Mason Storm is a tough cop who uncovers the beginnings of something big when spying on gangsters on a deserted pier. He uncovers a conspiracy involving a politician a discovery that gets his wife and his partner killed and him and his son thought dead. After being hidden by a friend in a coma hospital under an alias for seven years, Mason wakes up to find that his wife's killers are still after him and that the politician has become a very big target indeed.
After seeing a podgy Seagal in rapper `banger' movies in the past few years, it is almost a relief to see him in a film where he is slim, agile and a bit less `up his own ar*e' with all that new age stuff! That's not to say that `Hard to Kill' is a good film, for it certainly isn't, but it's basic nature is almost refreshing in how lacking in pretension it is want a revenge thriller which is of video standard, then this is for you.
The plot is laughable at times. The whole thing lacks cohesion and logic, often making huge leaps with no real explanation. However it does just about enough to provide reasons for Seagal to fight with groups of people at the same time. Some of the dialogue is hilarious and reminded me of the character in the Simpsons who apes Arnie and delivers cr*p kiss-off lines. Seagal's funniest is `I'll take you to the bank the blood bank!' Dialogue like that reminded me that this was a video movie and not a blockbuster! The action is basic, although it is nice to see Seagal in fights where his movies are fully visible and are fluent, the only thing that put me off here was just how cruel the whole thing was.
Seagal is a rubbish actor if you expect anything more than his whisper-voice-of-menace acting style and his one facial expression where he looks like his piles are giving him mild discomfort. However for fans this will be accepted and I was OK with it as par for the course for his films. LeBrock has no real excuse for being as bad as she is a rubbish English accent, awful dialogue and really poor delivery. Sadler is OK but has very little screentime playing the least subtle corrupt politician in the world! I mean, sitting and talking with thugs and hoods in front of all the cameras and never using middlemen!?
Overall this film is OK at what you expect from it fight scenes with Seagal's skills on good show. However almost everything else (characters, logic, plot, humour, acting) is either really basic or so poor it's funny. In some ways this is better than his recent movies simply because the recent ones raise expectations with their budget and effects here I had no illusions about what I was getting into!
