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Travis Willock reviews
Warner Home Video
- Cert: R
- Cat.no: 24429
- Running time: 91 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 26
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English, French
- Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
- Widescreen: 2.35:1
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $26.98
- Extras:HBO First Look, Know Your Enemy Interactive Game, Theatrical Trailer.
Director:
- Kaos
Screenplay:
- Alan McElroy
Cast:
- Jeremiah Ecks: Antonio Banderas
Sever: Lucy Liu
Vinn Ecks: Talisa Soto
Gent: Gregg Henry
Ross: Ray Park
Miguel: Julio Martin
I’m at a loss of words.There are no sarcastic remarks that come closeto summarizing the mess we have here. Well, might as well try. Debutingtheatrically in September 2002 and already out on video you should be able toknow that Warner wanted to shove this one out the door before anyonewith at least an inkling of remembrance wouldn’t forget it. I usuallyhave a soft spot for the turkies (I actually likeThe Adventures of Pluto Nashbelieve it or not) but this exceeds the limits of my kindness tothe underdog. This is crap, crap, mega crap (J. Jonah Jameson) at it’sfinest.
The story of Ecks vs. Sever is… hey, what is the plot? Is there onehere? Somewhere beneath the garbage lies a tired plot of a device in ablood stream that would kill assassins… oh forget it. The plot is soridiculous that I can’t even sum it into human language. At the heart ofit are two agents, Jeremiah Ecks (played well enough by Antonio Banderas) andSever (the always ice cold Lucy Liu) who seem to be just wanderinguncaring through the multitude of meaningless explosions and overstagedfight scenes. Garbage.
The first thing you’ll notice is the poorly executed action scenes.Right off the bat we’re treated to a fight where Sever arrives in agarbafe truck for no reason, then we have a huge fight where Sever takeson the FBI… for 15 minutes. Watch in marvel as someone falls in slowmotion to the roof of a car! Grunt and groan as Ecks and Sever tradeblows for no reason! Be amazed as to why Sever decides to free Ecks froma bus by blowing it up! There’s even a twist in the film that makes nosense when Ecks is accused of shooting a man who knows he wasn’t the onewho shot him! Wait until you see the finale in a trainyard!
I hated this movie so much as to give it a zero.Rollerball:bad but mindless fun insome areas, Pluto Nash: fun on an 80s sort of sci-fi level,Battlefield:Earth: decent, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever: waste of power torun projectors across the country.
Despite the movie being terrible beyond belief, the transfer ispleasing. Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, it’s great to see aWarner DVD nowadays without a full frame counterpart. The color pallatein the film is mostly cold blues, even the flesh tones have a cold andpale feel. Blacks are relatively deep when displayed. An annoyingproblem I found is the amount of noise and pixelization evident. Kind ofhard to focus on the movie when jackets are moving with pixels. Overallthough the transfer shines as the only good thing about the whole Ecksvs. Sever expierience.
I though the audio would be much better than this. This 5.1 track ispretty dull when it comes to bass and loudness. Dialouge is inaudible attimes. The action sounds generic with the same explosions heard from athousand movies. I was pretty dissapointed from this track.
Being the bomb that it was I’m suprised Warner didn’t give this the barebones treatment. That’s not to say what we got here is any better.This how it all stacks up:
- Know Your Enemy Interactive Game: This lame feature is basically just a virtual rock paper scissors match betweenEcks and Sever. Choose one and try to predict what the CPU will do next.
- HBO First Look: Standard promotional fluff for a movie that shouldhave been locked away in a vault. You won’t find any apologies here.Presented in full frame and non-anamorphic clips, runs 13 minutes.
- Theatrical Trailer: Anamorphic 2.35:1, pretty bad, should have beenacompanied by a stern warning of side effects of sleep.
Nothing to write home about in the extras department and nothing towaste your time with.
Ecks vs. Sever is packaged in the trademark Warner snapper case. 26chapters are here with animated menus showcasing the disaster ahead.
I’m serious, this movie is BAD, very bad. Don’t go anywhere near thiswith a 20 foot pole and don’t subject your DVD player with this filth.Avoid at all costs.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS0
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EmailTravis Willock
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.