User reviews

Unfortunatley this film has nothing to offer. lame performances from all the cast. whats with the accent from Dennis Hopper. one minute he's irish sounding the next he has an american accent.

the plot revolves around hopper, a madman bombing buildings all over the joint while sizemore is the 'cop on the edge'. Seagal is the bomb expert.

The fight scenes with Seagal are also disappointing, the camera constantly jerking with every strike made so you can't really tell whats going on. If you want to see better films with these three leads, try Heat, Speed, and any other seagal film besides this one.

2/5

Ticker is a perfect example of sloppy film making at its best. Continuity errors, scenes from other movies edited into this movie, poor acting, sloppy editing, and an even worse story. Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper and Steven Seagal should be ashamed of themselves for participating in such a terrible movie.

Basically Ticker centers around a police officer Ray Nettles (Tom Sizemore) who must team up with bomb squad leader Glass (Steven Seagal) to pursue an Irish terrorist Swann (Dennis Hopper in a very poor man's version of his famous role in Speed) who is detonating bombs around San Francisco (you could tell very little of it was filmed in San Francisco and was filmed elsewhere on the cheap). Very derivative, lazy and uninteresting story. The only reason I thought I would check this out was for Tom Sizemore (who was an excellent actor that appeared in Heat, Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down) and plus Steven Seagal when he had box office appeal. I thought Steven Seagal's role would be identical to his role in Executive Decision but its not. Here in Ticker, he was just going through the motions with very minimal effort so he could get his paycheck. Dennis Hopper was very uninspiring as the villain. He was great as the villain in Blue Velvet and Speed, but here is is just sleepwalking though his role.

Apparently director Albert Pyun hated the completed version of this movie and I don't blame him in the slightest. I would disown this movie too.

If you are a fan of Tom Sizemore, Dennis Hopper or Steven Seagal by all means check it out, but you will be very, very disappointed at how bad this movie is. Everybody else I highly recommend you avoid this bomb at all costs.

1/10.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

Not a single other decent review for this film seems to have appeared yet.And this isn't going to be the first one.The cliche ridden,tedium inducing script and flat,uninteresting dialogue are the first of many noticeably bad factors to the film.And as for the casting,to have Dennis Hopper (complete with what sounds like a laughable Irish accent) as the mad bomber villain just shows the extent of it's lazyness.Meanwhile,Tom Sizemore and Steven Seagal turn in styflingly standard performances as the cop-on-the-edge and zen-aided bomb disposal expert.The story is a jumbled mess,confusing and disjointed,and the film also has a really tatty,cheap feel,especially in the action sequences.Somewhere in the film,Seagal says 'When you've hit rock bottom,the only way you can go is up'.Hopefully,the same can be said about his career.*

My reason for seeing this dung was simple: I liked the title, as well as actors Tom Sizemore, Steven Seagal, and Dennis Hopper. Nothing could prepare me for how awful this film truly is. This is the definition of a cheap straight to video movie. TERRIBLE action; AWFUL acting; EVERYTHING just sucks about this film. Take my word for it, don't waste your time or money watching this film.

The actors obviously only did this film for a paycheck. Shame on them -- they lost a little of my respect.

Disclaimer: I like Albert Pyun's films. But "Ticker" is awful. I don't know how it could have happened. OK, I suppose I do know how it happened. It was, after all, pretty easy to spot the doubles used for the actors in over half the film, as well as the bad looping accompanying it. The opening stock footage sequence and endless shots of the bomb-disarming (or is that 'device-treating'?) robot in action didn't help the picture any either. This was a low budget effort, only it was a low budget effort made in a terrain unfamiliar to Pyun – Los Angeles. Even in a "bad" Pyun film (Omega Doom, Blast, Nemesis 4), there is that familiar Pyun style that makes the experience palatable. But in this case, if it weren't for the appearance of various Pyun players (Weisser, Malcon, Halsey, and a lunchbreak cameo by Ice-T), I would have never been able to tell that "Ticker" was directed by Pyun. There was no thought put into this one whatsoever, it seems. I'm more apt to believe what was implied on the director's commentary, that over-the-hill-and-then-some action guru Steven Seagal had more to do with the production of this movie than Pyun did. Yes, I did listen to the commentary. And if I didn't feel like an hour and a half were stolen from my life beforehand, I felt twice the impact after viewing it with the audio track. My advice to others: if you feel the masochistic desire to see the DVD, and have any interest at all in the commentary, just watch it with the commentary the first time and get it done with. You won't miss a thing from the movie, as minutes – nay, entire chapters – go by without either of the guys saying a word. I'm not sure why they even bothered with a commentary; it's fairly obvious how this movie was "made".

