John Woo, whose film resume consists of classic action films
such as "Face/Off" and "Hard Boiled," steps into the world of
television in this action-packed, yet awfully dull thriller. Big
Swede Dolph Lundgren stars as Jack Devlin, a bodyguard with a
penchant for arming himself with so many handguns in his body,
it would make Charlten Heston blush! Devlin is hired to guard a
hot fashion model named Cinder (the fine Kam Heskin) from a
vicious serial killer on a huge ego-trip.
"Blackjack" has many fine looking stunts, with cool gunfights
and pyrotechniques that trademark John Woo's style of film. Yet,
this movie isn't as violent as his previous films, because
obviously it was shown on the USA network. In other words, a
cable channel can't go for excessive gun-induced violence.
Also, the editing in this film was lousy and trite as well.
There was a scene where Devlin shoots a guy several times,
supposedly killing the assassin. But later, the same man comes
up unharmed, ready to try to waste our hero twice! Huh??! What,
is that one hitman immune to bullets?
The acting in this film is at least more decent than the
production values. Hey, Lundgren still needs to work on his
lines, but compared to his past movies, at least the script is
much smarter. Maybe it's just the actor who needs improvement.
Overall, "Blackjack" is a good movie, but it ain't great folks.
Go blame that on the fact that it is a