DVD Review | Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever
Written by: Kage Alan

There's something about action films that really used to get audiences pumped
up.  While the stars of the films have evolved from Stallone and Arnold to
VanDamme and Seagal, now we have the likes of Lucy Liu.  I remember loving watching Geena Davis in "The Long Kiss Goodnight", which is another film with a huge budget that died a quick death, but there's something about watching Liu kick everybody's ass that just makes me go "Wow.  That's cool!" Then too, I can be easily amused at times.

Vinn (Talisa Soto, "Mortal Kombat") is having a rough life.  Not only was her
husband blown up by a car bomb seven years earlier, but her new husband,
Robert Gant (Gregg Henry, "Star Trek: Insurrection") is a complete jerk, her
young son has been kidnapped and nobody is telling her what's going on.  The
antagonist turns out to be none other than Sever (Liu, "Charlie's Angels"), a
deadly female assassin with a mysterious past and agenda.  Oh, my.  Who can
they ask to save the day?

Cue burned out former FBI agent Jeremiah Ecks (Antonia Banderas, "Spy Kids"). He's having a bad life too (as well as a bad hair day), which started when he saw his wife blown up by a car bomb seven years earlier.  Hmm, does that smell of a set-up at all?  When Ecks' former FBI Director offers to give him information regarding the whereabouts of his less-than-late wife in exchange for doing a job, he grudgingly agrees.  It seems that agents of a shadow government smuggled a very sophisticated and deadly piece of technology into Vancouver, only Sever is now in possession of it.  We can't have that.

With time running out, Ecks joins the manhunt to track Sever down with the
help of another agent, Harry (Terry Chen, "Various Positions"), only Gant's
men keep making a mess of things and hindering them.  What is Sever's story
and why does she seem to only be aiming for Gant and his people?  Do she and Ecks have a common enemy?  Could the filmmakers possibly have gotten anymore explosions or guns fired in the film for their $70 million dollars?

Short on plot and heavy on the action, "Ballistic" will most likely play
better on video than it did in the theatre.  Let's just say that I've come to
think of it as a guilty pleasure.  Liu does exactly what's expected of her;
she beats the snot out of everybody, fires guns and blows everything up in
sight.  Banderas is much more laid back and seems more annoyed when somebody is firing a gun at him than angry.  He's actually a decent counterpart to Liu, though it still feels like an odd choice in casting.

Warner Brothers has delivered an excellent Widescreen transfer of "Ballistic"
with a gorgeous looking picture.  The audio is also quite zesty, especially
the techno soundtrack.  As for extras, we're given some cast and crew film
highlights that don't amount to much, a trailer, an odd game called "Know
Your Enemy Challenge" that didn't hold my attention for long at all and,
finally, a 13-minute "HBO First Look" fluff piece that takes a look at the
making of the film.  Considering the film's poor show at the box office, I'm
not surprised that Warner didn't put much effort into the extras. 
"Ballistic" is only going to appeal to fans of the genre and the actors
involved, so extras are negligible.

In one respect, it's difficult to believe that "Ballistic" didn't find a
larger audience.  Moviegoers like to be wooed with flashy effects, explosions
and fight sequences, which this film delivers in abundance.  On the other
hand, they enjoy a little more dialogue to help pad the plot out a bit. 
Between Sever's infrequent use of speech and Ecks' less than coherent
mumblings, additional conversation might have helped.  It's not perfect, but
"Ballistic" definitely ranks up there with the rest of my guilty favorites!

Film Rating: B
DVD Special Features: C-

FEATURED COMMENTS:
Comment: It's amazing how a movie actually is set in Vancouver, rather than just being filmed there and made to look like LA. I like that!