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Blackmail, Murder & Mayhem

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The Specialist

The Specialist

List Price: $12.97
Your Price: $11.67
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Action Packed Movie!
Review: This was an entertaining movie from the get go.Ray Quick played
by Sylvester Stallone ends the career of James Woods.Years later
Ray Quick is hired by May Munro(Played by Sharon Stone)to kill
the villain played by James Woods.Woods is now in the employ of drug lord Joe Leon(played by Rod Steiger).Naturaaly there is bad
blood between Stallone and Woods.The character played by James Woods is a true bad guy.The movie is spent with Woods and Stallone trying to kill each other.here are plenty of explosions
and a lot of action.Eric Roberts also plays the role of Tomas,son
of Joe Leon.A good action packed movie that you will enjoy.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Not as bad as some other big movies!!!!!!!
Review: Although this film has been trashed by the media, it is not as bad as some will say, it does have some interesting characters, In this Stallone is a former CIA explosives expert who is hired by Stone to secretly kill off the mobsters who killed her parents when she was a child, James Woods is at his usual best here as Stallone's former CIA partner who is in cahoots with these mobsters, you can tell Woods had fun here in this role, Eric Roberts is chilling here as one of the mobsters who Stone is wanting killed, this movie gives much depth to its stars, Stallone, Stone, & Woods are NOT one-dimentional as some would say, we feel Stone's anger & sorrow for her parents, & we understand Stallone's calm & collective demeanor as he follows Stone in an effort to understand her intensions as any former CIA agent might do, & we understand Woods' intent, although not action-packed to the extreme, it was never meant to be,but does have big explosions, the hotel room explosion has to be seen to be believed, set in Miami, the scenery is nice to look at, as is Stone who doesn't look as good now, but this film is good if you want character substance, but if you are looking for non-stop action, you will be disappointed!!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Hardly Stallone's worst, but it's not worth mentioning.
Review: Arguably Sylvester Stallone's last box office hit (unless you count Cop Land), The Specialist is not the typical Stallone testosterone fest. In fact, it remains a fairly atmospheric thriller revolving around obsession and revenge. But it's not as interesting as it may sound, thanks to the generally lackluster script and mostly unlikeable characters.

Stallone plays Ray Quick, an ex-bomb specialist who works for hire. After the movie's requisite prologue, he's in Miami working for May Munro (Sharon Stone), who wants him to kill three mobsters, especially the head mobster's son, Tomas (Eric Roberts), because they murdered her parents when she was a little girl. Quick contacts her only by phone, they are to never meet, but he's admittedly intrigued by her and vice versa. However, she's actually working for Ned Trent (James Woods), Quick's former colleague who's out for revenge.

Action fans expecting bombastic and over-the-top action sequences should steer clear, this movie will be too sluggish for them. The Specialist has no desire to function as a typical Stallone actioner. There are no large-scale gun battles, fisticuffs, or car chases. In fact, I gather Stallone received the role purely on the basis of his box office clout (and perhaps also his ability to brood and act generally depressed fairly well).

So what is The Specialist, then? Is it a thriller? Yeah, sort of, there are a few suspenseful moments, mostly pertaining to Stallone using his bombs to knock off the mobsters. Surprisingly enough, the twist of having the hero kill the bad guys with explosives (Speed and Blown away came out the same year) works well enough, mostly because the villains' impending doom bears a certain inevitability that plays to the movie's advantage.

But there's little else about the movie worth recommending. The story doesn't make much sense; as soon as it's revealed Roberts' murdered Stone's parents when she was a child, I scratched my head in confusion. He couldn't possibly be more than a year or two older than Stone, meaning he committed the murders when he was about, what, ten or eleven? More likely, it appears the filmmakers are trying to pass off Stone as a twenty-year old bombshell. Sure, Stone looks great (and I do mean great) in this film, but she can't even pass for thirty.

The romance is unsurprisingly perfunctory and generic. As soon as the hero and heroine meet, they almost immediately tear their clothes off and go at it. This is neither romantic nor sexy, even with the undeniably hot Sharon Stone as part of this tryst. I've always kind of liked Stallone, subpar an actor as he may be. He's always had a fairly commandable screen presence, though he has yet to translate that to genuine charisma (which is what puts him considerably behind that other big lug, Arnold Scwarzenegger).

