BALLISTIC: ECKS vs. SEVER

US, 2002, 91 minutes, Colour.
Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Gregg Henry, Ray Park, Miguel Sandoval.
Directed by Kaos (Wych) Kaosayananda.

Ballistic: Ecks vs Sever seems a typical comic strip film, less dignified and thoughtful than a graphic novel.

In fact, directed by a Thai director who had made a previous Thai action thriller, this seems to be rather a collection of foot chases, car chases, explosions and interminable shooting – with a little bit of plot added now and again, mainly concerning the abduction of a boy, Sever guarding the boy in order to get revenge on Gant/Clark who had destroyed her family and had used his know-how as an FBI agent in order to set up a black market chemical business. He had also taken the wife of Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas) and made him assume that she was dead – and she assuming that he was dead and her going off with Gant/Clark. The boy abducted is really the son of the woman and Ecks.

Lucy Liu is athletic as Sever, saving Ecks’s life dealing with many, many confrontations, kind to the boy. Eventually all the characters track each other down, meet, have a shootout – with Ecks actually having huge piping falling on him but surviving in order to confront Gant/Clark.

Comic-style thriller – with minimal plot, making one wonder what persuaded Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu to appear in it. Gregg Henry is obviously relishing his role as a villain.

1.The popularity of this kind of film? The straight-to-video kind of action? Comic-strip style?

2.The cast, the strong leads – and their contribution to the film? Audiences wondering why they were in it? The Thai director and his skill in action?

3.The minimal plot: the abduction, Sever with the boy, the mother and her concern, going to Gant, his wanting to get the boy back (and the final revelation that he had a serum injected in him which would be undetected in crossing a border)? Ecks, his background, separation from his wife? His being persuaded to come back as an agent? Joining forces with the FBI? The confrontations with Sever? Finding his wife? The flashbacks to what really happened in the double explosion and neither of them dying? The final confrontations after the many chases?

4.The effect of the chases, the stunt work, the special effects?

5.The computer game aspect of this kind of film? For what audiences? To what effect?