Marked for Death

DEA agent John Hatcher (Steven Seagal) returns from Colombia after the death of his partner. He goes home to his sister's family in Chicago. He and army buddy Max (Keith David) have a drink and he reluctantly gets in the middle of a shootout with the drug gang Jamaican Posse. The leader of the gang is Screwface (Basil Wallace). John arrests one of Screwface's man and his sister's house is shot up. His niece Tracey (Danielle Harris) is left in critical condition.

It's one of Seagal's better efforts for what that's worth. He kicks some bad guys and shoots up a storm. The bad guys use Jamaican voodoo but that adds to the atmosphere. None of it should be taken seriously. It's straight forward and without any apologies.

You can split Segal films into 2 categories, the early stuff (Hard To Kill, Nico) and the later stuff (Fire Down Below, Today You Die). The latter group doesn't usually even get to the cinema but the former has some real action gems. Marked for death is one of them.

This film has loads of martial arts, Yardies, drugs, black magic, Drive by shootings, people dressed like Aswad, and the big black guy from platoon who escapes from the shootout at the end by getting rotated back to America. One of the things that ruins Segal films is having too much shooting and not enough fighting, But the action is pitched just right here, with still enough shooting thrown in to spice it up. The guys playing the Yardies are fantastic and the dialogue is second to none, in fact for those IDM fans out there Luke Vibert sampled some in 'screwface'. Other than Segal and the platoon guy the only person I recognised was Danny Trejo, Hollywoods default Mexican criminal. This is an action classic folks, watch it or Screwface will give you a thousand deaths worse than mine.

Of Stevens Seagal's movies, this is clearly one of the better. It's from 1990, and that was around his prime time as a action star. ("Under Siege" came two years later). There are a couple of really cool fights in this movie where Seagal handles lots of bad guys without any effort at all. The last part of the movie, where he's invading the Jamaica-man bad guy's base is especially entertaining. In this movie, he has one of the best comments of all his films:"One thought he was immortal, and the other one thought he could fly. Both were wrong". Watch the movie to find out what I'm talking about. You won't regret it if you like easy action.

Although I am not a huge fan of action movies I enjoy them from time to time. One of the reasons I saw this movie is because it has Steven Seagal as the lead, and there was a period back in the 1990s when he used to do some great movies (such as ABOVE THE LAW, UNDER SIEGE, ON DEADLY GROUND, OUT FOR JUSTICE) and I consider him an enjoyable actor despite he has also made various terrible movies especially in recent years. While this one didn't struck me, I still liked it.

At the beginning John Hatcher (Seagal) is in Columbia chasing a thug (played by a then unknown Danny Trejo) and after he manages to capture there is a brutal murder where a young prostitute is involved (and there is also some blood splattered in the process). As a result he retires and returns in the USA with his family. He passes by the local school and meets his childhood friend Max Keller (Keith David), who has become the trainer for the school's football theme after he left the US Army. Max and John join forces to find out about the man who sells drugs illegally in their hometown; it's a Jamaican witch doctor named Screwface that has lots of henchmen that worship him as a God, One night Max and John go to his HQ in a small Jamaican island and Hatcher be-heads Screwface with a sword; back in the US he shows the head to his friends but Screwface arrives as the decapited one was his twin. Hatcher manages to get rid for him and while he goes away into the night with Max he realizes that he has freed his hometown from the dangers of drug smuggling.

One of the reasons why I liked this movie is because Steven Seagal played so well and in a convincing way a man that wants justice and won't stop at nothing for getting it (and he doesn't take NO for an answer) and I really felt his reasons for behaving that way as very appropriate. It actually reminded me a bit of the DIRTY HARRY movies. The soundtrack was also very good and I loved the ending song JOHN CROW.

Seagal gives one of his best performances and I think he was born for this role. Keith David gives great support as Seagal's best friend who follows him around. In supporting roles even then-unknown character actors Kevin Dunn and Danny Trejo.

Although not an excellent action movie, it was quite decent despite a few gory scenes. Great for Steven Seagal fans and enjoyable for everyone else.

I'm going to comment on this movie, but before I do, I have to mention Steven Seagal's running. This is the fifth movie I've seen him in and I don't know where he learned how to run. His right arm flails like it has a mind of its own. It is not an effective way to run yet he is really fast in his movies.

OK, I said my piece.

In "Marked for Death" Hatcher (Steven Seagal) finds himself at odds with a Jamaican cartel known as a posse. In this movie where Jamaican involvement in drug dealing is grossly exaggerated, Screwface (Basil Wallace) and his crew run the streets of Lincoln Heights, Illinois. That means we see a bunch of dreadlock wearing Black guys selling drugs to suburban white kids.

As if.

Hatcher was retired from police work and wanted nothing to do with fighting drug gangs until a couple of Jamaicans cruised through his suburban neighborhood and shot up his home. It was the absurdest of actions based upon the lamest of pretexts, but what better way to bring a guy out of retirement than revenge?

Once Hatcher was effectively activated by the Jamaicans like a killbot that was given the proper password, he began shooting, stabbing, and snapping his way up the Jamaican food chain. He had his partner Max (Keith David) along for backup and sloppy seconds because Hatcher had to contend with violence AND Voodoo. It seems the Jamaicans' evil ways were aided by witchcraft as well as weapons.

"Marked for Death" was hardly distinguishable from "Above the Law" or "Hard to Kill." The plots were different, but in all three Seagal is with law enforcement, is out for revenge, and does all the typical action hero stuff (gun battles, car chases, explosions, and hand-to-hand combat). "Marked for Death" was cool when I was twelve, but now it seems a little stale.