Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)

Director: Wych Kaosayananda (a.k.a. Kaos)
Starring: Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Gregg Henry, Ray Park, Talisa Soto

SYNOPSIS

Jeremiah Ecks, an FBI agent, and Sever, a rogue assassin, come to blows after she kidnaps the son of the head of a secret organisation. The child carries a piece of nanotechnology that could be used for untraceable assassinations if it falls into the wrong hands. Ultimately, the two battling agents have to put aside their differences and work together.

REVIEW

I have some interesting tastes when it comes to movies, and every so often I like to sit down to something absolutely terrible. Not mediocre, not boring, not offensive - the type of movie that leaves you shaking your head wondering how anybody could have let that person behind a camera.

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever promised to be one of those movies. IIRC, it spent a long time near the bottom 100 on IMDB. It cost an estimated $70 million, but only returned $7 million, becoming a notorious flop and killing its director's career (according to IMDB, he's done nothing since). It even has a terrible title, that makes just as little sense after you watch it (the title characters spend relatively little time fighting each other before they team up) and before (who are these characters and why should I care if they're "vs" each other?).

So, I was mildly surprised and disappointed to learn that the movie isn't that bad. Oh, it's not a particularly good movie by any means. The plot is simultaneously simplistic and overcomplicated, with plot twists thrown in for no reason and forgotten about seconds later. The performances are universally mediocre to terrible, the direction flat, the soundtrack intrusive and the editing mistimed. But, it's a passable time-waster.

In fact, other than the terrible title, the only real reason why this has become as notorious as it has it because of the budget. There's nothing on screen to indicate that this cost more than $30 million to produce. This would be yet another forgotten direct-to-DVD movie has it cost that and gone that route. But $70 million? Wasted. To put that into perspective, Banderas' assured 1995 modern action classic Desperado cost just $7 million...

4 / 10