21 years ago new martial artist or aikidoka Steven Seagal appeared on our screens with his Hard to Kill Movie. Movie grossed $47,410,000 (USA) + $30,000,000 (USA).
Hard To Kill is an appropriate title, not only for this film but also for Seagal’s career in general as he’s always portrayed a character that’s nearly invincible. Hard To Kill although is one of the few Seagal martial arts movies that his character is almost killed, as he’s pumped full of shotgun shells and left for dead, only to make a miraculously recovery and seek revenge on the scumbags who ruined his life.
Seagal plays Mason Storm a Los Angeles cop who obtains some incriminating evidence on a high profile individual contracting a hit on someone. Before Storm is able to figure out who the person contracting the hit is he’s stabbed in the back by a couple crooked fellow cops who are in on it. Storm and his family become a prime target in an attempt to acquire the evidence and prevent it from going public. Storm is shot multiple times in the chest with a shotgun, his wife is murdered and his young son narrowly escapes. Thought to be dead, Storm’s life hangs by a thread as he spends the next seven years in a coma under the name John Doe. Once he wakes up and those who thought him dead learn he’s alive, Storm is a prime target once again, and so is Andy Stewart (Kelly LeBrock) the nurse whose been watching over him.
With a little better storyline than martial arts movie Above The Law, Hard to Kill Movie is still hard to swallow at times, it reminds other action movies of 90s like No Retreat No Surrender 3. Seagal seems to almost stand by as his wife gets blown away, where in any other film he would have had the guy unconscious and on the floor in five seconds! Also his magnificent recovery after seven years in a coma, he’s able to go from being unable to walk to kicking peoples butts in a matter of weeks, maybe months!?! It’s all a little too hard for me to believe, even for a Steven Seagal martial arts movies. I did enjoy the plot of the story a lot more than his first film, which was all over the place and hard to follow. And the addition of the lovely Kelly LeBrock (of Weird Science and also Seagal’s wife at the time) was a lot better than Sharon Stone’s brief role as his wife in Above The Law. Overall Hard to Kill Movie is a slight improvement in Seagal’s early career, but still nothing to brag about.
Also Known As:
Échec et mort France
Ölve vagy halva Hungary
Difícil de Matar Brazil
Difícil de matar Spain
Duro da uccidere Italy
Duro de Roer Portugal
Duro de matar Argentina
Ekdikisi se deftero hrono Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
Hard to kill – Ein Cop schlägt zurück Germany (TV title)
Prada dificila Romania
Seven Year Storm USA (working title)
Soguk nefes Turkey (Turkish title)
Uden nåde Denmark
Vaikeasti tapettava Finland
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source: commonsensemoviereviews.com, imdb
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The story might have been a little more easy to follow, since it was a more straight forward revenge style action movie then Above the law was but the better film in total I would say belongs to Above the law.
Above the law while it contained more plot then perhaps necessary for a film of its genre, it was all around a better movie. Above the law did a better job in showcasing Seagal’s true street style version of Aikido. As well as I believe a Seagal who was very hungry for success as it was his film debut and the future of his career completely rested upon the shoulders of this film. The martial arts and fight choreography that Seagal created and displayed in Above the law was leaps and bounds ahead of Hard To Kill and not till his following film, Marked For Death, would he return to a more action packed display of his art.
However, this movie is still a very cool movie, and it’s story has been tried in a similar vein many times by many competent actors such as Vin Diesel, and Denzel Washington- I still believe this to be better then all similar storied movies. This film is without a doubt among Seagal’s best 5 movies.
Sadly Seagal has really allowed himself to become a parody of himself since making a re-emergence after his 2001 film, “Exit Wounds” found unexpected success.
Hard To Kill represents a time where Seagal was in shape, and very much for a few years was without a doubt the newest and most popular action figure in the world.. Although his career would fade away in the mid 90s from a combination of poor physical conditioning and now a string of awful and dreadfully cheap DTV releases, this film still stands as an excellent action film and is a testament to what an action film delivered to it audiences in the 90s. There is a stark difference to what is now today considered to be in the adult action film genre, if such a genre still exists.
If you enjoy this film, you will also enjoy; Above the Law, Marked for Death, and Out for Justice which were also starring Steven Seagal.
maybe, anyway it is a good action of 90s, classic film.