- Title: Hard to Kill
- IMDb: link
Today’s Throwback Tuesday post takes us back to 1990 and the ouvere of action star Steven Seagal. For me, Hard to Kill fits firmly into the category of a guilty pleasure. Objectively it’s hard to argue that Hard to Kill is anywhere near a great movie, but damn if I haven’t had a great time with every viewing.
Easily my favorite of Seagal’s career, the actor stars as cop whose family is attacked in their home after he stumbles onto a conspiracy involving a politician and local mob boss. After being in a coma for seven years, with his reputation shredded and wife dead, Mason Storm returns to the land of the living to clear his name and seek vengeance for his family.
Helping him out in his quest are the nurse who tended to him in the hospital (Kelly LeBrock) and a former police detective (Frederick Coffin) who has kept him hidden as an anonymous patient all these years. After lots of shooting and Storm showing off his martial arts skills, the film culminates in Storm taking out the gangsters who murdered his wife, including psychologically toying with the weaker members, before coming face-to-face with the man (William Sadler) who ordered the hit on his family.
Seagal made quite of few of these simple action flicks, and one could certainly argue that Under Siege is more complete film, but Hard to Kill manages to balance the humor, action, and Seagal-style martial arts for the perfect blend of B-movie fun. The final act also includes some terrific movie quotes and some great deadpan humor that Seagal wasn’t always able to pull off. In the third, and final, of her notable big film roles (following up The Woman in Red and Weird Science), LeBrock is put to good use here, including a fun (if laughably bizarre) attempt at seduction towards the former coma patient who turns her life upside down.
The film has been released on both DVD and Blu-ray over the years but no version has been given much in the way of special features.
Love this!