Neither suspenseful nor exciting enough to recommend, The Specialist is of little interest to anyone except for Stallone and Stone fans (and maybe James Wood fans, who will either delight or wince at his maniacally over-the-top performance). I'm still waiting for Stallone to revive his career with a big-budget action blockbuster, but I don't see it happening. Hey, I'm one of the few guys out there who actually liked D-Tox, so I wouldn't necessarily say his career has gone down the drain.
* 1/2 out of *****

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: WHAT A TURKEY !
Review: Combined by the wrong reasons (money), the union between Stallone and Stone flopped, was a total failure, one of the worst Sly movies ever. Everything here is misplaced, misdirected, wrong.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not even a nude Sharon Stone could save this movie!
Review: Everything was terrible about the movie. The script was awful and Sly and Sharon are just two of the wrost actors in Hollywood. Sly is only good playing some idiot (except Rocky), and Sharon is only good with her underwear on (except Casino). This movie is simply very bad.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I'll watch Stallone in anything!!!
Review: Except this!?!

Wayyyy too much narcisim for one boy to take!!!

Holey Moley!!! AND it had Sharon Stone AND the brilliant James Woods to boot!!!

Plus Ms Stone... was showing her wares... although if it were a hot summer night in my house... I'd rather you didn't put your thong covered botty on my leather suite - Thank you very much.... Yech.... that's gonna leave a sweat mark!?!

And the water the two of you wasted in that shower scene getting into just the right pose?

Tut, tut!!! Think of the enviroment!!!

HEY: Does body oil solidify and block the drains like chip fat does???

Seriously!!!

All joking aside now:

I was very dissappointed in the 3 of you!!!

Cos you all had farrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr more going for you than this!!!

Stallone where was the humility of Rocky or even Demolition Man?

Sharon what happened to the shy, repressed sexuality of Sliver???

And James...

What was it again that I liked you in Mr Woods??? Been a while...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Glossy, but empty action-fest, buoyed up by one performance
Review: For a film to have so many decent and respected names in it, it still manages to be disappointing. The plot is paper-thin, and as I understand it, Stallone had too much clout in altering the dramatic impact of the movie. I refer to two scenes in particular- the first fight with Woods where Stallone insisted that his character won ( just for a change ) thus diminishing the final come-uppance for the Woods character at the end of the film, and secondly the gratuitous bus scene where Stallone ( just for a change ) single-handedly sorts out some punks on a bus. Apparently the scene was added at Stallone's insistence, just to make him look heroic ( just for a ... well you get the picture ! ) Anyway the film is stolen by James Woods as usual, who probably could have done this film in his sleep! Jimmy is obviously enjoying himself with various little ad-libs ( 'Get a new shirt ! ) and is probably the only one on the set who realised just how daft the whole thing was. Stone looks edible as usual, but her role is little more than eye-candy despite her character supposedly being central to the plot. The true horror of the movie however is Rod Steiger's accent! What the hell has happened to this once great actor? I have seen less ham at the local meat market! His scenes with Woods show a once great actor being acted off the screen by another who needed the money to pay the rent. ' Chew find him!' Chew? The only chewing was Woods chewing up the scenery and walking off with the movie. I first saw the film at the cinema and the audience was bored with a large proportion of it, but every time Jimmy appeared, they all sat up, attentive again, because they knew SOMETHING was going to happen. The film isn't that bad for a Saturday night with a six-pack and a pizza, but as my school reports used to read- ' Could do much better '

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Stallone is a walking bomb
Review: Former government bomb expert will now help one woman in her personal vengeance. A lot of action scenes (check one in the bus), big explosions and great thrill. Stallone is cool as always, Stone looks hot and Roberts is the man (I'll never forget his question:"You like the bitch? Maybe you like me?!)Ambient is very good (especially by night) and you simply want to be in Stallone's skin while he's walking down the streets looking for bad guys. Music score is also masterfully done and inspires the moment. Definetly worth of watching.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of The Best Action Movies....
Review: I recently viewed this movie and thought anyone can make a shoot-em-up, kill everyone kind of film. However, this film contains a good cast, a good plot, and as typical action movies go, a lot of action. I've seen all of Stallone's movies and there are some better ones, but as far as pure action and plot goes this is a keeper.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: THE SPECIALIST IN BAD MOVIES...
Review: I'm only joking, because I know Sly has made great action movies in his fabulous career. Bu in this one he completely dropped the ball, and everyone involved knows that!


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