The problem with this film is, if you watch the trailer, then the movie, you'll be disappointed, since the trailer basically talks about both agents hunting each other down, which they do for like what...15 minutes of the entire film?
Filled to the brim with plotholes and a paper thin storyline, the film fails as a blockbuster or cinematic work, however, as a popcorn flic. The kind of film you turn your brain off to enjoy...it works quite well at this angle actually.
I'd personally have to say the editor on the trailer did an outstanding job, as that person, made this sloth look like a highly polished Hong Kong action flic, with a tech twist to it. I myself own the DVD, picked it up for like 8 bucks used at Gamestop, I still enjoy it quite a bit. Though when I went to see it in theaters, I was expecting MUCH MUCH more then what I got. Similar effect was given by the film "The Corruptor" which also looked like a Hong Kong action flic, even had Chow Yun Fat in a leading role, and yet the film fell apart due to a plot that was all over the place. Of course, if I could pick one place where Ecks vs Sever fell apart, it wasn't actually the story, it was the choice of scenes, and how they were shot.
That and the fact that neither Lu or Bandaris could seem to get any sort of chemistry going, which had they done so, could have made their pretty plutonic relationship hit the mark the director wanted it to.
A good example of the film this could have been, only in a non-Japanese setting, would have been "Versus" which was just an over the top action extravaganza.
An ok film, nothing special really, but hardly the worst film of all time. If you want to see bad films, you need only look at the crap that wins countless awards. Monsters Ball and In The Bedroom. Supposedly great movies, and while yeah, they have acting that works, the pacing and length is beyond ploding, and each move at a sloths pace. Often times, I find myself enjoying these supposed "garbage" films, or B flics, versus these overbilled Sundance piles of tripe.
Beyond all that, Ecks vs Sever is an action film, what in the hell would you expect from an American action flic? The days of Die Hard and Robocop, have long since past.
It's all about bullet time, gimmicks, and money nowadays, but anyone who has been around the block a few times, knows this already.
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