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 FRANK OCHIENG

Photo: Warner Brothers

As moviegoers, we have endured a lot of vapid action flicks over the years. Many of the movies that fall into this kind of genre are excused for the sole purpose that they’re merely "popcorn for the eye". But in Thai director Wych Kaosayananda’s insufferable and horrendously overwrought espionage actioner Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, the clueless filmmaker takes things to a whole new level of mindless pap. Kaosayananda’s approach to this thunderous and over-indulgent stylish stinker is quite simplistic: load up on excessive explosions that’s meant to give a personality to a straining and exceedingly moronic martial arts motion picture. Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is as intriguing and as challenging as its insipid title. If the continued moviemaking process of producing dimwitted demolition displays is all the rage, then the unimaginative sensibilities of Kaosayananda’s goofy gunplay is regrettably bulletproof. This sensationalistic session is an arbitrary series of pointless violence that definitely feels naked without the assistance of a solid compelling story. And the infantile and uninspired dialogue doesn’t help matters much either. Rumor has it that some of Hollywood’s top action stars passed on this hackneyed high-voltage dud. Gee, one wonders why, huh?

Ballistic tells the tepid tale of a Vancouver-based former FBI agent named Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas) still reeling from the devastating loss of his beloved wife Vinn who died in a car explosion several years earlier. Ecks welcomes his sulking disposition and remains numb by alienating himself from the rest of the pathetic world. When his ex-boss (Miguel Sandoval from Collateral Damage) tries to convince Ecks back into service, he does it with an ultimatum. If Ecks tackles this pending particular case for the organization, then there’s the guarantee that he’ll be reunited with his "deceased" wife. Yes, the twist is that Vinn (Talisa Soto) is alive and well after all and Ecks’ potential employer will lead him to her if he agrees to investigate this lingering case at hand.

So what is the sullen Ecks up against in terms of his inherited tricky case? Well, his mission is to rescue the DIA agent Gant’s (Gregg Henry) kidnapped son (Aidan Drummond) from a beautiful bad apple renegade agent named Sever (Lucy Liu, the Play it to the Bone co-star of Banderas). Apparently Sever is a sleek-looking femme fatale that gains perverse pleasure in blowing objects apart. She’s a wrecking machine who loves being confrontational. Sever fancies her role as a vigorous fighting machine. She also happens to be a former associate of the evil-minded Gant who is very aware of Sever’s dastardly capabilities. Because Sever is so unpredictable in her actions, Gant worries about his son’s safety not to mention some experimental gadget that he embedded inside his son’s system. Also, there’s another distracting subplot involving Gant’s dirty deeds of using Asian girls as his own personal bait as treacherous toys. Hence, this may be the reason why Sever is the way she is - unfeeling and ruthless with the incessant killer instinct to match.

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever has some undeniable flashiness that adds to the aesthetic-looking action-packed proceedings. But despite this tidbit, all Kaosayananda concocts is a hysterically synthetic movie that is probably one of the most myopic and unsatisfying spectacles that you’ll see in quite some time. Aimless and tediously conceived, this overproduced sluggish vehicle only knows how to flex its boisterous banality. There’s nothing remotely original or captivating about watching endless forms of transportation explode in ho hum fashion. And the convoluted plot only contributes to the misguided mayhem. The slow motion action sequences are relentlessly gimmicky and the chopsocky fight scenes are about as appetizing as a punch to one’s groin. Many folks will probably cite the spectacular camera shot that follows a man falling to his tragic death from an incredibly tall building and onto a parked car’s roof. Yeah, this is an awesome stunt indeed but one exceptional moment doesn’t compensate for the entire monotony of this movie's mantra: blow ‘em up, blow ‘em up REAL good!

Around the movie industry, the talk is that Kaosayananda’s reputation is that of a promising and skilled moviemaker who possesses exceptional filmmaking savvy. And this very well may be the case. However, the one-dimensional and idiotic gratuitous Ballistic certainly is not indicative of Kaosayananda’s talents. The moviemaker wunderkid has a penchant for painting his cinematic landscape in exaggerated, broad excitable strokes. Aside from his decorative prowess in mastering the art of frenetically action-oriented pictures, Kaosayananda needs to devote some time in structuring his big screen products on a more deeper and meaningful scale. Yes, even poorly manufactured explosive misfires such as Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever deserve some kind of coherency and completion.

As the film’s so-called charismatic leads, both Banderas and Liu are on different pages. As the dynamic dame of destruction, Liu has a hell of a time as the menacing force that wreaks some serious havoc. She obviously reserved that left over energy from her karate-chopping antics in the formulaic guilty pleasure hit Charlie’s Angels. Besides the fact that Liu is tied down by the repetitive cheesy martial arts choreography, her spitfire image is more involving than the tiresome random blasts and bullets bouncing all over the place. Banderas, on the other hand, looks mighty bored and lethargic as the haunted hero Ecks as he begrudgingly sleepwalks through this manic mess of a movie. If anything, Banderas had more flair and purpose when playing a campy paternal spy in the welcoming kiddie adventure Spy Kids. But here, the Latin lothario lumbers about while assuming the role of moping wet blanket to Liu’s feisty firecracker.

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is a humorless and deliriously disjointed suspense piece that has all the relevance of a major car accident during after-work rush hour traffic. It’s basically bumper to bumper nonsense that poses no particular rhyme or reason as to why it exists in the first place. Kaosayananda should consider getting rid of this scrappy celluloid evidence on his film-based resume' and he can start by discarding the crayon that wrote this decrepit screenplay!

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Frank Ochieng
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