Review of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) by Stuart K — 17 Jun 2012
Directed by Thai director Wych Kaosayananda, who is credited as Kaos, and written by Alan McElroy (Rapid Fire (1992) and Wrong Turn (2003)), this is an action thriller that got universally panned at the time, and has been credited as one of the worst films ever made, but it's NOT.
It's actually a quite enjoyable and action packed film taking a brilliant advantage of filming in a brilliant location. Former FBI agent Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas) is assigned by the Defense Intelligence Agency to help find the kidnapped son of the agency's director Robert Gant (Greg Henry), the son Michael (Aidan Drummond) was kidnapped after a trip away to Berlin.
They find that the former DIA agent named Sever (Lucy Liu), and after a huge shootout in downtown Vancouver, Sever escapes, but Ecks learns that Gant stole a nanobot and has smuggled it back from Berlin by putting it in Michael's body.
Gant's wife Vinn (Talisa Soto) was married to Ecks a few years previously, and Gant separated them by making one another think they were killed in car bombs, but Ecks soon finds himself in league with Sever to try and put a stop to Gant's plan.
Yes, it is a very silly film with a ridiculous plot, but it has some brilliant action sequences throughout, and one or two good chase scenes, all filmed in Vancouver in locations including the Public Library, Stanley Park and the Aquarium, which seldom get seen on film.
It's not perfect, but it's certainly not as bad as what the critics made it out to be at the time. There are FAR WORSE films than this one.
This review of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002) was written by Stuart K on 17 Jun 2012.
Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever has generally received negative reviews.
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