Product Details

• Actors: Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Talisa Soto, Gregg Henry, Ray Park
• Directors: Wych Kaosayananda
• Writers: Alan B. McElroy
• Producers: Andrew Stevens, Andrew Sugerman, Chris Lee, Dawn Miller, Elie Samaha
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: December 24, 2002
• Run Time: 91 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00007CVTH
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,960 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If you have a hearty appetite for fiery explosions, heavy ordnance, and nonsensical mayhem, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is just for you. This mindless action flick is so wrong-headed that even its ungainly title is inaccurate: as expert assassins on the fringes of government intelligence, FBI agent Ecks (Antonio Banderas) and Defense Intelligence agent Sever (Lucy Liu) aren't battling each other at all. Instead, he's trying to find his missing ex-wife (the stunning but expressionless Talisa Soto) and young son, while she's pursuing an agency turncoat (Gregg Henry) who's stolen the ultimate micro-technology for clandestine killing. United against a common enemy, Ecks and Sever lay waste to half of Vancouver (the film's budget-conscious location), and it all makes as much sense as meatballs on a vegetarian menu. Banderas and Liu look fabulous as corpses pile up around them, but Thai action director Kaos (a.k.a. Wych Kaosayananda) must have confused his nickname with the incomprehensible plot of his movie. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

This is a story of two spies, who are lifelong adversaries, engaged in a cat-and-mouse hunt. Jonathan Ecks (Banderas) is an FBI agent hunting the other, Sever (Liu) a rogue NSA agent. What they learn, however, while trying to kill each other... is that they might be on the same side, and faced with a threat greater to each other than themselves.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Go Ballistic, September 23, 2002

By	"c_e_l_e_b_r_i_t_y" (usa) - See all my reviews

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is not shakespeare by any means, but if you get past it's first low budget, straight to video 15 minutes that really does set up more of the story than you might think, what you'll get is an action movie worthy of having the beautiful and talented Lucy Liu starring in it. Lucy plays Sever, an ex agent who's on a mission to seek revenge against the man who took away her family. Antonio Banderas plays Johnathon Ecks, an FBI agent who's also seeking revenge on the same man for taking his wife and making her think he was dead. Both Ecks and Sever believe they are working against eachother which leads to some nice fighting and action sequences; one in which involves Sever on top of a bridge with a rocket launcher firing at any threats that come her way. Martial arts, car chases, explosions, shootings and kickings are just a few of the things you can expect to see in this movie which is also surprisingly touching when Ecks and Sever team up and learn more about eachother's past. This is not the best movie I've seen, but if you want your Charlie's Angels fix and you wanna see many, many things blow up in a no holds barred style movie, then I recommend seeing this fun flick with a group of friends.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ballistic - we've been here before, October 13, 2006

By	Eddie Lancekick "A Regulator" (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

I wanted to give it three stars, I really did! However, a three star rating would have put this film at "average" and frankly, there is too much here to make it below average. A Junior High jock would love it. Not much acting, some great chase scenes involving cars, trucks and speed bikes. Explosions galore, and tons of sub-machine gunfire with plenty of bad guys to soak up the discharge.

The movies plot centers around a corporate high tech guru named Grant, whose son is kidnapped by a trained assassin type (Lui). Gant by now has been portrayed as a corrupt jerk, an rightfully so; he has stolen a technology that is a doomsday device of sorts...the problem is, the device was implanted in his son so he could smuggle it across the border! Now enter Antonio Banderas (playing the part of Jeremy). Jeremy is a former agent presumed dead who also has a special tie to Gant's current wife, who obviously does not care for her husband but just wants her son back. Through all the drama is the center of attention in Lui, whose character (Sever) is a one-woman army, taking out dozens of SWAT members at every turn, block, tennis court, school playground, and swimming pool in the city. At least with the constant overboard of machinegun fire (with Sever NEVER getting grazed let alone hit) coupled with the pyrotechnics, they did not throw in the Matrix/Crouching Poodle Hidden Porcupine bulletstopaction ridiculousness that has become a staple even in the lower budget action flicks. Lower budget? I should say lower grade, this film went OVER budget with how many Chryslers were wrecked during the chase scenes!

Bottom line, its to cliché', and often times the fight scenes are hokey. As said before, if you want something with car chases and explosions topped off with lots of ammo being emptied, this is your movie. Despite a decent storyline it is really nothing we have seen before. Lui doesn't talk much at all taking away from any special conviction that she can be any more than a "Charlie's Angel". Banderas does what he can only do, sit at a bar, act like he wants revenge, and pull low-toned one-liners like a tough guy. It is what it is, a B-grade action flick.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars decent special effects, but idiotic, cliched non-story, August 14, 2005

By	Thomas M. Sipos (Santa Monica, CA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I can't believe that only two years after the big hit, Charlie's Angels, Lucy Liu appeared in this made-in-Canada cheapie.

The story is nonsensical and confusing. The DVD's description says Liu is an NSA agent, but she's with the DIA (Defense Intelligence Agency), sort of.

I say "sort of," because the movie's DIA is not the US Pentagon's DIA, but apparently some "shadow government" in Canada that hires Chinese orphans (girls abandoned by their parents in China due to China's "one child" policy), to be ruthless assassins. The characters in the movie talk of a "shadow goverment" and the film is set in Canada, with Canadian cops chasing people, so I guess they mean a Canadian "shadow government."

However, this "shadow government" is legitamate. We know this, because they get cooperation from the police in trying to kill rogue assassin Lucy Liu. Only, this "shadow government" is also evil and illegitamite, because some FBI people, linked to the Canadian police or DIA or whoever, force ex-FBI agent Antonio Banderas out of retirement to find a child that Lucy Liu kidnapped.

Confusing, no?

In the Special Features, the director says, "In my research, I found that there really is a DIA." Clearly, neither he nor the writer have a clue as to what the DIA is. It's a branch of the Pentagon primarily concerned with military intelligence.

Lucy Liu's assassin dresses in Lara Croft fashion, walking the streets of Vancouver in spandex and a cape. In the Special Feature, Liu says she was intrigued that the assassin was a woman, because it added "a whole other dimension" to the role.

What other dimension? The screen has been full of ass-kicking lady spies since The Avenger's Emma Peel, yet people still talk as if it's a new thing.

The special effects are okay but mostly the usual, with the exception of a police sniper falling onto a car roof. Well shot.

One movie cliche that really annoys me is when you have scores of highly trained troops or snipers blasting away and hitting nothing. Then the hero (or heroine) steps out and blasts them all away. Liu's knocking off dozens of people and not a bullet grazes here.

Anyway, she turns out to be a good assassin who's only trying to kill the head of DIA (or whoever he is) because her kid got killed in a DIA mission gone bad.

I rented this film because it has Talisa Soto, my second-favorite Bond girl. But as usual, her part isn't very large. Soto fans be warned.

Anyway, the script is just awful, even the title. Does anyone even know what an Ecks or Sever is? They're the names of the Bandares and Liu characters, but unlike Lara Croft, they're not previously known names, so why name the movie after them? Nor does the movie have anything especially to do with ballistics, other than that a lot of guns are shot.