Product Description

STEVEN SEAGAL UNLEASHES NEW SCREEN FURY AS A DETECTIVE WHO AWAKES FROM AN EXTENDED COMA AND SEEKS REVENGE ON THE CORRUPT POLITICIAN WHO MURDERED HIS FAMILY.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7011 in DVD
• Brand: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Released on: 1998-01-28
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.com
After making his action-hero debut in 1988's Above the Law, Steven Seagal followed up with this typically formulaic action thriller, in which the ponytailed crime fighter is shot full of bullets and left for dead after he uncovers a powerful circle of corrupt politicians. After seven years in a coma, he returns to consciousness and is nursed back to health by--surprise, surprise!--a gorgeous woman, played by Seagal's then wife Kelly ("don't hate me because I'm beautiful") LeBrock. Once in peak condition, snarlin' Steve sets out to satisfy his hearty appetite for revenge, and the bone-crunching action kicks into high gear with the requisite chases, hand-to-hand combat, and escalating body count. This is one of Seagal's best vehicles, establishing the star's screen persona before it grew stale in later films. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews

Bone Crunching action
Being a huge fan of action films, it's hard to critique them because this genre of movie making has one purpose...to give viewers an escape from reality and a sense of enjoyment in seeing scumbags and criminals get what they don't get in the real world: The sh-- kicked out of them. For this reason, I rate films of this nature on production values and good action and effects, not necessarily the script or character definition. Most of Steven Seagal's films are better-than-average and this one rates near the top because the action is top-notch and the choreography of the hand-to-hand scenes is truly believable. His aikido skills are remarkable. There's even a little pathos and some humor thrown in to give viewers a little more than just bone-breaking fun. This is a good movie if you remember not to take it too seriously and just have fun and watch the bad guys get theirs in painful quantities.

Worth seeing...and you can take that to the bank
This movie is worth seeing for five reasons:

1) Emotional storyline. Kill a guy's family, put him in prison, and you've got the making of a high-octane story. Yes, maybe it's not CASABLANCA but it taps into our deepest emotions and desires. Including trying to get your son back.

2) Martial arts. Love the sequence where Steven Seagal is training. Very Eastern. Very authentic.

3) William Sadler as Senator Vernon Trent. Hollywood's most underrated character actor and villain turns in an understated performance. Very smooth and slick.

4) Seagal's romance. Yes, it's cheesy, but I'm a chick. Sue me.

5) The hot tub scene with Sadler. Again, sue me.

"I'm gonna take you to the bank Senator. To the blood bank."
It's hard to hate Hard to Kill, but you will also find it hard to avoid soiling yourself after being subjected to the unintentional humor inherant in any quality Seagal flick, this one no exception. Grasshopper Steven portrays Mason Storm, a man brutally cut down in his home by crooked cops and presumed dead... that is until he shows signs of life in the emergency room and is kept alive in a coma for years. He awakens in the 1990s with the beautiful Kelly LeBrock as his nurse and soon realizes that he is being sought out by the same cops that attempted to murder him years earlier. Seagal manages to recall a shady Senator through a memory lapse and promises to take him to the blood bank. Some other humorous moments include Seagal punching a wood plank out of its ground anchor during his training sessions, Seagal covered with smoking acupuncture needles during therapy, Seagal throwing a tribal mask over the head of a defeated enemy, etc. Another winner.