Sunday, January 21, 2018

Movie review - "The Perfect Weapon" (2016) ** (warning: spoilers)

A different sort of Steven Seagal movie - I guess it's not really a Seagal film as his role is relatively small (he's the villain), but he is in it - in that it's a sci fi piece set in the near future. It's a totalitarian state, kind of like The Running Man, run by the Director (Seagal).

The actual hero is some bald actor called Johnny Messner, an assassin who works for the government but then kind of turns a bit good

Late 80s/early 90s heartthrob Richard Tyson is on hand to play a henchman. Vernon Wells has, disappointingly, one scene only as a thug who is going to torture Messner. Sasha Jackson isn't bad as Messner's dead ex love.

I enjoyed the ambition of this film, mild as it was and there were some decent twists involving Jackson - she's actually alive, then she's been Vertigo-ing Messner, but like in Vertigo she's fallen in love with them, but he shoots her.   Also Seagal dies at the end, giving the movie some uniqueness (he doesn't often die in his films)... only he doesn't really die because he's a twin only the twin is still alive but he gets killed by the surviving twin... or something... I got really confused by this bit.

There's a creepy scene where Seagal talks to a Japanese girl lying in his bed about how her body relied on interconnected nerves. But I liked how his character was a super smart, and he still has more star power than Messner. Messner is a completely adequate actor but he doesn't have Seagal's X factor. It really would've been a better movie had they swapped roles.

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