| BALLISTIC: ECKS VS. SEVER Rating:  Director: Kaos Producers: Elie Samaha, Chris Lee, Kaos Writer: Allan McElroy Director of Photography: Julio Macat Cast: Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Gregg Henry, Ray Park Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew |
 Click the photo to buy merchandise from Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever |
Review by: Ryan
Kugler
9/23/02
Everyone knows that the most influential and, therefore, most ripped-off movie of the 90's was Pulp Fiction. I wouldn't disagree, but coming in a close (almost too close to call) second would be The Matrix. I mean, has there been an action movie released since that hasn't copied its look, its style and its moves? Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever (catchy title) is the latest in a long line of action flicks that borrows heavily from the Wachowski brothers' groundbreaker, but it doesn't try anything new. Sure, the stars look great, the non-stop action is slick and things blow up in spectacular fashion, but the story (if you can even call it that) is non-existent and the characters are one-dimensional and boring.
The flimsy plot begins when Agent Sever (Lucy Liu, who has about as much dialogue as Schwarzenegger had in Conan) kidnaps the son of Robert Gant (Gregg Henry). Agent Ecks (Antonio Banderas) is called out of retirement to find Sever and have the kid returned. At first, he's in no mood to jump back into the game, but when his superior tells him that Sever has information regarding his long-thought dead wife, he's in. What follows is a cat and mouse game between the two agents, who have a lot more in common then they think.
Kaos (which I too would call myself if my actual name were Wych Kaosayananda) directed the movie and proves that he can blow up a car and a building (in slow motion, of course) as well as the next guy. He also has the cool look and mystique of his leads (more like Terminators than Secret Agents) down pat. It's true that once they utter Alan McElroy's cliched dialogue the cool factor is lost, but they sure look good (especially Lucy Liu in a wardrobe lifted straight from the Trinity character in The Matrix) running around laying waste to entire city blocks and armies of bad guys.
Speaking of bad guys, one of the biggest problems here is the lack of a strong or memorable one. In the fifteen years since Die Hard, hasn't Hollywood learned that a great villain is even more important than a good hero? Alan Rickman's Hans (possibly the greatest villain ever) made the Bruce Willis film the success that it was. In Ballistic we get two, who combined, still don't equal one Hans. There's boring British agent A.J. Ross (Darth Maul himself Ray Park) and his boss Gant (Henry was much more memorable as bad guy Val Resnick in Payback), both who are given absolutely nothing to do but stand around and watch their men get obliterated by Ecks and Sever. These guys just aren't menacing enough and they never pose any real threat to the heroes.
Most people are going to see Ballistic for the action and while it does deliver, there's nothing here that hasn't been seen before, and it's definitely not reason enough to shell out the money for a ticket. We get a motorcycle chase, Crouching Tiger-style martial arts, extensive machine gun battles that produce enough shattered glass to delight Roger Ebert and more explosions than any movie in recent memory (though after the twentieth, I started to lose interest). The only standard that's sorely missing is the big final fight, though we do get a decent battle at the end between A.J. and Sever.
In the end, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is completely mindless entertainment (why wasn't this released during the summer?) with nothing new to offer. Thankfully, its short running time and non-stop action makes it an easy sit and while this isn't reason enough to recommend it, I've seen worse. By the way, is this the strangest movie title of the year or what? Why not just Ballistic, or how about, Ecks Vs. Sever? Why not Style Vs. Substance?
(A Warner Bros. Pictures release. Opened
wide on September 20.)
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