‘Ballistic’ bound to be box office bomb

With explosion after pointless explosion, Ballistic really blows. The lack of character development injected with cliched one-liners proves that action flicks can’t rely on high-tech pyrotechnics and blockbuster stars to produce an entertaining film.

Sever (Lucy Liu), a renegade seeking revenge against her former employer, and Ecks (Antonio Banderas), a washed up FBI agent still lamenting over his dead wife, battle to find a deadly bio-terrorist weapon. With no loyalties and the highest stakes, they will fight to the end to get what they want. Through motorcycle chases, family betrayal, bombings and injectable deadly viruses, one thing’s for sure, Ballistic is a cheap rip-off of John Woo’s most famous films including Mission Impossible 2 and Face Off.

Liu, who speaks her first line an hour into the movie, portrays a one-dimensional character barely capable of shooting a machine gun.

In one scene, her character unbelievably guns down CIA agents and local police in an open-air Canadian shopping center. Using her martial arts skills to overpower those she didn’t shoot, Liu’s character is more comaprable to a leather-clad machine than a human. There is a possibility that her character development would have improved if given the chance to deliver lines with significant meaning. However, after reading this script, which is void of a complete plot, Liu shot herself in the foot by taking this part.

Banderas, who manages to survive car bombs, exploding buses and a poorly written script, still cannot save himself from the damage this movie will do to his career. With a long history of low-grade movies, including Desperado, Assasins and Play It To the Bone, Banderas should stick to playing the role he portrays best – a Latin lover.

Then there’s Banderas and Liu’s on-screen chemestry. In the midst of a full-out fight scene, where blood seeps from facial wounds, the two glance at each other with lustful looks. The sexual tension becomes so thick that not even Liu’s combat knife could cut it. This mutual attraction becomes more disturbing when audiences realize that Banderas’ wife is still alive.

On the production front, the cinematography is embellished. One minute, audiences will choke on the stale taste of stylized melodrama only to be baffled by the sloppy edits the next. Trite slow motion shots of Banderas walking through the rain and Liu shooting a machine gun are repeated so many times they become agonizing and eventually pitifully amusing.

The plot, which is weak from the beginning, is the most confusing toward the end as it becomes glaringly obvious that a majority of the movie wound up on the editing floor. The plot gaps are so atrocious that patrons will think they missed something while they were in the bathroom – only to realize they’d been sitting there the whole time.

Kaos, the film’s director and producer, makes his directoral debut with Ballistic. Only in his 20s, this novice chose an interesting technique in his storytelling by omitting any semblance of a plot. This movie, ass-kicking and all, would be better off as a three-minute MTV music video, not a 90-minute feature film.

In his attempts to emulate Woo’s style, Kaos ends up mocking it. When shooting his next movie, if he can even get funding, Kaos should remember that Woo had decent plot lines surrounding his action sequences, thus producing an entertaining movie.

This garbage epitomizes what’s wrong with Hollywood – all sizzle and no steak. Shoot ’em up action flicks with minimal dialogue may seem to dominate the movie screen, but overused sequencing and constant fight scenes can only entertain so long.

After budgeting for all of Ballistic‘s special effects it’s clear script funds were cut. In short, Ballistic bites the bullet.