Marked for Death (1990) 20th Century Fox/Action RT: 93 minutes Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity, drugs) Director: Dwight H. Little Screenplay: Michael Grais and Mark Victor Music: James Newton Howard Cinematography: Ric Waite Release date: October 5, 1990 (US) Cast: Steven Seagal, Basil Wallace, Keith David, Tom Wright, Joanna Pacula, Elizabeth Gracen, Bette Ford, Danielle Harris, Al Israel, Arlen Dean Snyder, Victor Romero Evans, Michael Ralph, Jeffrey Anderson-Gunter, Tony DiBenedetto, Kevin Dunn, Peter Jason, Danny Trejo, Earl Boen, Jimmy Cliff. Box Office: $46M (US)
Rating: ***
Although it’s an improvement over his previous film Hard to Kill, Marked for Death is basically business as usual for Steven Seagal. This time, the pony-tailed one takes on a Jamaican drug gang that’s been spreading crack and violence throughout a quiet suburban neighborhood. It’s the same basic plot template as countless other actioners.
Seagal’s character, DEA agent John Hatcher, retires from the agency after a south of the border operation goes south and his partner is killed. He returns to his old hometown of Lincoln Heights, IL to spend time with his family. Things definitely aren’t the way he remembers them. A Jamaican gang, led by vicious Screwface (Wallace, Rapid Fire), has taken over the local drug trade from the Colombians. Hatcher’s old friend, high school football coach Max (Keith, The Thing), is disgusted and wants to do something about it. Hatcher doesn’t want to get involved. That changes when a gunfight erupts between the two gangs at a local bar. He intervenes and apprehends one of the Jamaicans. In return, he and his family are “marked for death” by Screwface. When his preteen niece (Harris, The Last Boy Scout) is critically injured in a drive-by, Hatcher hits the streets in search of revenge.
In general, Marked for Death is a serviceable albeit standard action movie. Seagal, who turns in his usual wooden performance, does what he does best and does it a lot. He beats up a lot of bad people. There’s plenty of gun and sword violence too. The bad guys are sufficiently detestable, especially Screwface, a voodoo practitioner said to have magic powers of the evil kind. He’s the only real stand-out in an otherwise routine genre exercise. It doesn’t even distinguish itself when Hatcher and Max continue their pursuit of Screwface in Kingston. The female lead Joanna Pacula (Gorky Park), playing an expert on all things Jamaican (voodoo, symbols, gangs, etc.), gets limited screen time, only showing up when the plot requires something be explained in order to move forward.
Wallace hams it up as Screwface who, at one point, is described as having “two heads and four eyes”. It’s the secret to his powers. Gee, I wonder what it could possibly mean. I just wish I could understand more of what he’s saying. It’s hard to make out with the heavy Jamaican accent Wallace employs. Aside from that, he’s one scary dude. He scares the hell out of everybody that crosses his path. Everybody except Hatcher, that is. At least not that I can tell. There’s not a lot of emotional range to him. This is Steven Seagal we’re talking about here.
Obviously, nobody buys a ticket for a movie like Marked for Death expecting Oscar-level acting, intelligent writing or brilliant direction. It’s as simple-minded as they come. They come for the action and on that level, it delivers a solid KO punch. Director Dwight H. Little (Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers) keeps it moving at a nice clip. Once again, Seagal gets to show off his superior martial arts skills by beating up dozens of bad guys. There’s a cool scene where he takes on gang members in a fancy department store with a lot of glass display cases. He needs something to put their heads through, doesn’t he? Besides, it goes nicely with the action star’s specialty, breaking arms and other bones. This guy is a bad ass on the level of 80s actions stars like Schwarzenegger, Stallone and Norris. Seagal carries on the grand tradition of these genre pioneers. He punches, pummels, kicks, shoots, stabs, slices and bludgeons his way through an army of slimeballs in his quest for revenge. There’s a certain amount of satisfaction to be had from witnessing such a spectacle. I enjoyed it as a bloodthirsty teen and still as a bloodthirsty adult. Marked for Death isn’t exactly Shakespeare, but it’ll satisfy the cravings of the most ardent action junkies.
