Marked For Death
"Let me tell you something. You bailed out a Jamaican, street name Monkey, the other day...I want him. This other piece of shit, Screwface...I want HIM. You're a scumbag and a puke, I don't mind that. You give me what I need, I'm gonna leave here a nice guy. You don't, I'm gonna fuck you up." - Hatcher
release year: 1990
genre: action
viewing setting: home DVD 10/24/22 and 5/9/15 and 12/29/08 and a couple of times in the 1990s
synopsis: DEA agent John Hatcher gets burnt out at work and takes some time off...but when Jamaican drug dealers barge into his home life, he proceeds to systematically hunt and annihilate them.
impressions: This was Steven Seagal's third movie, and one of his best. I had no idea that there even were Jamaican drug dealers, but then again, what do I know? The action is almost non-stop, and of great variety. Seagal doesn't get upset until they shoot up his house and injure his niece, at which point he comes out of the emergency room with this look on his face...that intense Seagal look where you just know someone's about to get messed up bad. From there, he breaks wrists, necks, and even a back. He slices off an arm and later a head. He puts one bad guy through multiple glass jewelry showcases just because he can. He fights with swords and looks cool doing it. At one point, he's interrogating one bad guy and another charges at him, and Seagal just casually deflects the second guy and goes on with his questioning. Because Steven Seagal just doesn't give a damn about minor things like random charging bad guys. Another time, he has someone aiming a gun at him and in one smooth motion, he draws his own gun and shoots the guy in the forehead. The main bad guy, Screwface, is pretty capable too, though he does beat up his own people when he gets mad. He must be pretty fearsome, because one of his guys jumps out of a 10-story window rather than rat him out to Seagal. Of course, all of that doesn't help him in the end, as Seagal rams him through a wall, gouges out his eyes, breaks his back over one knee, and THEN hurls him down an elevator shaft where he gets impaled on a spike. Take that, Screwface. There's also plenty of gunfire all around, and also some voodoo. This is good stuff.
Seagal activation point: 39:07 - this is when he leaves his wounded niece's hospital room with the look, the one that says people are soon going to die
number of asses kicked by Seagal in hand-to-hand combat: 14
number of people killed by Seagal: 8
number of additional people killed by Seagal after he kicked their ass: 6
number of people killed by someone else: 17
acting: You can probably already tell what I think of Seagal's performance. Basil Wallace is the evil Jamaican drug king Screwface. But that's not all - this movie is a cornucopia of notable co-stars and guest-stars. Keith David is his tough old military buddy who helps him take on the bad guys. Elizabeth Gracen (former Ms. Arkansas who went on to a starring role in the Highlander TV series) is Seagal's sister. Danielle Harris (the little girl in Halloween 4 and Halloween 5) is his niece. Joanna Pacula is a sultry-voiced professor who knows of the arcane Jamaican magic ways. Danny Trejo (best known for his knife-throwing role in Desperado but also more recently for Machete and Bad Ass) is some random punk who Seagal chases at the beginning of the movie. Earl Boen (who played the disbelieving Dr. Silberman in all three Terminator movies) is an ER doctor here. Teri Weigel (former Playboy Playmate who went on to a whole different kind of career) is a random whore here.
final word: Outstanding classic Seagal action.
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