Product Description

Furiously paced and visually striking, Marked for Death puts action star Steven Seagal up against a deadly Jamaican drug posse. Just retired from the Drug Enforcement Agency, John Hatcher (Seagal) returns to his hometown and quickly discovers that drugs have infiltrated his old neighborhood. Determined to drive the dealers out, Hatcher crosses paths with a ferocious Jamaican druglord who vows that hatcher and his family are now marked for death.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17502 in DVD
• Brand: Twentieth Century Fox
• Released on: 2002-05-21
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 94 minutes

Amazon.com
The glowering brutality that is aikido headbanger Steven Seagal's substitute for a star persona at least gives us a rancid taste of authenticity in this cookie-cutter action picture. This glum lug seems to really enjoy hurting people; he snaps limbs and shatters noses with visible relish. Pitted against a crew of Jamaican gangsters who invade his (white ethnic) Chicago neighborhood and threaten his family, retired DEA agent John Hatcher sets out to solve the case with robotic efficiency, kicking butt in just about every scene. Not quite as pudgy in this 1990 outing as he became a few films later, Seagal looks like the genuine, lethal article in the fight sequences, but like a hopeless amateur when he tries to act his way out of the waterlogged-paper-bag of a script. So what else is new? The one bright spot here is Basil Wallace, a mostly unsung actor who throws himself into the showy role of the Rasta gang-boss Screwface, a garishly scarred psycho with piercing ice-blue eyes. --David Chute

Customer Reviews

The last of his (non-Under Siege) good ones
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.

The Best Steven Seagal film ever!!!!!!!!!!
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.

All you would want out of an action movie.
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.