Karry Best movie of this year hands down!

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Cissy Évelyne It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

videorama-759-859391 Hot on the heels of Hard To Kill, with again, a less than impressive performance, one could say undemanding now, as we don't go to see Seagal films for acting talent. One in a long line of films before Seagal did straight to video dreck, this third Seagal instalment sees him back on a personal trail of revenge, after earlier retiring. His captain making a potent statement "What are you gonna retire too?", this same actor playing the bartender in that redneck bar in 48 Hours, sardonically suggesting Murphy's choice of drink. When Seagal's undercover mate is blown away in a drug deal gone wrong (a great start of location) and blowing away a woman shooter in return, he decides if by some sort of redemption or salvation to pack it in. When returning to his old neighbourhood to get some peace and tranquillity, he inadvertently stumbles into another drug war, when him and old buddy (Keith David) are witness to an open shootout involving Jamaican drug lords, better known as possies. A nice little educational note there. When his niece takes a bullet, he's forced back into action as we love to see him, him and David walking out of the hospital room, both intent and fierce again has as asking, what's a great actor like David, working with Seagal. Their objective is Screwface, the great Basil Wallace, the standout performer in this who provides a twist too. There are some humorous scenes in Marked for Death, 1) The confession scene. 2) a slightly amusing scene with Seagal, tinkering with some old gun parts or ornaments of some kind at his Sister's place, but 3) Seagal's dialogue to Davi,. concerning two bad arses, one of who'm he just shot, while the other, a Jamaican who made his choice. The family/homely scenes worked well for what isn't a bad actioner, or badly made film, which way you want to term it. It's a solid piece of action making, some potent and memorable dialogue too, as in Seagal's following hit, Out For Justice. This one just doesn't rise to the quality of Seagal's prior flicks. Pacula too as a reporter, provided another homely scene, when Seagal recounts olden days of soup kitchens. Another amusing scene, just before I sign off has Screwface's girl dancing for Seagal, who lets him in on a little wise information, in order to catch her ex. End Song by Jimmy Cliff and the band, is no better way of song to finish this heavy action vehicle, with some occasional but heavy gore.

Michael A. Martinez This one gets my vote for "best" Steven Seagal action picture. Sure UNDER SIEGE is slicker and more expensive, ABOVE THE LAW has a more serious and compelling story, and OUT FOR JUSTICE has Seagal at his self-righteously most over the top, but none of those are half as fun as this little gem.Admittedly the plot to this film is on the simplistic side and it takes itself quite seriously for the most part. Seagal here is an originally unwilling crusader against drug gangs and violence but of course kills more people and causes more mayhem and property damage than any cartel ever did. Already at this point was he starting to exhibit some of his quirky mannerisms (obvious stunt doubles and enigmatic heroes who disappear to let their lackies do the "boring" stuff) which turned into B-action tropes over the years. He also starts to find his own identity as a bonafide 80's era action star with snappy post-mortem one-liners and creative almost artfully balletic corpse-kills.A lot of the fun comes from the ethnocentrism at hand in the form of the ridiculousness assigned to the antagonistic Jamaican cartel. Their heavily accented dialog and Basil Wallace's performance as their leader makes it feel as though Seagal is up against a gang of cartoon characters. The movie casts aside any shred of realism and treats us to seeing Seagal cathartically and unemotionally taking down multiple adversaries at once without even breaking a sweat. This was the only film I think Seagal did for 20th Century Fox so perhaps that's why it breaks a mold a little bit and allows the villains to land a few punches on our mighty hero (not that it makes any difference).One cannot talk about this movie without mentioning Basil Wallace's delirious portrayal of perhaps the most emotionally unbalanced villain of any action movie, and that includes anything Vernon Wells has ever done. He enthusiastically incantates voodoo and mysticism with wild-eyed abandon in an effort to intimidate his posse, but it largely comes across as quite comical. He's the polar opposite of the wooden and inexpressive Seagal, who just sort of drifts around and looks annoyed when there's no more baddies to murder.Pathetically the film tries to go the PC route and with the casting of Jamaican Tom Wright as a vindictive Island cop and American black character actor Keith David as Seagal's buddy vigilante. Amazingly, David's character is the close-minded one and no chance is spared to teach him how Jamaica as a tough but unfortunate breeding ground for vermin, though mostly populated by mostly good people. I don't know if it was out of PC-ness or in keeping with the tone of the villainy in the film, but the soundtrack contains a lot of great reggae tracks, largely by the one and only Jimmy Cliff who even appears in the film as himself singing about the upcoming death of the film's villain (!). The film ends on a high note with a nonstop action spectacular and immediately rolls into one of the most unforgettable reggae songs of all time. I really don't know who John Crow was or what he had to do with anything (perhaps they changed Hatcher's name at some point during production?) but at least we got a great song out of it.

