bullets and can find another gun.

The acting in "Ballistic" is also a shambles. It appears that Banderas and Liu recognized that a decent effort would be wasted on this film. Only Henry's turn as the corrupt DIA agent has any semblance of quality.

There are much better blow-em-up thrillers than "Ballistic" (like the aforementioned "Die Hard"). I'd bother with them instead.

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Forgettable
Some movies require detailed reviews, examining topics like direction, plot and characterization. This is not one of them. The purpose of this movie is to show things exploding; everything else is merely a justification to get from one explosion to another. On this level it succeeds, although it is not enough to sustain interest. It is like watching someone else play a video game; it may be worth watching briefly, but after a few moments, you want a little more involvement (this awkwardly-titled movie may very well be a extended video game commercial). At least the movie doesn't pretend to be anything more than it is, so it gets two stars, but it is not recommended watching.

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Awesome Martial Arts Action
This movie has it all to make it a classic among the best martial arts action films of all time. For those who whine about the plot, I guess they think Chuck Norris films are great dramas--- LMAO! Lucy Lui is impeccable in this film. The photography and action sequences are superb. The plot is okay, in my opinion. I've seen a lot of martial arts film from old to new, and none of them are plot greats. But that's the not point. Lucy is in top form in this movie and the brilliance of her abilities really shine forth. Many of the action scenes are surprising and don't turn out how you would expect. This movie has excitement, solid martial arts footage, suspense, drama, and gee... it even has a decent story. For those who whine about the plot, it really sounds like they don't appreciate a movie where the heroine is a competent female who outsmarts and outmanuvers the men. I chalk their opinions up to sour grapes and recommend this movie to anyone who wants to spend an hour and half being throughly entertained.