Despite it going straight to video, you might be thinking, "Well, it has Steven Seagal, so it at least must have a good amount of action." Think again. Seagal doesn't do anything until near the end, and his martial arts sequences are so rapidly-edited and close-up with the camera, someone with no martial arts sequences could have taken his place and had the same effect. In fact, most of the movie shows Seagal sitting down and/or shot from the chest up (probably to mask his weight gain in recent years.) He hardly does a thing! And there's hardly any other action in the rest of the movie - this is one BORING movie, and I couldn't wait for it to end.

If you do rent the DVD, you might find it interesting to hear the director/producer commentary (despite minutes on end going by without a comment). Not only did it confirm my suspicion that A LOT of stock footage was used, but that it was shot in a short time - just twelve days! Seagal was only used for six days, and Hopper did all his scenes in just one day!

The thought of seeing three actors that i like made me watch this film. Of them (Seagal, Hopper, Sizemore) only Seagal i feel puts a performance in. It is a very poorly directed film. The action scenes are extremely bad. I feel the actors were just cashing in on the movie. Overall its one to forget.

A complete waste time, I almost think it was purposefully a goof done by 3 respectful actors. Terrible editing, in car scenes were better in Seinfeld and movies from the 50s, the explosions were awful. Do not see this trash, get catherized instead, or perhaps a colonscopy, without any anesthesia, would be a better option than sitting through this movie.

This movie leaves us the impression that the actors have been hired to appear at a rich kid's party instead of playing a part in a movie. Barring a great deal of respect for Dennis Hopper, Steven Seagal and the others, this movie looks like "a day at the office appearance" for most of them.

Point your finger at the director because he is responsible for this low-level picture.

Ticker is a masterpiece, thats all that has to be said. People moan about the editing techniques used, poor acting performances and overall cheapness of this timeless classic but i couldn't disagree more. The actors were on top form, Hopper was especially pleasing with his accents. Seagal, well, what can be said about the master, that kick to car was the pinnacle of the movie, i mean who else would have thought of that, (Irish guy)'move the f****n car chief' (Seagal)'BOSH' , seagal kicks the car and knocks the Irish guy out. Classic, and what about Seagal at the end, the way he chops that guy with the knife, Genius. Lets not forget the scene with the broken watch where Sizemore fixes it without actually doing anything. The end scene with the bombs was particularly exciting with, what i now like to call, 'Seagal Time' where Seagal can slow down time and make 1 minute seem like an hour, in which he had time to give a nice little speech and teach Sizemore how to defuse a, excuse me, treat a device. Overall this movie excels and is one of the best ever, only slow minded people would say otherwise. The new style editing adds to the 'edge of the seat' nature of the film and all of the actors deserve oscars for their roles. In one word, Masterpiece.

Let me start by saying that Ticker DOES NOT deserve an overall rating of about 3.3. Obviously, that rating was mainly caused by disgruntled Seagal fans, who expected to see Seagal in a lot of action, kicking a lot of ass, and when they didn't get that, they reacted extremely negatively. But the thing is, this is not a movie for that kind of audience.

Seagal's best movies are the ones that also have good actors in them, like Tommy Lee Jones, Kurt Russell, or Marg Helgenberger. Just hours before watching this movie I was thinking that it would be a good idea for Seagal to play second fiddle to some better actors, because the story and general storytelling style would probably benefit. And that's exactly what happens here. This is not a Steven Seagal movie. It is a movie about a depressed cop, played by Tom Sizemore, who is helped through his depression by a bomb squad leader, played by Seagal.

Except for in the end of the movie, Seagal hardly even sees any action, and isn't in any fight scenes. And I didn't mind. The story was a fair one, the characters and their backgrounds quite engrossing. It's not a great movie, but it's certainly one of the three or four best Seagal movies. Unless you only want to see Seagal, and not a good movie.

My rating: 6 out of 10.

i just cant imagine why anyone would release such a trash. i can only assume that the director wanted to make fun of the audience. i love steven s. and dennis hopper, but this time they have outdone themselves. especially the car-blackbox scene with hopper. unbelievable. for me one of the worst movies ever. congrats.

