The Specialist (1994)

Director:

Luis Llosa

Writers (WGA):

John Shirley (Specialist novels) (suggestion)
Alexandra Seros (written by)

Release Date:

7 October 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

The government taught him to kill. Now he's using his skills to help a woman seek revenge against the Miami underworld.

Plot:

A woman entices a bomb expert she's involved with into destroying the mafia that killed her family.

Plot Keywords:

Parent | CIA | Miami Florida | Explosives Expert | Revenge

Awards:

3 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Sylvester Stallone	...	Ray Quick
Sharon Stone	...	May Munro (aka Adrian Hastings)
James Woods	...	Ned Trent
Rod Steiger	...	Joe Leon
Eric Roberts	...	Tomas Leon
Mario Ernesto Sánchez	...	Charlie
Sergio Doré Jr.	...	Strongarm
Chase Randolph	...	Stan Munro, May's Dad
Jeana Bell	...	Alice Munro, May's Mom
Brittany Paige Bouck	...	Young May
Emilio Estefan Jr.	...	Piano Player
LaGaylia Frazier	...	Singer #1
Ramón González Cuevas	...	Priest at Cemetery
Tony Munafo	...	Tony
Cheito Quinonez	...	Singer at Party

Also Known As:

El especialista (Peru)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

Peru | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Finland:K-18 (original rating) | Iceland:16 | South Korea:18 | Philippines:R-18 | Singapore:M18 (re-rating) | Singapore:PG (cut) | Argentina:16 | Australia:MA (original rating) | Australia:M (TV rating) | Canada:14A | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | Norway:18 | Peru:18 | Poland:15 | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | UK:15 (original rating) | UK:18 (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Cookeville, Tennessee, USA

Company:

Iguana Producciones

Trivia:

When Sylvester Stallone enters his computer to activate the massive explosion of his home near end of film, the password he uses is "Top of the world, Ma." This is a slight paraphrase of Jimmy Cagney's last line in White Heat (1949), just before Cagney shoots into the large gas storage unit he's standing on, causing massive explosions. ("Made it, Ma. Top of the world!")

Goofs:

Boom mic visible: When Trent walks in to the squad room talking to someone you see the boom mic follow them and than pull back

Quotes:

Ray Quick: I believe there's a vacancy.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)

Soundtrack:

Shower Me with Love

Just not good, no matter how you look at it...

I have seen this film more times than I've bothered to count... meaning, at least twice(had you going there, didn't I? Bet you thought I had seen it hundreds of times). Yes, twice that I'm sure of. You know how I know? Because I recognized one scene. One scene. 110 minutes worth of film, and I recognized a mere five minutes or less of it. This movie is just not worth your time; I can imagine the novels are quite exciting and interesting(I dig cyberpunk; William Gibson is a genius... if you're a fan of the genre and haven't read his Cyperspace Trilogy and/or Virtual Light yet, do so, now), but the film... well, isn't. The plot is a mess, full of twists that barely make sense(and definitely don't keep your interest; rather the opposite). The pacing is dreadful. I still can't bring myself to watch more than a few minutes at a time without shifting my attention to something else. The acting is fair; Woods is solid, as always. Stone and Stallone are decent. The characters are not particularly interesting or well-developed, and the viewers don't really care much about what happens to them, or why. The action scenes are not very involving, apart from the one I mentioned, the one scene I remembered. It's a short fight taking place in a bus, and it's quite reminiscent of Arnold himself. Some cool one-liners in that scene, too. Very macho, very bad-ass. I've read that Steven Seagal was offered a chance to star(and direct, too; I guess it's true what they say, an accident never comes alone). While I doubt that this film could have been much worse, I'm still glad that didn't happen. All in all, this just isn't really worth your time... unless you're a huge fan of someone involved with making it, I suppose. I recommend this only to the biggest fans of Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone and/or James Woods. Everyone else should probably just skip this one. You won't be missing anything, trust me. 5/10