Year: 1990
Director: Dwight H. Little
Star: Steven Seagal
“He’s a good cop. In a bad mood”
Seagal is a DEA Agent who goes by the name John Hatch, I believe this was the start of Seagal’s run of being named John in his films, which at this point is at 59. Anyways, in the beginning he’s chasing Danny Trejo, which let’s you know right away that bad-asses belong in this film. Afterwards he heads to where he’s suppose to be undercover, and do a drug buy, but thankfully things go array so Hatch can beat some ass and kill some people. His partner is killed, and this bums him out. So he retires.
Back in Chicago, he visits his family, which happen to be his sister and her daughter. After the meeting he heads over to the high school to meet his former army buddy who’s now the high-school football coach. While there, we see some kindly Jamaican fellows selling drugs to some seedy high school kids. The Coach doesn’t have too many nice things to say about them, and would prefer they just don’t come around.
Later in the evening, Hatch and his buddy are stone cold chilling at a bar when all of a sudden some Jamaican dudes bust in and shoot up some Colombian drug dealers. Hatch is fucking stoked because he was getting pretty pissed that no one was causing some shit to go down. Plus, he can avoid paying his bill. So, he intercedes and whoops on one of the Jamaican dudes who promise vengeance for his interference.
A couple days later he’s hanging at his sister’s place when a drive by happens, her daughter is hit and they rush to the hospital. Hatch finally has a reason to start beating the fuck out of some people, and I couldn’t be more excited.
Later that evening he hunts down a mafioso who’s been selling guns to the Jamaicans, and demands info. The guy is rocking a pair of black Speedos and a wife beater, and chilling with two hookers, so you know he’s too awesome to rat. Hatch’s got a bullet in the head for his ill cooperation. We find out that the man running the whole drug operation is a Jamaican named Screwface, he’s learned in the art of voodoo, and always carries a sword with him. I use to sell drugs, and that must be where I failed, no voodoo dolls and no katanas.
Hatch and his buddy find out where Screwface’s crew is slanging, and approach them for a little info on his whereabouts. They don’t want to give it up, and he’s understanding. So it’s an awesome car chase that ends up through some windows of a department store, and they end up having quite the gun fight. That’s what I like, when coppers aren’t afraid to just unload full clips and shells into a crowd of pussy-assed innocents in order to gun down the baddies. After all this shit gets handled, a Jamaican cop who’s been following Screwface for 5 years joins up with Hatch and his buddy to form an awesome Justice League sorta thing. You know as a kid, when they’d play superheroes, Hatch would insist on being Batman, and Superman. And Godzilla. Anyway, they find out that Screwface has flown to Jamaica already, and it’s time for them to catch up.
They buy some cool guns, and then have to create silencers and such for’em. It’s funny because they’re total bad-asses and such, yet they’re making sure to wear safety goggles at all times. I’m sure it was just some stupid bullshit that the studio wanted. I bet Seagal wanted to film the scene with his eyes taped open, with NO eye-wash station near. That’s how real men get down.
Once they’re there, they get shit done. Now, heading back to Chi-Town, they make an offer to the fellow dealers that if they get out of town before the day is up, they won’t die. Screwface shows up to piss on the Wheaties, and what follows is a pretty decent sword fight between him and Hatch. I’m not much one to ruin things, but I will say that Screwface get’s one of the harshest deaths I’ve ever seen in a movie. I mean, Hatch does something to him that’s like, he’s dead. Then does another something that kills him, then does ANOTHER something that kills him. It’s fucking awesome.
Man Movie Encyclopedia Tally:
1-Liners: 4
Guys Beat Up: 17
Guys Killed: 29
Swear Words: 27
Boobs: 11
Explosions: 2
Slow-Motion Scenes: 15
Car Chases: 2
Chases on Foot: 1
Broken Bones: 4
Fight at a Motel? Yes
Guy Get Girl? Yes
Guy Smoke Cigarettes? No
1-Liners:
Monkey: You a dead man!
John: So, what else is new?
Jimmy Fingers: I’m a made fuckin’ man!
[John puts a bullet into his dome]
John: God made man.
[after dealing with some bad-dudes, Seagal shoots one in the dome, throws the other out the window. He gets back to the car where his buddy is waiting]
Max: Well?
John: One thought he was invincible, the other thought he could fly.
Max: So?
John: They were both wrong
[after killing Screwface for a seemingly 2nd time]
John: I hope there weren’t triplets
Man-Facts:
There’s been a lot of dispute between two of the co-writers and Seagal over who actually wrote the film. Seagal says they wrote a draft, and that he re-wrote about 93% of it.
Movie was originally titled Screwface. However, I don’t think the tag-line “Steven Seagal is Screwface” would have really worked.
Box-Office Business:
Created on a budget of $12 million, Marked For Death was released by Fox Studios on October 5th, 1990, in 1,968 theaters. It was #1 for the weekend, bringing in a total of $11,790,047. After it’s theatrical run, it brought in a grand total of $57,968,936.
C’mon Bennet, Let’s Party:
Again, another classic for Seagal. If you dig any Seagal film, then you’re going to love this one. The villain, Screwface, is very original, and one of the cooler bad-guys you’ll see in action films. The whole voodoo aspect makes him a lot more fierce than your typical drug dealer. Seagal takes no mercy as he breaks bones, beats the hell out of a ton of people, creates and crafts his own weapons, and promptly blows a ton of people away with’em. Well paced, cool scenery, and a few twists you don’t expect.
5 Head-Butts Out Of 5