UP until a month ago I had no idea that this film even existed. Upon seeing it I wish it would have stayed that way. I only seen it because I knew Steven Seagal was part of a very promising cast that included Denis Hopper, Tom Sizemore, rapper Nas and Jamie Pressly. When I think action such films as Die Hard, Lethal Weapon and Under Siege come to mind as great examples of what action should be based on. This film rips off every one of those films. The story features a terrorist bomber who is blowing up the city (Die Hard), a cop on the edge (Lethal Weapon) and Steven Seagal (Under Siege). But in action a rip off of another film isn't a bad thing as long it is done with excitement and style. This film has all the right elements to be an action classic but fails horribly under its bad direction, terrible script and dreadful acting. Hopper plays Swann, the philosophical, Irish bomber who thinks he is creating art by blowing things up. Sizemore is Nettles, a cop on the edge who is going to blow if he doesn't went some of his frustration from having his wife and son blown up by a car bomb (or so his partners say). Lastly Seagal is head of the bomb squad named Glass (for some reason none of the main characters have first names) who lost some men a year early to a bomb call gone wrong and decides to preach about the morals of life to other people. The story is standard action fare that would seem solid enough for a few decent jolts of action and the first scene (the one where Glass losses his men) packs one heck of a blast (no pun intended). But after that scene ends and we fast-forward one year later the film crashes under its terrible acting and scripting. The actors are given nothing to work with and show it by the very little they produce. Seagal seems like he is bored and could fall asleep any minute, but I don't blame him the whole time he just sits around and tells people what to do, he only gets one five minute fight scene towards the end of the film. Hopper is so bad it is almost laughable, in fact it is just plain hilarious. He speaks with an Irish accent only when he feels the need to and in one scene he even sounded German for a minute. I guess that explains why he has a goatee and wears glasses, I wouldn't want anyone to know it was me either. Sizemore actually does a good job at acting, well as good as one can expect from Sizemore. Just to bad the character he is acting isn't the one from this film. He is supposed to be a cop on the edge but I wouldn't have known he had a problem unless everyone around him wouldn't have always been telling him he did. Nettles and Glass both have one thing in common, the both have had a past tragedy but neither of them once touch on their inner problems, Glass doesn't even seem to care about what happened at the start and aside from two flashback scenes, Sizemore doesn't seem to either. If this film were a game to see who could deliver the most inept performance they all would have won. The plot takes us nowhere fast and when it finally seems to want to go somewhere, we realize that it hasn't really advance after all, it has just pulled in a scene from some other movie and hoped no one would notice. The direction is also so bad to a point where it is laughable. There is a scene in which Swann and Claire (Jamie Pressly) are driving in a car against on of the worst blue screen effects I have ever seen. To make matters even worse, when Claire tells him to pull over the background almost doubles in speed and then comes to an instant stop. It really has to be seen to be believed I even found myself rewinding several times just to make sure my eyes weren't just playing tricks on me. This effect was so bad I almost spilt my sides from laughing. Now I am not biased towards this film, I happen to love no-brainer action flicks, but this film relies too much on a plot that is nonexistent and not enough of action sequences. Along from the films opening the only other action scene is the climax with a few small explosions in-between that don't account for the bad scripting, acting and directing, making this one of the lower point in action history.

Seagal is certainly capable of making entertaining Action films. But with the crop he's done DTV, you certainly wouldn't detect that in the slightest. Ticker is a shameless attempt for these big stars to obviously make a quick buck. All of them look less than thrilled to be involved with this, especially Dennis Hopper, who should be ashamed himself. The action is very cheap looking, as it relies on boring looking explosions and stock footage taken from other films. Albert Pyun is notorious for making many horrible low-budget projects, and this one is no different. I saw this many years ago, and despite the fact that I was more open to those films back then I thought it was horrible than as well too. Tom Sizemore is probably the best of the star lot here, but that really isn't saying much. It's very hard to get through, and the action is pretty much non-existent, aside from a couple of brief fight sequences provided by Seagal of course at the end.

Performances. Steven Seagal is not at his worst here, but he's clearly not any good. His deep, mysterious talk of "Brother" gets old quickly, and he certainly doesn't look that motivated. Tom Sizemore looks drugged out half the time, and looks ashamed to be a part of this. Dennis Hopper should be ashamed of himself for being involved in this. His accent is laughable and wanders around the film aimlessly, spurting his lines with no emotion. Jaime Pressley looks good, but that is about it. They throw in a bunch of rappers who can't act either. Nas is the worst though.

Bottom line. Ticker is where it belongs, in cheap bargain bins. Even in that scenario your better off finding something else. Ticker is god-awful in every sense of the word, and ranks among Seagal's worst.

0/10

Tom Sizemore is the tormented cop with something to prove. Steven Seagal is the "Zen Master" (yet again) of the bomb squad. Dennis Hopper is the mad bomber who looks like he dropped straight in from filming "Speed". Jaime Pressly is the eye candy. This movie has many illogical and ridiculous gaffes that, if you bother to take 2 seconds to think about, will leave you stunned and wondering "What the *..*?" There is no rhyme or reason to this non sequitur. However, with a beer or two, a light-hearted attitude, and a few irreverent buddies to yuk it up, you could actually enjoy laughing at. I know I laughed at this movie from beginning to end, even without the beer. But trust me, you'll want the beer.

