Marked for Death

Markedfor Death (1990)

Runtime: 93 minutes

Directed by: Dwight H. Little

Starring: Steven Seagal, Basil Wallace, Keith David, Joanna Pacula

From: 20^th Century Fox

Here is something I got on Blu-Ray recently as I had only seen it on DVD in a non-anamorphic way and as it's 2.35:1, that was annoying. It definitely does look better in Blu-Ray format, so that was good.

Here's the plot that really represents the time period as it deals with drugs, yo: John Hatcher is a former DEA troubleshooter. Upon moving back to his hometown of Chicago, Hatcher finds it taken over by a gang of vicious Jamaican drug dealers, led by Screwface.

I amended that from Wikipedia, and it works. The movie starts off in Central America as Seagal is on a mission with his partner. They chase down a bad guy (Danny Trejo!) and shortly after that a shootout happens, where his partner gets killed and Hatcher is forced to gun down a woman. This depresses him so he decides to retire from the force, and he returns to his home of Chicago to hang out with his family. He also meets up with his old buddy Max (the always great Keith David) and they soon stumble into a fight with those Jamaican drug dealers and some of them get killed. The over the top villain Screwface (Wallace) doesn't like this so he does battle with Hatcher as the drug dealers also deal with some Columbian drug dealers who also want the same turf.

The movie doesn't reinvent the wheel by any means but hey it's wildly entertaining. Seagal and David don't team up that much in this film but when they do they make a pretty great duo, which is not the norm for The Sensei. The setting of Chicago and then Jamaica (those scenes were filled in the land of reggae and Bob Marley) is interesting, and you do see and hear the music of legendary artist Jimmy Cliff, who briefly appears in the film. The action scenes are entertaining and there's a variety, from car chases to people getting shot, and of course Seagal using his Aikido skills, meaning people get tossed around and many limbs get broken. Sure, the bad guys are stereotypical Rastafarian types but that's OK. I'll say that the highlight is the car chase which takes place between an old Dodge Ram Charger and a BMW 7 series car which ends up in a jewelry store and much glass gets broken in the resultant fight.

If you haven't checked this out and you enjoy the action movies of the period then you must see this as I'm sure you'll get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

I'll be back Friday night with a new review.