HARD TO KILL
A film review by Gregory A. Hooten
Copyright 1990 Gregory A. Hooten
REVIEW OF STEVEN SEGAL'S NEW MOVIE _HARD TO KILL_
Capsule review: A cop is double crossed and "murdered" by
other cops, but survives and goes on a rampaging revenge hunt
for his killers.
I had some serious problems with this whole movie. It took so much suspension of disbelief that I could not really escape the fact that this is a repeat of all poor cop movies that I have seen before. In fact, the repeats were so poorly done, that many of the lines that were supposed to have strong impact, or loving tenderness made the audience laugh.
The fight scenes were good, but the same as the last movie (ABOVE THE LAW), probably more stilted then the last, and had really nothing more spectacular than the last movie. There are actually fewer Aikido scenes, and very similar moves (identical) as the previous, and he is so wheedling and condescending to his opponents (they probably don't deserve better) that he shows no humility or fear at all. Makes him out to be a superman with no chance on not getting out of the problem.
The story line is not original (as none really are any more) and has nothing new to say about either the characters or the art in which we are wanting to see. The training sequences (always one of my favorites) were hackneyed and unoriginal with cliched or unbelievable sections throughout.
The dialog was slack, unoriginal, and unimaginative.
The violence level was up there, with many people being broken and beaten throughout. And that is only on his part, there is further violence that gets him in this state of rage. I guess Joe Bob Briggs would call this a several galloner or something.
Kelly Le Brock, who has had several vivacious and sexy roles in the past, is neither in this. It seems as if she forgot how to act in the intervening years. It felt like she was there simply because she is Steven Segal's real life wife. She does nothing for the role, being neither sexy or intelligent, or better, a combination of both.
Steven Segal is not very sexy or intelligent in his role either. He is an aikido master, he is good looking, and moves very fine, but has no range as an actor. There is never any change in his expression to rage, pain (except physical) or happiness. He goes in, gets the job done, and doesn't care who loves or cares about him. Very cold.
Now, before people get to me about this coldness, there are ways to make a movie with all this limited emotion and make it real, but you must show us the psychological build up of it all, none of this was clear. No inner workings, no glimpse of himself, except once, and it was good, but stood out so much because of the quality of the rest of the movie.
Sorry, over all I would give this a D+ as a grade level, go see it on video if you must see it.
Greg Hooten
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