I guess with guys like Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme, you're either going to like them or hate them. Personally, I like them both and take their pictures for what they're worth - martial arts action and mayhem. "Hard to Kill" isn't very believable as a story, but the revenge theme is fired up to white hot, and Mason Storm (Seagal) is unstoppable in his quest to burn the bad guys. What I like about his fighting style is that it's generally realistic. It leaves out the fancy kicks and punches and simply goes for demolition with the least amount of energy expended. It goes with the whole 'superior attitude, superior state of mind' thing that exemplifies a character with perfect confidence in himself. I could try to be cute here and say you can take that to the bank, but with Seagal, you at least have an idea you'll get your money's worth.

There is some good stuff here. But we do need more Seagal action. The best thing is maybe the super hot Kelly LeBrock as a nurse. Can we get a sponge bath? Steven does some Eastern Medicine stuff, does some fighting, and you know.... Seagal needs to expand his acting skills. Or else they need to cover the bad acting with a funny sidekick or a lot of big action. At least they got LeBrock as a distraction.Mason Storm (Steven Seagal) films Senator Vernon Trent (William Sadler) in a compromising dockside conversation to corrupt cops. Then they come after him. His wife was killed, and they think they killed him, too. Unknown to them, he was only in a Coma. Seven years later, he comes out of the coma, and the senator comes after him again. Nurse Andy Stewart (Kelly LeBrock) is caught in the gunfight, and she helps Mason escape the hospital. This time, Mason need to take down the senator once and for all.

A lot of people will tell you, in their early days of being a S.S fan, Hard To Kill is a favorite. I too share that vote. A twenty one week runner in America, this hard solid action flick, that has it's own style is another example of the films our man of braun did that were good, where as now it's all fodder. The film is backed up by a decent enough story involving corrupt creepy cops, politicians, and a roll of tape that could put the mayor away for a long time. So the solution is easy, shoot down Seagal and family, and retrieve the tape, but also plant drugs on the deceased super cop, tainting his reputation as Mr clean cop. Only as the title refers, they didn't count on Seagal surviving, a heart as strong as an ox while having a soft one too, yet his will is stronger, determined to bring the baddies down and make them suffer. When learning Seagal is still alive, the baddies are right back on the hunt which makes for a thrilling ten minute scene, if preposterous in part, that has Seagal, hours shy of coming out of his seven year coma, getting away, aided by a sexy nurse (Le Brock) with a crush. HTK is a dynamite action showpiece, that is good quality, despite a lot of opposed views. It delivers on action, some hot women, and revenge too, but also it has a surprise revelation towards it's end. One line I loved as one of the baddies has his fingers snapped back, was Seagal saying mercilessly with absolute hatred "F you and die". The is one flick you're gonna love, when seeing those dirty looking cops become justly disposed of, at the hands of one honest cop's avengement. One hard hitting action adventure, you're gonna love, actual gore runs very low, save for one scene involving the slaying of Seagal's wife.

Looking back on Hard to Kill - a film if released nowadays it would surely be lying in the straight-to-DVD bargain bin at Tesco - it is actually quite sad to see the once tall and lean Steven Seagal showing off his bone-breaking Aikido skills, given the flabby has-been that now graces the covers of movies such as Belly of the Beast (2003) and Maximum Conviction (2012). These movies tend to appear in the supermarket every other week and then seemingly disappear into obscurity, but the flappy-handed, pony-tailed beast that runs like a girl was once able to draw a cinema crowd. Yet watching Hard to Kill, one of his most popular titles from his early 90's heyday, it certainly poses the question of how?Go it alone cop Mason Storm (Seagal) records a meeting between a gang of mobsters and Vernon Trant (William Sadler), and flees when they spot him. He divulges this information to one of his policemen friends, unaware that a couple of crooked cops are listening into the conversation. Arriving home to his wife and kids, he is greeted by a group of masked gunmen who kill his wife, and shoot Mason to within an inch of his life, while his young son escapes. Falling into a coma, Mason's death is faked by his best friend Lt. O'Malley (Frederick Coffin) to keep him out of reach of the mobsters. Seven years later, he awakens to a police force now overcome with corruption, and Trant now Senator. Along with nurse Stewart (Kelly LeBrock), who has been looking after him during his coma, Mason escapes the hospital to recuperate his strength and exact revenge on the people who murdered his family.The action movies of the early to mid-90's were generally quite dull affairs, with television-quality attitudes to film-making, and the sound of machine-gun fire seen as an easy substitute to anything resembling genuine tension, and Hard to Kill is no exception. Apart from the delight taken in seeing Seagal being shot to s**t, very little happens for a good fifty minutes. The silly and quite diabolically unrealistic plot is nowhere near engrossing enough to justify this, and Seagal's quite repulsive protagonist failing to provide a lead to care about. There is, however, one of the best one-liners in action history, when Mason overhears a television commercial for Senator Trant in which he uses the line "and you can take that to the bank!", Mason replies "I'm gonna take you to the bank. The blood bank!". Genius.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com