Goofiest Film of Seagal's Early Career - 'Hard to Kill' Review...
Two years after his debut film, Above the Law, Steven Seagal returns to the action screen, and I'm wondering what kind of talk there was about his first film that might have affected this one, because I noticed that the Oscars are mentioned no less than four times within the first ten minutes of the movie. I imagine there was a lot of teasing going on about the 'acting' in Above the Law?At any rate, it's a subject that has never really gone away for all of his career. There has never been much worthwhile acting in many of his movies, although it has turned up from time to time (Under Siege would be the obvious example).
In Hard to Kill, Seagal plays, Mason Storm, a Los Angeles police officer who has astonishing luck with his stakeouts. One night while staking out a loading dock, he captures a senator named Vernon Trent who is running for re-election while he's not busy paying people to kill his opponents. And while he does it he's accomodating enough to use the correct indictable vocabulary, drop one of his recognizable political catch phrases, and then walk directly into the light for a full face shot for the camera. What a guy!
Sadly, it was a noise that caused him to walk into the light, and thus also blow Storm's cover. He escapes but is soon attacked at home, leaving his wife dead and himself in a coma. It's an intricate situation that leads to him landing in a coma, but basically the bad guys think they've killed him and his wife and son, but instead Storm survives and is secretly put on life support, where he remains for the following seven years.
I'm guessing that not a lot of research was done into the nature of a long-term coma, because even though I'm no expert myself, I'm assuming that you don't just pop back into consciousness at some unknown date in the future with nothing different about yourself other than the fact that you've grown a long, scraggly beard despite daily service from hottie nurses like Andy Stewart (Kelly LeBrock), who has been charmed enough to develop a huge crush on your lifeless ass.
There is a hilarious scene where a bed-ridden Mason Storm is pursued through the hospital by bad guys because no one at the hospital believed him when he kept saying that a bunch of thugs would be there to kill him within the hour so he had to escape immediately. There is a cute partnership between Storm and his nurse Andy that reminds me of the partership between John Matrix and Cindy in Commando. As in that's cool but yeah RIGHT.
And the bad guys, just so you know, are the henchmen of Senator Trent, who now has new reasons to have any remaining evidence of his crimes cleaned up with all possible speed. And since Storm is the only evidence remaining (other than that tape, which he needs to find), that means that Storm is at the top of Trent's to-do list.
The action in the movie is passable but brainless, it's little more than a hardcore shoot-'em-up violence-fest that is even below the standards of the typical Seagal fare. That's a powerful statement, I suppose, but it's true. Consider, for example, the scene where Storm gets involved in a car chase with a lot of thugs who spray him down with machine guns for about ten minutes, and then when he finally gets away, he pulls off the freeway in east LA and trades the Jeep on the spot to a bunch of what look like Mexican gangsters. You know, the kind who would trade their cool Trans Am at the drop of a hat without noticing that their sweet new ride is sporting about a thousand bullet holes.
Also Seagal is out of character here. Say what you will about his acting or the moronic story-lines of most of his movies, but generally his characters and plots are driven by a desire to avenge a loved one or achieve some kind of justice. He's usually protective to a fault of weaker characters in his films (consider the puppy in Out For Justice or the kids in Above the Law), but not here. There is one scene, for example, where he kills a guy right in front of his son without a second thought. Even if it was a really bad guy, what about the poor kid, man? Way to earn yourself future enemies, genius!
All in all not a bad Seagal film, but probably the weakest of his early career, which is where his best movies are. There is a developed plot involving betrayal and Storm not knowing who he can trust, but overall you're better off skipping straight to Out For Justice. Best Seagal film ever!
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