Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

No matter what your opinion of Steven Seagal's acting abilities or the kinds of material he's ground out, you have to admit he has certain advantages over the rest of us that go beyond martial skills. For instance, in this story of revenge against a corrupt politician and his dozens of goons, Seagal is shot at the beginning and spends seven years in a coma, wrapped up in hospital sheets, sustained by various tubes and mysterious devices that beep and blink on and off.Yet, consider that he suddenly wakes up after seven years in a hospital bed and still sports the rufous bronze of his earlier physical incarnation. And one would think Seagal would be overdrawn at the memory bank but instead he remembers EVERYTHING that put him there. None of this "Where am I?" crap.I asked myself, "Self, how is it possible for a man to remain brain damaged and comatose and still recover his memory and his motor skills in no time at all?" But all I got back was a lot of gibberish about Wallerian degeneration and nodes of Ranvier and extra-pyramidal this and that, so I gave up trying to make sense of it.Is it really necessary to spell out more of the plot? Seagal wakes up remembering where he's hidden some evidence that will convict a current senator of fraud, extortion, autosexuality, mopery in the first degree, and wearing white after Labor Day.The rest of the film takes us through Seagal's attempt to recover the evidence and the senator's thugs trying to prevent him from recovering the evidence. To observe that, along the way, there is some violence is like saying that a skin flick contains some pornography. Not to worry, though. Yes, a good friend dies and his wife is shot to pieces but nobody touches Seagal. Seagal, unarmed, is involved with three knife fights on independent occasions. Well, two knife fights really, because the last one involves a Chinese chef's knife that looks more like a meat cleaver. Of the dozens of dead and maimed bodies that Seagal's passage through the film generates, exactly 34.2 percent are thrown through glass windows. I counted.The villainous senator's campaign slogan is, "You can take that to the bank." At one point, Seagal mutters to himself, "I'm going to take YOU to the bank, senator -- the BLOOD BANK." Yet, for all the wisecracks amid the mayhem, it's a thought-provoking story. The thought it provokes is: "Dear God, don't ever let Steven Seagal get mad at me."

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

Oh yes, of course this movie is ridicules and in a way also a bad one. But it's simply true that movies such like this one are simply fun to watch.The movie simply serves its purpose, you could say. It's just being a dumb action flick, in the vein of the '80's genre movies, that uses a simple and straightforward concept and features plenty of action in it.The fact that this movie so often picks a simple and straightforward approach also ensures that it's being filled with some incredibly dumb moments. But it really is not annoyingly dumb but more dumb and simplistic in a fun and innocent kind of way. This is certainly a movie you could sit down for and simply have a good time with, without having to worry too much about the story or all of the different character's motivations.It's a revenge flick. as plain and simple as that. Not a spectacular and original one in any way but then again, it also most certainly is not as bad as some other generic and predictable genre movies out there. At least this movie still has plenty to offer, entertainment-wise.It has some pretty hard action in at times, which is always neat to see for an action genre lover. It's not like there's an awful lot of blood in this but a lot of gruesome stuff gets implied, which does work out effective for this particular movie. It's not something I normally like in an action movie. I mean, don't just imply! You should either show and do stuff or you shouldn't do it at all. But yes, it still does work out well for this movie, since it all got done in a convincing way, with the occasional gruesome sound-effect of a limb that gets broken. All of course done by non other than Steven Seagal himself!Luckily this is not really a movie or type of role that requires Steven Seagal to do an awful lot of acting in it. He mostly relies on just his natural charisma and fighting skills for this movie and there is nothing wrong with that, as long as the movie benefits from all of this, as it does in this case. I'm most definitely not a Seagal fan but I really did like him in this particular movie and it's definitely true that without him this probably would had been one awful genre flick!Of course there is nothing too brilliant or original about this movie but it most certainly is a decent watch!6/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

'Hard to Kill' is Predictable, Yet Fun. Eternal Bad-Ass Steven Seagal, like always, delivers a spirited & energetic performance. 'Hard to Kill' Synopsis: Detective Mason Storm, who falls into a coma after being shot during a fire-fight that killed his wife Felicia and son Sonny, reawakens seven years later to find his son alive and seeks vengeance with the coma-ward nurse and his old partner.'Hard to Kill' never tries to be path-breaking, and that is its biggest plus point. It remains true to its premise & offers entertainment. Steven McKay's Screenplay is engaging. Bruce Malmuth's Direction is passable. Cinematography & Editing, are functional. Action-Sequences are excellent.Performance-Wise: Seagal is an Eternal Bad-Ass, and in here, like always, he delivers a spirited & energetic performance. Kelly LeBrock looks amazing & does a credible job. Frederick Coffin is adequate. William Sadler is perfect. Branscombe Richmond lends support.On the whole, 'Hard to Kill' is a winner.