Customer Reviews

Marked for Death [VHS]

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

As someone else said (probably on this website), S Seagal probably became a parody of himself faster than any other action hero of our time. Other than the "Under Siege" pairing, Marked for Death was, to my mind the last really great movie he did.

It is Seagal at his brutal best. As the Editorial Review says, he plays a disillusioned former DEA agent, who comes back home), to find his neighborhood being ravaged by a group of Jamaicans and their drug trade. Seagal cleans it up the situation as only he could: blasting a handful of the bad guys away with pistol and shotgun, and beating the rest savagely.

This movie, like his premier "Above the Law", has some of his technically most proficient Aikido, particularly after he crashes his car into a department store and then takes on about four adversaries in a randori, or challenge of one defender against multiple attackers.

Of course, it would not be some shattering news to reveal here that in the end, Seagal prevails over the leader of this drug posse, nicknamed Screwface (the name comes from a Bob Marley song). They fight with swords, bottles, and ultimately hands. But the climactic fight is equally brutal as it is final.

It was not nominated in the "Best Movie" category. It is not particularly thought provoking. But what it is is an action movie. And as that, it is worth the price of admission.

This is his greatest action film ever. It has everything you want in a martial arts flick. Jamacan drug lords are terrorising Seagal's family and he's SCREAMING FOR VENGANCE!!!!!
Theres arm braking,eyes gouging,decapetation and ofcourse gun stand offs. This movie also makes Seagal look more human in the fact that in th end battle betwen him and Screwface unlike in most of his movis where the bad guy doesn't even score 1 single hit on the guy Screwface actually kicks him around a little bit before getting [beat up] then killed.

I recently saw the year 2000 version of Get Carter with Sly Stallone (...)and before that I saw The Art of War (even worse) in theaters. I have to say I have really become dissapointed with pure action movies today, at the low they have fallen to. It's times like this when one must remember a great action movie like Marked for Death, not Seagals best, but still great. This movie is a great pure action movie. Don't watch it expecting The Godfather part 5. The acting isn't the greatest thing you've ever seen here, but it's more than enough for a pure action movie. Some parts are un-intentionally funny but that's not a bad thing, it makes me laugh. Now back to the movie, yes, the story is good and like most of Seagals movies, realistic, it's connected to something that was actually happening in the world when it came out. The best part of course (as it should be) is the bone crunshing, violent, no holds barred, action. The plot is also very well developed. Nice atmosphere also. All that put together makes Marked for Death another Seagal classic. Watch it and ponder about the times when action movies like this, were taken for granted. I really hope Seagal returns soon. We need a good pure action movie.

The film is great, but this review is not about the film. Honestly, I am lost for words.... How can Fox issue a DVD in the year 2009, with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and the disc is not anamorphic????

Needless to say, the picture quality is exactly the same as the 1998 issue of this DVD - awful. This reissue is nothing but the same cruddy disc in a new box, just like the many reissues of Predator Fox have released.

Marked for Death is by far Steven Seagals best film. John Hatcher(seagal) has just retired from the Drug Enforcement Agency after his partner dies on a case. When a Jamaican Drug Posse marks seagals family for death, seagal realizes that he needs to pay them back, with interest. Seagal, teamed up with a jamaican cop and an old friend of his, to teach the posse that there's just some families that you don't mess with. If you don't like car chases, snapped arms and heads being chopped off, this movie isn't for you. Its's to bad they don't make action movies this great anymore.

This standard action revenge fare about an agent who wants to get even with the Posse drug dealers who attacked his family is only enlivened by the fury of the fights scenes and the ballistic explosiveness of the gun battles. The frowning Seagal, a seventh dan black-belt aikidoist, is a menacing and overpowering screen presence, though he is not exactly of the calibre of the Robert De Niro "method" school of acting. This film should be watched in addition to "Hard to Kill", "Nico", "Under Siege" and "Out for Justice" by all who enjoy watching him -- "like a human bullet seething into the fat guts of the enemy" -- disable his adversaries either with a bullet to the head, a chop to the throat, a broken elbow, or a head sent crashing through a jewllery store display...

OK, this is a Steve "bonecruncher" Seagal flick, not the royal shakespeare company, still, a little imagination or even script-writing might not have gone amiss.
I mean, this guy can fight,and those scenes are well done indeed, no doubt about it, but I would say this is one of his lesser films on the whole. If you want to see Seagal, watch Under Siege or The Glimmer Man instead.

If you love Steven Seagal's "so bad, it has to be good" style of acting as much as I do, then you'll love this one. Although it's hard to top "Under Siege"'s top rate actors and explosions, and "On Deadly Ground"'s corn-ball enviromental message,this is still a Steven Seagal movie; if you like his action scenes and consistent "good cop gone mad" mentallity, then this is right up your alley.

You know the actor, you know the genre, now just buy the damn movie!!!

Well everybody, we, Sid The Elf, have finally decided to get into the Segal business. And let us tell you, it's a winner. The action has never been better than when the ponytail is whipping in the wind. In this film, Segal decides to mix it up with some pretty poorly portraied Jamaicans. They are the neighborhood druglords in Segal's town. But, really, these guys are great. They drop their accents when they feel like it, and they worship a demi-god set of twin brother darkness named Screwface. As for Segal, he really impressed us. He plays the hardass cop who takes it upon himself to bring down the drug ring. His one-liners were top-notch. (e.g."This is my silent partner. A whisper in the ear from this girl goes a long way." This line was about his favorite gun. We rest our case.) And he was kicking in faces like he would later in his illustrious career polish off slices of pizza. We were actually shocked that he looked kind of fit in the movie. He even went jogging with his old war buddy for a half a block.

Now, Marked For Death is an extremely solid B film. It posseses all the qualities you can ask for in B. It absolutely gets the official Sid The Elf Seal of Approval. But, to give you the true essence of this one, we're going to break it down old-school Joe Bob Briggs style:

1 Segal getting hit by car (gets the viewer interested and ammused right off the bat)

3 arm-snappings

1 leg-snapping

1 decapitation

4 counts of hillarious voodoo

2 people falling from windows

1 back-breaker WWF style!

1 neck snapping

1 sidewalk car chase

8 clotheslines

42 kicks to the face

17 breasts...
and 1 terrific B!

"Marked for Death" is the perfect bad action movie. It has little dialogue, the dialogue that is included is usually misconstrued as gibberish, nonsensical plot, breast shots at the strangest times, and lots of breaking bones. There is at least an arm, a leg, a back, a neck, and countless wrists. As for the nonsensical plot, Steven fights alongside his highschool football coach. I don't know many football coaches who are proficient with automatic weapons. However, the most important thing for any bad action flick is to make sure that the audience laughs throughout the entire film. This, unlike Seagal's failure movie "The Patriot," does exactly that. The bad lines greatly support the movie in the accomplishment of this feat (refer to the title of this review). All in all, "Marked for Death" is worth watching because it makes you laugh and you get to watch stuff die.