Based on the video game series, Ballistic appears to have been intended for the raging youth demographic. Casting Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu was, theoretically, to draw in the regular people. Banderas is Ecks and Liu is Sever (this takes 40 minutes for the movie to “explain”) and they do go ballistic, so the title is not at all misleading, however much it may be off-putting. An aggressive, guitar-frenzy of rock soundtrack underscores generally motivation-free verbs. Trust your gut: Skip this film.
I like an action film as much if not more than the next gal, but I do require the barest minimum level of effort to make it not completely boring and/or confusing. The opening drips TV B movie cheese, but I can look past that. There is a lot of mysterious running around and shadowy behavior at the beginning (nicely lit, I do admit, though generally dark), which I suppose was meant to hook my interest. Soon, however, my interest was lost. When? I can’t say immediately, because there was so much confusing and conflicting information thrown at me (with spare, messy dialogue) that I gave up.
Then enters an incredibly boring, painful, witless sequence that starts all gunplay gunplay gunplay (Who’s shooting who? Who’s the bad guy?), and ends up in a painfully boring car chase chase chase chase…I actually dozed off for a second despite the din. Then BLAMMO – a big explosion, another big explosion, a decent car stunt, and yawns all around. Even the parts that evoke my favorite things about Area 51 (destroying property) don’t yield any satisfaction – no secret rooms as payoff!
I’m not jaded. I don’t need movies like XXX to push the boundaries of “action sequences,” I just need good filmmakers to make the action interesting and exciting (see upcoming review of The Transporter). Honestly! Then more of the same until my male action-film-loving companion was begging us to leave. There was one cool fall that I will spoil for you – the camera follows the victim all the way down, from above, close range, through the smash into the top of the car. That is worth a dime in a Cineola but nothing more. A decently choreographed two-person fist/knife fight at the end starts in a promising fashion, but as with the whole movie, peters into a sad, dull mess.
Lucy Liu doesn’t speak for almost 45 minutes and when she does she is veiled and curt. Liu is pigeonholing herself as a cold-blooded woman who’s “hard to know,” and it’s not doing much for my interest in her career. Even Ling cried on Ally McBeal once. Banderas is scarred and blasé about danger, and well, hell, he has no character either. I don’t expect much, as I’ve mentioned, but I expect something. The editing was no help either – locations were confusing, characters’ allegiances and their motivations were confusing (and not in the way they were in Gosford Park, either, I mean). Some moments were surprisingly inept. A golden sunset (composite) but cool blue light on the face of the person, for example.
We should have known when we saw that it was directed and produced by someone called KAOS. If only Maxwell Smart had been here to foil KAOS yet again…
MPAA Rating R for strong violence
Release date 9/20/02
Time in minutes 91
Director Kaos (no, really)
Studio Warner Brothers