"Hard to Kill" is a tepid and poorly structured Steven Seagal flick. It's almost as hard to remember as its title - remember we also have "Above the Law", "Out for Justice" and "Marked for Death" in the Seagal canon. They all had three word titles, yes, and they were all released within the space of a couple of years. This one is even harder on the old memory bank because its title also happens to be a rip off of "Die Hard", and there were quite a few of those.
Anyway, "Hard to Kill" isn't as boring and nonsensical as "Above the Law", but that's about all you can say for it. It has nothing we haven't seen before, except maybe for the lack of any real villain. By the time you find out who's behind the dastardly goings on, you don't care, and the guy doesn't make much of an impression. "Above the Law" also had this problem - we knew who the bad guy was, but didn't see much of him. But who can forget Henry Silva?
Maybe Seagal didn't want a villain stealing the show.
The movie does the whole "Hero in the hospital, bad guy coming to kill him" thing we've seen in so many other movies. In this one, though, Seagal (with unkempt long hair and a goatee, looking like Joe Eszterhas) escapes with only the use of one arm. That part, I guess, is memorable for its ridiculousness. You can't say the same for anything else here - it's all ridiculous, but not memorable.
Seagal has a convalescence at a hot nurse's house where we have the typical training montage which is also pretty funny. Seagal chopping at a tree with some kind of spear is an amusing image. At this point we're already over half way through the movie and we don't know who the bad guy is.
It's one of those movies where you look at how far into it you are and get surprised, thinking, how are they going to squeeze an ending in? I read in the trivia that the movie was edited to a shorter run time, but that doesn't always make it zip along. Sometimes it makes it drag.
Anyway, "Hard to Kill" isn't as boring and nonsensical as "Above the Law", but that's about all you can say for it. It has nothing we haven't seen before, except maybe for the lack of any real villain. By the time you find out who's behind the dastardly goings on, you don't care, and the guy doesn't make much of an impression. "Above the Law" also had this problem - we knew who the bad guy was, but didn't see much of him. But who can forget Henry Silva?
Maybe Seagal didn't want a villain stealing the show.
The movie does the whole "Hero in the hospital, bad guy coming to kill him" thing we've seen in so many other movies. In this one, though, Seagal (with unkempt long hair and a goatee, looking like Joe Eszterhas) escapes with only the use of one arm. That part, I guess, is memorable for its ridiculousness. You can't say the same for anything else here - it's all ridiculous, but not memorable.
Seagal has a convalescence at a hot nurse's house where we have the typical training montage which is also pretty funny. Seagal chopping at a tree with some kind of spear is an amusing image. At this point we're already over half way through the movie and we don't know who the bad guy is.
It's one of those movies where you look at how far into it you are and get surprised, thinking, how are they going to squeeze an ending in? I read in the trivia that the movie was edited to a shorter run time, but that doesn't always make it zip along. Sometimes it makes it drag.