My review of 'Marked for Death'

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MARKED FOR DEATH(1990)
(Directed by Dwight H. Little)

"Mediocrity with attitude."- Signed by MartialHorror.

Plot: A DEA agent retires and returns to his hometown to be with his Mother, sister and Niece. However, he’s pulled back into the war with drugs when his Family is targeted by ruthless drug lords.

Review:

The more that I think about it, the more obvious it becomes that “Marked for Death” is not a very good movie. Yet that doesn’t take away my enjoyment of it either. Seagal began his blockbuster career with “Above the Law”, a subpar film that was elevated by Seagal being his awesome self. He followed this up with “Hard to Kill”, which I remember being more-or-less, the same kind of situation. Seagal’s movies at this point tended to be weak, but we didn’t care. Seagal was awesome, which is why he’s become such a joke. In theory, newer movies have that same tradition except they're cheaper and Seagal himself doesn’t even try. Watching a movie that relies on a dull, fat guy is not happy times for me, but let's go back to his glory days. “Marked for Death” is about as good as his first two films. It is a mediocre movie, but Seagal is awesome, so it works.

Seagal plays John Hatcher, a top notch DEA agent who’s working in Cambodia. A mission goes wrong and his partner is killed by a prostitute, who is then killed by Hatcher. Disillusioned with the job, Hatcher repents and decides to go stay with his sister and her daughter(played by Danielle Harris, who was the little girl in the surprisingly good “Halloween 4” and the surprisingly awful “Halloween 5”). He reunites with his best friend and war buddy, Max(Keith David). He quickly learns that things have gotten bad, as Jamaican gangs have taken over the drug trade and are selling their stuff to teens. Lead by Screwface(Basil Wallace), they are disciplined and violent, killing off anyone who gets in their way. While Hatcher wants to stay out of things, he(and his family) are dragged into the feud when they shoot up a bar while he is there. Soon, Hatcher realizes that he’s going to have to take out the human trash as always, and Max certainly will be there to help him out.

The problem with “Marked for Death” is its structure is disproportionate to its story. It’s full of sequences, subplots and characters that are unnecessary, a fault shared with Seagal’s first film. We have scenes of the local drug cartel planning on getting rid of Screwface and Screwface retaliating and wiping them out. This takes up a good chunk of thestart of the 2nd act, so Seagal is largely absent. This should’ve been cut down. Then we have too many characters that were very unnecessary and should’ve been combined. There is Leslie(Joanna Pacula), who appears to be a potential love interest but ultimately is only there to deliver some exposition. Couldn’t they have just given that role to Charles(Tom Wright)? Charles is a Jamaican cop who helps Hatcher out, but he feels pointless too. They should’ve given Leslie’s purpose to him so that he'd have more of a purpose. I was looking forward to watching Seagal and Keith David kick ass, but Keith David’s character also feels tacked on and unnecessary. Even when he’s there, he barely does anything. Finally, the first half of the movie has Lt. Sal Roselli(Kevin Dunn) being the DEA agent trying to stop Hatcher from going too far, but then suddenly drop out without a final mention. With all these bloated tumors in the script, the film actually forgets about more important subplots. What happens to the niece? She is supposed to be Hatcher’s drive, but she didn’t get a final scene or anything. There is also pointless back-story(the whole opening act) that is meant to explain Hatcher. It never goes anywhere, making that whole situation pointless. Whereas the first faults were issues that were found in his earlier films, this is an issue that plagues his later films such as “A Dangerous Man”. Character development should be part of the story, not a single act.

Other faults generally represent quirks of the action genre as a whole at the time. There is some corny dialogue(funny one-liners), some bad looking ‘arm breaking’ special effects(although they’re getting better at it), plot holes(if Screwface was just a man, how did he seemed to know about being 'cursed' by the Latino chick? Worse, HOW THE HELL DID THEY GET WEAPONS AND A SEVERED HEAD ON A PLANE!?) and mawkish attempts at being dramatic. But it also contains what we love about these types of action films. It contains lots and lots of action. There are gunfights and car chases, grisly violence and luscious nudity. The narrative goes like this: Action scene, talking scene, action scene, talking scene and on and on. It kept things moving well and Dwight H. Little, does a good job at delivering suspense. We know Seagal is invincible, but his family? When scenes dealt with them, I felt genuine suspense. He does make some dramatic moments look corny, but he gets the job done. It’s too bad I shall always remember him as the guy who did "Tekken”, the 2010 live action movie that raped its source material and urinated on its fans, but……..must……..not…….go………into……..that. Now to the films greatest strength: Steven Seagal.

Okay, Seagal is not perfect. At times, his acting is amateurish. During some of the close-ups, it’s apparent he’s talking to the camera and not the actor(to whom he is conversing with in the film) because he says things as if he’s starting conversations(not participating in them), making it feel awkward when they obviously edit the scenes together so that it looks like he’s talking to them. He also does look a little heavy at times…..but those are irrelevant points. Seagal is all about attitude and he still had it in him when he did this movie. The man is intense, yet cool. When he threatens an enemy, you feel it. He also gets to do what is possibly his best fight scenes. Aikido isn’t the flashiest of martial arts, but Seagal makes it work here. The moves are quick, simple, and effective. To make matters even better, Basil Wallace is scary as Screwface. I love it when you get a badass protagonist against a badass antagonist. Watching them together was a treat in itself. Too bad the final fight was kind of lame.

“Marked for Death” is what you’d expect of an early 90’s action film. Women get naked, people get dead, Seagal gets crazy……..the usual. It’s not a good movie, but it’s not really meant to be. It’s a film for fans of action. It’s a film to watch a very believable action hero carry out that action. It’s just a testament to how far Seagal has fallen……..But with “Machete” and “A Dangerous Man”, maybe one day we can once again look upon Seagal with respect……….Maybe. Probably not, but maybe.....

Violence: Rated R worthy. Pretty grisly.

Nudity: Rated R worthy. There are a few scenes of nudity.

Overall: “Marked for Death” is a good example of Steven Seagal done right. It’s not a good movie, but if you go into the film looking for cheesy, violent action……..I don’t see why you would be disappointed.

2.5/4 Stars



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