tomgillespie2002 DEA Agent John Hatcher (Steven Seagal) is busy kickin' ass in Colombia when he decides to make his return to the U.S. after some spiritual enlightenment from his priest. He returns to find his city overrun by Jamaican 'posses', and when at a bar, he and his old friend Max (Keith David) find themselves caught amidst a gang war shootout. Hatcher, naturally, kicks the s**t out of some of them and finds that he and his family have been 'marked for death' by gang boss Screwface (Basil Wallace). His sisters house is attacked and when his niece is shot, Hatcher and Max team up with Jamaican police man Charles (Tom Wright) to find Screwface and end his reign of terror.Clearly neither Screwface nor his ever-dispensable gang of cronies have ever seen a Steven Seagal film, or they would have left him the f**k alone. Guns, swords and even voodoo cannot stop the pony-tailed action hero. This is actually considered to be the 'finest' of Seagal's vast action backlog, which is quite tragic given that this film is pretty s**t. I will say this for it, however - it's relentlessly entertaining. Yet this derives from the unintentionally hilarious dialogue, woeful acting, some appallingly gruesome action scenes, and plot devices that simply defy logic.Possibly the funniest moment in the film has Hatcher, who has, by the way, just committed murder (he's retired from the police) and has to be the police's main suspect, taking part in a high speed chase through the city that sees one car drive along the pavement causing massive damage, only to later fly through the window of a department store. Hatcher walks in shooting and stabbing his way through the bad guys only to calmly stroll out afterwards. Surely the police would have noticed something during the carnage? Yes, yes, I'm missing the point, this is a dumb action film - this is hardly trying to be The Wire.Marked for Death does have the sense to show off Seagal's martial arts skills. While many of his other films have him mainly either carrying a gun or simply throwing people onto tables, this has him breaking many, many bones with his bare hands. It's shockingly gory for an 90's action film, which naturally makes the whole film more likable. Basil Wallace is plenty of fun as the interestingly named Screwface, all wide-eyed and using an over-accentuated Jamaican accent. The voodoo element is certainly different, and the practises shown in the film are apparently well-researched and accurate. Definitely one for the action junkies, but for me, it's a laughable nostalgia trip into an overly macho time, and ultimately a rather forgettable one.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

jonathanruano "Marked for Death" follows a predictable formula that is really based on U.S. relations with Germany and Japan just before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At first our hero John Hatcher (Steven Seagal) wants to retire from the narcotics division in law enforcement and ignore the drug dealing (a metaphor for foreign wars) that is going on around him. Then after trying to live peacefully in isolation, Hatcher is pulled back into his profession when Jamaican drug dealers, led by Screwface (Basil Wallace), fire machine guns at his sister's home and wound his niece. Hatcher realizes that he cannot isolate himself from the evil forces anymore and so he confronts them in a good vs. evil struggle in which he eventually emerges triumphant.With this predictable plot, only great dialogue, great villains and a great Seagal performance can save this movie. Steven Seagal has a great screen presence, but the screenplay only has him perform standard car chases and routine martial arts sequences in which he breaks arms, legs and other body parts. But what I find ridiculous about this film are the villains. Screwface and his cohorts come across as very silly performing all of their voodoo magic. I don't know if there are Jamaicans who are so stupid as to think there is anything to voodooism, but it is hard to believe based on this film. Moreover, the voodooism seems all the more ridiculous considering the dreary atmospheric soundtrack in the background. Somebody at the screenplay or production level was way off in introducing voodoo rituals in order to spice up the plot. It actually made the film boring because the voodooism was not relevant to the plot and the villains were reduced to stock characters that fit the image of the "primitive savage" as imagined by European colonialists. The Jamaican cop Charles (Tom Wright) in the film and the explanation half way into the movie that not all Jamaicans sell drugs came across as a pathetic attempt at hedging by the filmmakers who were worried about their film coming across as anti-Jamaican.