-SPOILERS-

By the end of the 80's, action films had started to show a lot of promise as a genre. Then in the 90's things unraveled quickly, first with the advent of comedy action films that placed the comedy in front of the action (TRUE LIES) and then with the advent of CGI and loss of real stunts and real fight scenes (along with NATURAL BORN KILLERS bringing us snappy cutting and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN introducing shaky cam). Today's best efforts like THE EXPENDABLES suffer from all these things and feel cheap and soulless compared to a good 80's or early 90's action offering.

What makes MARKED FOR DEATH stand out is the eerie tone. There's some tension as Seagal's character doesn't seem so flawless as he does in other films. He begins the film failing on a drug raid and subsequently shaming out in front of a priest, then his chief, quitting his job, and entering the narrative of this film a broken man. It's later after convincing by KEITH DAVID (in a neat twist on his character from THEY LIVE in which David tried to resist getting into action-mode) and the wonderfully cartoonish Jamaican street gang (it's a joy just to decipher their metaphorical jargon) that gives him a new reason to live. First it's just a desire to clean up the town but then things get PERSONAL when "they hurt my baby!". The VERY next scene after the hospital prognosis is Seagal knocking down a sleazy lawyer's door and kicking ass. The movie rarely lets up from there. Glass shatters, cars ram each other, drive down sidewalks, gunplay erupts in public areas, and bodies fall from high places. Afterward it is kick-ass action or macho posturing non-stop and we actually want to see our villain(s) get killed as badly (and as many times!) as possible. Also remember - this is the only film in which Seagal seems vulnerable, gets tied up at one point, and takes a few hits from the antagonist.

This film boasts numerous show-stopping action sequences of note - particularly the jewelry store smash-up, the assault on screwface's Jamaican mansion (the part where he beats up 3 henchmen at once in Screwface's sacrificial chamber may be a career high point for him), and the floor-by-floor battle at the end. Both THE PUNISHER and DEAD HEAT had this - the movie ending solidly with the hero working his way up a building to confront and kill the baddie. It's a simple formula, but with a few surprises, some tension, and solid direction, it can really work! Screwface's nightclub literally becomes a haunted house, with henchmen jumping out of the woodwork here and there, culminating in the best corpse-kill in history! Seagal beats Screwface up, slices him up with a sword, gouges out his eyes, breaks his back in half, and then throws the (amazingly still living) antagonist down an elevator shaft... and ONTO a piece of rebar sticking out of the floor. Ouch! As though merely getting thrown down the elevator shaft wouldn't be more than enough to kill most of us mortal humans. With someone with 9 lives like Screwface, you have to be sure.

"I WANT... HATCHAH DEAAAAAA...... AAAAAAUUUGHHH!!"

What a ride. I'm sad that movies like this are long a thing of the past.

Discuss.