Sadly Over-hyped

Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Marked For Death is an excellent Martial Arts Thriller starring Steven Seagal, Basil Wallace, Keith David and Tom Wright. This film has lots of Powerful fights, Shoot Outs, Deaths etc. It is a film which is about retired cop John Hatcher (played by Seagal) who has just retired from the Drug Enforcement Agency and returns to his hometown and quickly discovers that drugs have infiltrated his old neighbourhood and that Killings and deaths are happening done by a notorious, ruthless and violent Jamaican Gang led by the malicious Jamaican druglord Screwface(played by Basil Wallace). Determined to drive the drug dealers out, Hatcher has to kill Screwface and the notorious, ruthless and violent Jamaican Gang known to Screwface. Hatcher meets up with old friend and military partner Max(played by Keith David) to kill Screwface and the Jamaican Gang with help from Charles(played by Tom Wright) who later on in the film gets killed by one of the ruthless Jamaicans. Marked For Deaths acting by Steven Seagal, Basil Wallace, Keith David and Tom Wright is excellent. This film also has some Awesome fights by Seagal against the Jamaicans and it again is an excellent Steven Seagal film. Marked For Death is an excellent and tense Martial Arts Thriller with brutal violence and awesome action and again Seagal also looks very handsome in this film.

"Marked For Death" is another completely average Seagal vehicle, almost indistinguishable from all the other three-word-title movies he was in around this time. Unlike "Out for Justice" and "Above the Law" its violence isn't wince inducing, and unlike those films and "Hard to Kill" it has a memorable villain who gets a fair bit of screen time.The story is something about Seagal moving back to the old neighbourhood and fighting with Jamaican drug dealers. They are led by the demonic Screwface, a Jamaican guy with bold green eyes. He is the only one you can tell apart from the rest; they've all got dreadlocks and the same accent and slang.Apart from the villain, and a weird twist at the end, the only thing about this movie that made me stop and think was the typical scene where, after moving back home, Seagal's home is shot up from some bad guys. He survives, but his niece is gunned down and ends up in a coma. The fact that the movie doesn't make much of a point about her recovery or lack thereof isn't that surprising. It's the fact that there's a scene in the hospital afterwards where they hear they don't know if she's going to pull through and Seagal's sister starts hitting him with her little fists and crying hysterically saying "it's your fault!"The thing is... she's right. It is her fault. Why did Seagal, a guy who remarks coolly "What else is new?" after being told that a lot of people want him dead, have to go and move in with his family? Why didn't he get a place of his own?The answer is obviously to provide this moment, where things "get real" and the hero has a reason to go after the bad guys doggedly. But if you suspend disbelief for a moment, it seems like he made a massive error of judgment.The weird twist I mentioned is that Seagal kills Screwface, beheading him, and takes his head to his gang to prove he's gone. You know that can't be it just by looking at the run-time: this in an action movie, and with about 20 minutes left on the clock, you know the final showdown hasn't happened yet. So what do we get? Two Screwfaces for the price of one. Yes, apparently the man has an identical twin in the US who pops up in this scene for a final fight. The thing is, I didn't realise he was a twin while watching the movie. They must not have made a very big deal about it, because I had to check the Wikipedia page for an explanation of why the guy we just saw Seagal decapitate appeared in the next scene. There's nothing wrong with the idea of the villain having a twin - actually it has scary possibilities - so why did the movie handle it so blithely?I think the answer is the director didn't know how to do anything other than mediocre action. You know Seagal; you know what to expect from him.

This one gets my vote for "best" Steven Seagal action picture. Sure UNDER SIEGE is slicker and more expensive, ABOVE THE LAW has a more serious and compelling story, and OUT FOR JUSTICE has Seagal at his self-righteously most over the top, but none of those are half as fun as this little gem.Admittedly the plot to this film is on the simplistic side and it takes itself quite seriously for the most part. Seagal here is an originally unwilling crusader against drug gangs and violence but of course kills more people and causes more mayhem and property damage than any cartel ever did. Already at this point was he starting to exhibit some of his quirky mannerisms (obvious stunt doubles and enigmatic heroes who disappear to let their lackies do the "boring" stuff) which turned into B-action tropes over the years. He also starts to find his own identity as a bonafide 80's era action star with snappy post-mortem one-liners and creative almost artfully balletic corpse-kills.A lot of the fun comes from the ethnocentrism at hand in the form of the ridiculousness assigned to the antagonistic Jamaican cartel. Their heavily accented dialog and Basil Wallace's performance as their leader makes it feel as though Seagal is up against a gang of cartoon characters. The movie casts aside any shred of realism and treats us to seeing Seagal cathartically and unemotionally taking down multiple adversaries at once without even breaking a sweat. This was the only film I think Seagal did for 20th Century Fox so perhaps that's why it breaks a mold a little bit and allows the villains to land a few punches on our mighty hero (not that it makes any difference).One cannot talk about this movie without mentioning Basil Wallace's delirious portrayal of perhaps the most emotionally unbalanced villain of any action movie, and that includes anything Vernon Wells has ever done. He enthusiastically incantates voodoo and mysticism with wild-eyed abandon in an effort to intimidate his posse, but it largely comes across as quite comical. He's the polar opposite of the wooden and inexpressive Seagal, who just sort of drifts around and looks annoyed when there's no more baddies to murder.Pathetically the film tries to go the PC route and with the casting of Jamaican Tom Wright as a vindictive Island cop and American black character actor Keith David as Seagal's buddy vigilante. Amazingly, David's character is the close-minded one and no chance is spared to teach him how Jamaica as a tough but unfortunate breeding ground for vermin, though mostly populated by mostly good people. I don't know if it was out of PC-ness or in keeping with the tone of the villainy in the film, but the soundtrack contains a lot of great reggae tracks, largely by the one and only Jimmy Cliff who even appears in the film as himself singing about the upcoming death of the film's villain (!). The film ends on a high note with a nonstop action spectacular and immediately rolls into one of the most unforgettable reggae songs of all time. I really don't know who John Crow was or what he had to do with anything (perhaps they changed Hatcher's name at some point during production?) but at least we got a great song out of it.

Marked For Death" is a lot of fun. most of Steven segals movies are made by warner bros but this one is made by 20th century fox. The plot is John Hatcher (Seagal) is a jaded DEA agent. After witnessing the death of his partner, he resigns from the force and vows to return to family life in a quiet neighborhood of Chicago. However, he arrives to find his hometown teeming with Jamaican drug dealers, headed by the psychotic voodoo cultist Screwface (Basil Wallace, Blood Diamond). Though he does his best to ignore the impending danger, Hatcher finds both himself and his family in the dealers' sights after interfering in an assassination attempt, prompting him to team up with an old military comrade (Keith David, "The Thing") and take the fight to the criminals. this film is not perfect. the points of incompetence are limited and don't permeate the entire picture.It's a shame that this movie isn't recalled as readily as some of our hero's other work, since it supplies the adrenaline just as well. Btw Steven segal gets beat up a little in this movie unlike some of his other films we don't see him get hit once.