Top Box Office Movies - Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) Warner Brothers
1 hr. 31 min.
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Ray Park, Terry Chen, Aidan Drummond
Directed by: Wych "Kaos" Kaosayananda

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever

Rating:

E-MAIL GIANCARLO DE LISI

Photo: Warner Brothers

Director Wych Kaosayananda; who so self consciously goes by the name Kaos, makes his first feature film debut thusly desecrating the very fabric of Lucy Liu’s appeal, and whatever appeal Antonio Banderas had remaining. How justified the Director’s last name is as he truly engineers a chaotic film in ‘Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever’, a deplorable debacle offering nothing but uncomfort and lunacy while one is confined to this poor excuse for cinema.

The film’s characters are lifted from an unheard video game and the plot is something no will ever hear of because there is none. The film is a poorly choreographed and poorly filmed exhibition of monotonous, action sequences. Now this critic loves a good action rush just as much as the next person, yet, when they are poorly staged and lack meaning, then it is a sin to watch all that money wasted on those explosions when it does not elicit the desired effect.

The film stars Lucy Liu who apparently enjoys being typecast as an action vixen; the film also stars the abominable Antonio Banderas who each respectively portray Agent Sever and Agent Ecks. Both are rogue agents with a supposed hidden past but it is poorly brought to life and when it is, it does not mean anything to viewers because nobody cares. Why is this? Because in film school, they teach a course entitled ‘character development’. This film lacks any development be it character, story or authenticity. The film’s wafer-thin plot revolves around a young kidnapped child who within him contains a new assassinating mechanism that can from within the victim emit a fatal dose. As contrived and ridiculous as it sounds, one must have no worries, the faint idea of an iota of a plot is hinted within the first ten minutes and then is long forgotten.

Large guns and ridiculous one-liners substitute intelligence as our two characters first confront one another, and then as the film’s trailer reveals, collaborate in finding and destroying the film’s incomprehensible villain. Keep in mind, rampant gunplay and large explosions inhibit the city of Vancouver, Canada where the filming took place and where the film sets itself in. If I may, I have a theory concerning this decision on the film’s location.

Warner Bros. must have knew what a tepid film this would be and if they knew, what executive in their right mind would permit it? Yet, that is another story for another time. This film could have easily taken place in Los Angeles or New York, as the horrible plot has no real purpose for being in Canada. Yet, they decided to shoot and set the film in Vancouver. As the avid film lover knows, Vancouver is one of the cities dubbed, ‘Hollywood North’. With this in mind, Warners must have decided it was less costly to shoot in Vancouver than in L.A. or some other Urban metropolis and decided to decimate the streets of Vancouver making Canada’s beloved Mounties (the equivalent of the U.S.’s F.B.I.) look like pansies. All in the name of saving money on a film the executives knew would not make any.

In any event, realism lacks in ‘Ballistic’ as Vancouver’s sheets are utterly destroyed and a cat and mouse game ensues as our two heroes battle it out all over the city resulting in a horrible climax set in some underground layer in Agent Sever resides in with an unlimited amount of resources and weaponry. The question remains: who is she, and where did she get all this money? The answer is never revealed.

Ray Park (of Star Wars’ Darth Maul fame) makes a supporting play in this film and his martial arts talents are wasted as he does not act and does not use his skills in front of the camera. After the buildup for this battle between Agent Sever and Park’s character, the audience is treated to a knife fight lasting all but a couple of seconds – phenomenal filmmaking indeed. You have a black belt in Lucy Liu, and a proven Martial Arts Master in Ray Park, and this is what the film can come up with?

The rest of the film plays like a hybrid of failed ‘Matrix-like’ nostalgia breeding with a Michael Bay wannabe ambition. The only problem - the director does not have the vision of a Michael Bay, nor the skill of the Wachowski Brothers. From the film’s very opening when the credits roll; we are catapulted into this film that sets itself up similar to those awful action films of the 1980’s. ‘The Matrix’ composer Don Davis creates the film’s score, but the film opens with some slow rock similar to that of those 80’s movies and constantly jumps from rock to tepid techno never complimenting the film’s action. The only effect it elicits is a lamentable attitude due to the film’s score. Don Davis has certainly done better (look for his score in ‘Bound’) yet demotes himself and proves he needs a strong film, for a strong score.

Moreover, Director Kaos works with Argentinean Cinematographer Julio Macat who has lensed comedies such as ‘Home Alone 2’ and ‘Cats & Dogs’, yet he has never photographed a full-fledged action film. And it shows. The framing of the film admonishes at being something it is not and results in a terribly awful film that displays to what extent new talent can be like. The recycling of film is one aspect; anyone can borrow ideas and turn them into their own for a film. Yet, when one lacks ingenuity and relies in borrowing ideas from other action films and fails at plagiarizing these ideas, then there must be a call to action – to never see another film by Thailand Director Kaos again. And while we are at airing our lemons, I have had enough of Antonio Banderas and his bad movies also.

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Giancarlo De Lisi
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