Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Kaos
Produced by
Written by Alan B. McElroy
Starring
Music by Don Davis
Cinematography Julio Macat
Edited by
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures[1]
Release date
  • September 20, 2002 (2002-09-20)
Running time
 91 minutes[2]
Country
Language English
Budget $70 million[2]
Box office $19.9 million[2]

Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is a 2002 action-thriller film starring Antonio Banderas and Lucy Liu, and directed by Wych Kaosayananda (under the pseudonym of "Kaos"). Liu and Banderas play opposing secret agents who team up to fight a common enemy. It is an international co-production between Canada, Germany, and the United States.

The film has been called one of the worst movies ever made. At the box office, the film made $19.9 million on a $70 million budget. With a total of 116 reviews, the highest for a film with a 0% score, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is the worst reviewed film in the history of Rotten Tomatoes.

Plot

Returning home with his mother Vinn (Talisa Soto) from a trip to Berlin, Michael Gant, the son of Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) director Robert Gant (Gregg Henry), is kidnapped and his security detail is wiped out by the attacker, ex-DIA agent Sever (Lucy Liu). FBI agent Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas) left the agency after his wife Rayne was killed in a car bombing. His old boss, Julio Martin (Miguel Sandoval), asks him to investigate the Gant case. He claims that Rayne is still alive and he will give Ecks the information on her whereabouts, if he helps take down Sever. Ecks agrees and realizes Sever must be an orphan Chinese girl the DIA adopted to train as a covert operative and assassin with "no fear, no conscience and no morality." Meanwhile, Gant executes the only survivor of Michael's security detail. He then orders his elite agents, led by A. J. Ross (Ray Park), to pursue Sever and rescue Michael.

Ecks joins Martin and CSIS agent Harry Lee (Terry Chen) in Vancouver, where Sever is hiding out. Ecks learns that Gant stole an experimental weapon codenamed Softkill, a nanomachine which operates in the human circulatory system and can cause heart attacks at will. Gant had implanted Softkill in Michael in order to smuggle it into the United States. Ross and his men surround Sever in a shopping plaza, but she wipes out Ross's forces in a lengthy gun battle. Sever shoots Martin, and Ecks pursues Sever, climaxing with a fight that's cut off when Ross starts shooting at them with an M60 machine gun, giving Sever a chance to escape.

Ecks is arrested by Vancouver PD under the false pretense that he killed Martin. While being transported to jail, his convoy is attacked by Sever, who frees Ecks. After a lengthy car chase, Sever tells Ecks that she's on his side and gives him his wife's location. Ecks meets Rayne at an aquarium and it's revealed that her "death" was orchestrated by Gant. Rayne ended up believing Ecks had died while he thought she was gone. Rayne then married Gant under the name Vinn. It ends up that Gant had Sever's family killed; it was initially believed that kidnapping Michael was Sever's revenge. However, Rayne reveals that Michael is actually Ecks' son, and Sever's kidnapping was for his protection.

Ecks, Rayne, and Sever go to Sever's underground bunker in an abandoned trainyard, where Rayne is reunited with Michael. Gant and Ross arrive with an army of heavily-armed DIA agents, and a massive battle ensues. Ecks and Sever eventually gain the upper hand, and Sever kills Ross in a fight in the bunker. Gant tries to retrieve the Softkill in Michael's arm, but is surprised to find it's not there. Sever kills Gant using a Softkill-loaded bullet, and escapes as the police arrive. The film concludes with Ecks and Sever looking over the sea and Ecks thanking Sever for reuniting him with his family.

Cast

Reception

Critical response

As of October 2018, it has a 0% score on review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes based on 116 reviews and an average rating of 2.6/10.[3] Out of all the films with a 0% rating or held it for a limited time prior or during the release, Ballistic had the most reviews of all as of 2018.[4] The website's critical consensus states: "A startlingly inept film, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever offers overblown, wall-to-wall action without a hint of wit, coherence, style, or originality".[5] In March 2007, Rotten Tomatoes ranked the film #1 on its "The Worst of the Worst" movie list:[6][7][8] "the worst-reviewed movie in our site's history".[9] The film also has a score of 19 out of 100 on Metacritic based on reviews from 26 critics, indicating "overwhelming dislike".[10]

Roger Ebert gave the film half a star out of four and later listed it on his most hated movies list and said of the film: "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever is an ungainly mess, submerged in mayhem, occasionally surfacing for cliches, overloaded with special effects and explosions, light on continuity, sanity and coherence. There is nothing wrong with the title Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever that renaming it 'Ballistic' would not have solved. Strange that they would choose such an ungainly title when, in fact, the movie is not about Ecks versus Sever but about Ecks and Sever working together against a common enemy — although Ecks, Sever and the audience take a long time to figure that out."[11]

Box office

In its opening weekend, the film grossed $7 million in 2,705 theaters for an average of $2,591 per theater, ranking #4 at the US box office. The film ultimately earned $14.3 million in the US and $5.6 million internationally for a total of $19.9 million on a $70 million production budget.[2]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack includes these tracks:

  1. "Main Title"
  2. "The Name of the Game"
  3. "Smartbomb" [Plump Dj's Remix]
  4. "Heaven Scent" [Original Mix]
  5. "The Flow"
  6. "I Think of You" [Screamer Remix]
  7. "Hell Above Water"
  8. "Go"
  9. "Bloodlock"
  10. "I Need Love"
  11. "The Aquarium"
  12. "Time"
  13. "Anytime"

Video games

A Game Boy Advance first-person shooter, Ecks vs. Sever, was released in 2001, before the film. It received very positive reviews and received a 9/10 on IGN.[12] The game was considered an impressive technological feat on the GBA and was better regarded than the film itself.[13] A second game created after the premiere, Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, which follows the plot-line from the film, is considered a sequel to the first game.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved 2017-06-19.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2012-09-27.
  3. ↑ Rotten Tomatoes, "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)" Accessed December 13, 2017.
  4. ↑ http://herald-review.com/blogs/decaturade/ptiching-an-im-perfect-game-movies-with-percent-freshness-ratings/article_cbe45e6e-b074-11e3-a049-0019bb2963f4.html
  5. ↑ Rotten Tomatoes, "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (2002)". Accessed December 13, 2017.
  6. ↑ "Rotten Tomatoes Worst of the Worst (2000-2009)". listal.com. 2012-08-21. Retrieved 2016-05-26.
  7. ↑ "Worst of the Worst". Archived from the original on 2008-07-02.
  8. ↑ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ballistic_ecks_vs_sever/
  9. ↑ http://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/moldy-tomatoes-the-10-worst-movies-of-the-last-10-years/
  10. ↑ "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 30 November 2014.
  11. ↑ http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/ballistic-ecks-vs-sever-2002
  12. ↑ Harris, Craig (30 November 2001). "Ecks vs. Sever". IGN. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  13. ↑ Metacritic Review Database for the Ecks vs. Sever GBA game
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