roon_baboon

You can split Segal films into 2 categories, the early stuff (Hard To Kill, Nico) and the later stuff (Fire Down Below, Today You Die). The latter group doesn't usually even get to the cinema but the former has some real action gems. Marked for death is one of them.

This film has loads of martial arts, Yardies, drugs, black magic, Drive by shootings, people dressed like Aswad, and the big black guy from platoon who escapes from the shootout at the end by getting rotated back to America. One of the things that ruins Segal films is having too much shooting and not enough fighting, But the action is pitched just right here, with still enough shooting thrown in to spice it up. The guys playing the Yardies are fantastic and the dialogue is second to none, in fact for those IDM fans out there Luke Vibert sampled some in 'screwface'. Other than Segal and the platoon guy the only person I recognised was Danny Trejo, Hollywoods default Mexican criminal. This is an action classic folks, watch it or Screwface will give you a thousand deaths worse than mine.

I was given this film in error when I tried to rent 'Marked for death' from Blockbuster. I can only assume a similar mix up allowed the script to get the go ahead first place. The only (literally the only) good thing I can say about this is that there was some nice lighting in places. Other than that this film was a f*****g abortion. The characters puerile, the dialogue was boring and generic, the plot was ill conceived and unrealistic. I am a big fan of the 'so bad it is good' genre (Death Wish, Commando, Exterminator, that kind of thing) but this does NOT fall into this category. This is just bad in a sense that makes it boring. My advice to you my friends is don't bother, get Marked For Death instead.

I know I shouldn't really judge this film in terms of Ong Bak but i'm going to anyway, I guess thats democracy in action or something. the fighting is absolutely awesome (which in some ways is all that matters) however in attempting to direct it more towards the western market they have made the film rather more convoluted and confusing than necessary.

The first film worked well on a low budget and I think they were simply trying too hard this time. The characters speaking English sometimes incomprehensible and the outdoor shots set in Austrailia were deeply unconvincing. Also the plot was just too complicated, involving too many scenes that were simply not needed and made the film confusing because they weren't really edited in well.

However I am being a bit of a dick, this film was made on a budget which makes a mockery of Hollywood and it is great to see some films from this area reaching the international arena. Tony Jaa is absolutely amazing and the action surpasses expectations repeatedly. I would strongly recommend this film to anyone I just hope next time Mr Goong does not feel feel he has to comply with American expectations so completely as Ong Bak was one of the best (if not the best) martial arts film since enter the dragon