I like watching Steven Seagal movies and I agree that he is not an excellent actor however I really admire his Aikido skills. He is a master and I respect him (actually I am an Aikido student).

He has made some bad movies, some of them are hard to understand, some are too fast and you get lost and some of them like Marked for Death is quite good. On Deadly Ground is very confusing and fast. Not good...I thought it could not be worse than that but the Ticker is.

The interesting thing is that the story of the film is interesting...it has all elements for a good film, some good actors, IRA terrorists trying to explode some San Francisco places, etc...but everything gets confusing and lost.

Seagal just talks most of the time and I hardly can understand what he says. Not sure if the copy of the DVD I got was bad or what...He sounds tired or not really in the mood.

Anyway, The Ticker is the worst Seagal film I watched so far (I have watched probably near 10 films).

This movie is full of stock footage from previous Nu Image movies.THE ALTERNATE, HOLLOW POINT, MERCHANT OF DEATH, THE IMMORTALS, OCTOPUS, THE PEACEKEEPER.I like good B movies, but this is not filmmaking. Albert Pyun is sometimes very good and funny(BRAIN SMASHER, NEMESIS, CYBORG), but sometimes boring as hell(NEMESIS 2,3,4, CRAZY SIX).For normal people is Ticker an OK movie, but for filmfans is realy, really familiar and boring. I rate it 3/10

Continuing my plan to watch every Steven Seagal movie in order I come to Ticker (2001)

Before I talk about this movie, I need to say director Albert Pyun hates this film and has publicly apologized for it several times. He says Nu Image suddenly cut off his funds 12 days into shooting before taking it from him and splicing it with archive footage before releasing it. Pyun has since made an unofficial release of his drastically different director's cut. I am pretty sure I watched the studio's release as it is awful. Shockingly bad so. With the cast, I was certainly expecting something more.

This is actually more of a Tom Siezemore vehicle than a Seagal one. He is easily the main character here. For an action movie, this is pretty light on action. Seagal filmed his scenes in 6 days. Which is 5 more than Dennis Hopper. Hopper was only on set for 1 day and never met Tom Sizemore, Steven Seagal or Jaime Pressly once on set. When his scenes were screened for him later, he declared it "a righteous day's work."

This is woefully bad, with the use of stock footage being laughably bad, Hopper having a weird Irish accent at times, some strange dubbing on Sizemore and Seagal, who's weight fluctuates a lot between scenes. For the first time, its obvious he is using a stand in for most of the action scenes.

Pyun originally recorded a commentary track for the DVD, in it he described how Nu Image had taken the film from him and edited into the "Steven Seagal action film" they wanted. Because of the heavy criticism towards them Nu Image and Artisan Entertainment edited and watered down his commentary.

Easily the worst movie in his filmography so far. Truthfully, if this isn't his worst film then I despair at the depths he has reached.

Never knew about the existence of this film before today in July of 2020 when watched it on TV.

I was expecting to see some well packed acrion, but instead I've seen a lot ot potential wasted around Hopper, Seagal and Sizemore.

Poor directed low budget film. No wonder I've never heard about it for 20 years.

My rating: 3/10

This movie is one of the best I have seen from Steven Seagal, I never saw so many famous actors in a movie Together with Steven Seagal. Steven Seagal and Tom Sizemore make a great couple together to trace the one and only Bomber Dennis Hopper, just like in the movie Speed but now with 10 fingers he is back trying to blow up the place again. The stunning stunts of Steven Seagal are amazing, the one he jumped of the roof and landed on the object he actually broke his fingernail in that scene, amazing.

For Albert Pyun to direct this movie it must have been a dream coming true, after the flops he made in the past.

If you like action, humor and thriller this is a must-see movie, but you have to see it in the cinema or at home on a big screen with Dolby surround system.

I hope Steven Seagal will continue playing in movies for a long time, I like his performance.

DutchDan

to be fair, i thought this film was ok. the director kind of messed up seagal's fight scenes. and it would have helped if they had a better budget. the bit where hopper and pressly are in the car and she goes 'pull over' and then the car suddenly stops is kinda funny i guess, but only in a 'so bad its funny' way. and at the end they're just like 'aaaah yeh we did it, right lets go'. but sizemore is a good actor and seagal isn't bad. if the film had been 30 minutes longer so they could develop the story a little and had a bigger budget it would have been quality. as long as you set your expectations to the levels these other reviewers have set them, it will be a reasonably entertaining film, if almost immediatly forgettable.