El Especialista

Hey, I enjoy a good revenge movie as well as the next guy, even though I know forgiveness is the better way. Revenge films satisfy base urges in all of us. But, holy smokes, this crosses the line a little bit with the glorification of such....at least with the ending (which I won't give away but involves Sharon Stone's character).

Along the way is a fun ride as the revenge-obsessed Stone hires Sylvester Stallon (The Specialist, a term for his bomb-making talents) to kill all the people responsible for her parents' murder years earlier.

The villains are over-the-top, to say the least. One almost has to laugh out loud at one of them: James Woods. Few people in his era (70s and 80s mainly) were better at playing despicable villains than Woods, and in this film he plays that role to the hilt. He also rattles off the best line in the movie when he tells some tourist to "get a new shirt, too."

The other villains are played by Eric Roberts and Rod Steiger. Roberts is nasty and arrogant all the way and Steiger - as he has so often since the 1970s - appears cartoonish in his over-acting.

The film moves quickly which means it's very entertaining and some of the bombing scenes are quite memorable, such as a chunk of a condo building falling into the ocean.

Even though the villains are really nasty, there are no "good guys" here, either. Everyone is seriously flawed, as is the message of the film. I guess this is one of those "guilty pleasure" movies they talk about, because I still enjoy watching it every five or so years.

Well, let's see. Just off the top of my head, here are some of the features of this turkey. Sly Stallone mumbles so badly that only about 5% of his dialogue is intelligible (though this is probably a plus, given the quality of the writing).Sharon Stone is nice to look at but her acting starts off bad and gets worse in a hurry. Her character is so unlikeable I cheered up when Woods slapped her around. Rod Steiger's accent, which I believe is supposed to be Cuban because he pronounces "you" as "chew" a la Scarface, comes and goes. James Woods plays a parody of himself (this was actually the most entertaining thing about the movie). They show Sly working out, and all he does are ballet-like stretches to show off his bod, and it was not a pretty sight. He is so over-pumped that there are alarmingly bulging veins on every inch of his body visible. Stone and Stallone (has a nice ring to it, huh?) have no chemistry--during their big sex scene, they look extremely bored instead of aroused, as if they are about to doze off but the only thing keeping them awake is to make sure their buff bodies are displayed carefully so they look their best on camera. Continuity is terrible-Sly's character adopts a fluffy grey kitty, which I guess is supposed to make him sensitive (I was just worried he'd crush it accidentally) but in a scene towards the end, the cat is dark brown. I give a grudging point towards the kitty not being killed by the Columbians or Woods--the one thing that I didn't see coming, because every time Sly came home looking for his cat I expected him to find it nailed to the wall or something equally hideous. Woods does have a great scene (a couple, really) where he does a little trick with a pen and some plastique to frighten his office staff. I also laughed at the way he'd constantly be yelling "Shut up!" to characters who hadn't even said anything yet.The movie is, I have to admit, one of those that is so bad, it would qualify as one of those 'love to hate it' movies that you sit around with your friends with to watch and make fun of. Worth renting if 1. you are a Woods fan and find him entertaining in any movie no matter how terrible it is or 2. you have a free rental coming at the video store (or both of the above, like me). If you can't stand all three of the principal stars, skip it by all means.

People have been saying this is a terrible movie and it does have a few flaws in it, but its a fun, exciting action film with plenty of action for fans and good performances from the cast, especially James Woods, who is a terrific villain. I think it's worth a look and is Sly's best movie in a long time.

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to 1994's The Specialist.

Plot In A Paragraph: Sylvester Stallone is Ray Quick, a freelance bomb expert who lives off the grid. (Don't worry he is a good guy underneath, it is Stallone after all, he won't kill innocent people, takes in stray cats and gives up his seat to pregnant women on buses) May Munro (Sharon Stone) contacts him and wants him to kill the three men who killed her family years ago, who work for the Leon crime family, headed by Joe (Rod Steiger) and his son Tomas (a fun Eric Roberts) Their head of security Ned (A brilliant scene stealing turn by James Woods) Just happens to be Ray's former partner.

Ray Quick has to be the blandest and dullest character had played at this point. I'm not sure if he was bored in the role, but he sleep walks his way through the movie. Like with 'Cobra' we get shots of Sly looking mean and moody behind his shades, or intense and moody as he works on a bomb. Lots of posing as he listens to Stones voice over and over as he stalks her. Lots of posing not much actual acting.

Sharon Stone does, what Sharon Stone did at that point of her career, look good and take her clothes off. Eric Roberts (how did this man not have a bigger career?? I'd much rather watch him on screen than his sister) is a lot of fun, and actually under used. Steiger is surprisingly under whelming, which is a shame. But it's James Woods who this movie belongs too!! He is simply fantastic, and the movie is s lot poorer when he is not on screen.

So once again, for the second movie in a row, Stallone is completely overshadowed by his costar. Like Wesley Snipes in 'Demolition Man', James Woods not only steals every scene he is in, he walks away with the full movie!! You could argue three with John Lithgow in Cliffhanger

As with Nighthawks and Demolition Man, Stallone had scenes cut featuring the villain (This time Woods) and more shot with himself (the scene with the thugs on the bus, and the one where Roberts threatens Sly with a knife) at the last minute. It made no difference, Woods still stole the movie.

Despite a relatively short running time, it actually feels a lot longer than it is.

An interesting note on this is David Fincher was set to direct this at one stage. Stallone liked Fincher, and wanted him, but he was overruled by the producers, because of the failure of Alien 3. Instead they went with Luis Llosa, who had directed the straight to video 'Fire On The Amazon' with a Sandra Bullock and Sniper with Tom Berenger in 1993. Whilst Llosa's career went nowhere (he only directed 2 more movies after this) whilst Fincher made the mega hit Se7en a year later.

This movie makes very little sense, with it's brainless script. The revenge plot has been seen a thousand times and then some. The big difference is instead of guns to bring down the bad guys, here we have cartoon like explosions. If it weren't for James Woods, Eric Roberts, and Rod Steiger, "The Specialist" would be complete refuse. Woods especially, carries the film, as the smarmy evil enemy of Stallone. Speaking of Stallone, both he and Sharon Stone have a believability factor deficiency of monumental proportions. In fact the entire movie has a believability factor of less than zero. I've seen cartoons that made me think more than this does. Push button, blow it up, push button, blow it up. That's all there is to this "bomb". - MERK