Marked for Death (1990)

Excellent but underrated film

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Marked For Death is an excellent Martial Arts Thriller starring Steven Seagal, Basil Wallace, Keith David and Tom Wright. This film has lots of Powerful fights, Shoot Outs, Deaths etc. It is a film which is about retired cop John Hatcher (played by Seagal) who has just retired from the Drug Enforcement Agency and returns to his hometown and quickly discovers that drugs have infiltrated his old neighbourhood and that Killings and deaths are happening done by a notorious, ruthless and violent Jamaican Gang led by the malicious Jamaican druglord Screwface(played by Basil Wallace). Determined to drive the drug dealers out, Hatcher has to kill Screwface and the notorious, ruthless and violent Jamaican Gang known to Screwface. Hatcher meets up with old friend and military partner Max(played by Keith David) to kill Screwface and the Jamaican Gang with help from Charles(played by Tom Wright) who later on in the film gets killed by one of the ruthless Jamaicans. Marked For Deaths acting by Steven Seagal, Basil Wallace, Keith David and Tom Wright is excellent. This film also has some Awesome fights by Seagal against the Jamaicans and it again is an excellent Steven Seagal film. Marked For Death is an excellent and tense Martial Arts Thriller with brutal violence and awesome action and again Seagal also looks very handsome in this film.

Don't you just love watching insane people in movies? Take Screwface for example; he's so over the top and out of control that you don't know what he'll do next. Even made his posse shudder.This is one of the few Seagal flicks that got by me back in his heyday. Probably because between him and Van Damme, the pictures have such similar titles I probably thought I'd already seen it. No matter. This film delivers pretty much like all the rest if you go for this stuff.But there's always been something that bothered me about action films in which the bad guys never follow through. This picture had two instances where Hatcher (Seagal) was on the ropes - in the car wreck and at the warehouse in Jamaica. Both times Hatch would have been a goner if the bad guys just finished him off right then and there. Especially the second time when it was Screwface (Basil Wallace) holding all the cards. Not that I'm rooting for the bad guys, but in real life, wouldn't you want to just get things over with? Instead, Screwface must have thought about revenge just a bit too long and then just lost his head.

Marked for death , is corny , i don't care i hate this film it is a story about Jamaican drug fdealers ,, oouuggg horrible the accent and dialouge goes into a childish form , kids will love this garbage but as an action film it is a cartoon , the violence is tame and horrible because the film has no realistic fights the revenge action scenes ares simple , ohhhhh , shoot em up , no death that is good. Steven is a bad actor and in this mutters a stupid plot and just puts you off , i mean the actors and characters are in some kind of wannabe good film but is only for you cheesy corny film lovers . Avoid anyone who is good.Overrated 15 certificate for moderate violence and language.

We all know that it is B grade B movie. The "afternoon" or "rainy night" kind of time filler. So I won't get harsh, though with the presence of Steven Seagal it's impossible not to ! After Seagal's first movie (Above the Law – 1988), some critic said about the new rising star "He's a fine mix of John Wayne, Bruce Lee and Clint Eastwood". How deceived that miserable critic was ! In fact Seagal is nothing but another Charles Bronson yet with marital arts experience. Observe well Seagal's so-called acting to discover easily that he must have watched Bronson's Death Wish movies for countless times !The conflict this round is some tough cop fighting some voodoo drug dealers. The friction of the two's worlds was done absurdly. That cop's violence is too much; he walks like a deadly epidemic that leaves no wounded guys, only corpses. The attack at the gang's headquarters reminded me of (Commando), 5 years earlier. However the real reason of bothering was Seagal himself. It's not about the eternal truth that he doesn't smile, or doesn't know the way to. It's about another thing. They gave him a little dialog, which is a good idea, till you know that it was filled with many one-liners. OK, how they got the nerve ?! That guy is the worst of the worst at delivering any one-liner ! Watch him saying "They were both wrong" or "I hope they weren't triplets"; if Tom from Tom and Jerry said these lines, he would be less awful and more cool than Mr. Steven-The Whispering Zombie-Seagal !The action is average, but it works. In movies of that kind don't ask much, just watch the fights. In general I liked 2 things, one of them is Seagal's black car; it was a stunner for every guy back in the 1990s start. And the second is of course the surprise of the evil guy as alive; that trick of having a twin brother was excellent (that fake decapitated head was so real it's freaky too !). Other than that...Seagal's grins could have killed me !P.S : I read that Seagal didn't want to make this movie, hating it openly from day one till now, so how come he produced it ?!