Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)

Director:

Wych Kaosayananda

Writer (WGA):

Alan B. McElroy (written by)

Release Date:

20 September 2002 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Thriller

Tagline:

Your most dangerous enemies are the friends you've double-crossed.

Plot:

Tasked with destroying each other, an FBI agent and a rogue NSA agent soon discover that there's a much bigger enemy at work.

Plot Keywords:

Enemy | FBI | Actress Playing Male Role | Box Office Flop | Getaway

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Antonio Banderas	...	Jeremiah Ecks
Lucy Liu	...	Sever
Gregg Henry	...	Robert Gant / Clark
Ray Park	...	A.J. Ross
Talisa Soto	...	Vinn / Rayne
Miguel Sandoval	...	Julio Martin
Terry Chen	...	Harry
Roger R. Cross	...	Zane
Sandrine Holt	...	Agent Bennett
Steve Bacic	...	Agent Fleming
Aidan Drummond	...	Michael
Eric Breker	...	Agent Curtis
Tony Alcantar	...	Edgar Moore
David Parker	...	Dark Suit #1
Josephine Jacob	...	Pretty Girl

Also Known As:

Ballistic (Germany)
Ecks vs. Sever (USA) (working title)
X vs. Sever (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for strong violence.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Malaysia:18SG | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:14A (Alberta/Manitoba) (Canadian Home Video rating) | Canada:AA (Ontario) | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | France:U | South Korea:12 | Netherlands:12 (TV version) (slightly cut) | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Germany:16 | Netherlands:16 | New Zealand:M | Norway:15 | Philippines:PG-13 | Singapore:PG | UK:15 | USA:R (No. 39336) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Vancouver Public Library, 360 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Franchise Pictures

Trivia:

The 2001 Game Boy Advance game "Ecks vs. Sever" was actually based on an early script draft for this film and not the other way around. The game's producers later made a sequel to that game that was based on the finished version of the movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the end battle at the train depot, Agent Sever's gun changes between cuts.

Quotes:

[Ecks is looking at a photo of a young girl]
Agent Harry Lee: That's my daughter. Her name's Mali.
Ecks: Do you love her?
Agent Harry Lee: Yes, of course.
Ecks: Then get out of this business.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Robot Chicken: 1987 (#2.6)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

I Think Of You

absurdly bad espionage thriller

`Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever' has been saddled with not only one of the worst movie titles in recent memory, but one of the worst screenplays as well. The film's third-rate espionage plot makes no sense at all and serves basically as a lame excuse for endless explosions, shootouts and double-flipping car chases, which have become the standard accoutrements for virtually every action picture since `Bullitt' in 1968.

The problem with `Ballistic' is that the viewer can never tell who is doing what to whom or why – and we never care. The film is really all about style anyway. How else to account for the rather ludicrous image of Lucy Liu - looking more like a fashion model out on a shoot than a trained killer doing the shooting herself - strolling in elegant slow motion through the streets of Vancouver, wiping out what seems to be an entire hit squad with a combination of superhuman marksmanship and Matrix-like kickboxing moves? With her ankle-length designer coat and her icy-cool demeanor, she looks like Calvin Klein's idea of what the well-dressed assassin should be wearing this season. It's enough to reduce the whole enterprise to the level of comic absurdity – and, indeed, I often found myself laughing out loud at many of the ostensibly serious shenanigans occurring in the film. The flashbacks, which are obviously intended to clarify the characters' relationships, are so poorly done that they actually end up making the whole story more muddled and confusing. (And, although the child-kidnapping scenario is never as offensive in this film as it is in `Trapped,' one can still question the propriety of filmmakers running to this theme with the kind of frequency they seem to have been doing of late).

Antonio Banderas makes up the other half of the film's title (he is Ecks, she Sever), and one only wonders what he could have been thinking about when he signed on to co-star in this particular project. `Ballistic' is utterly dispensable moviemaking: here today, forgotten tomorrow, a film utterly without distinction, conviction or purpose.