Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

The first five minutes of this film give the impression that, unlike many other Sylvester Stallone action movies, it might have a bit more depth and a bit of an interesting plot. Talk about false advertising.For a basic plot summary, "The Specialist" focuses on the theme of revenge. When a woman (Sharon Stone) whose parents were killed by a mob broker (Eric Roberts) wants revenge, she draws out a former CIA bomb squad specialist (Stallone) to do the deed. Trying to disarm the conflict (but also holding a personal agenda) is the head of the local police department (James Woods).To put it bluntly, this is a terrible movie in so many different ways:-The plot never finds an identity, trying to switch from thriller to cop drama to mob flick and never succeeding at any of them.-The acting is absolutely terrible. Stallone's character has no depth, James Woods is, well, James Woods, and Eric Roberts is annoying to the point of just wanting to flick the whole TV set off.-Also, we get it that Sharon Stone is hot. But, does that really need to almost completely dominate the second half of the film?Overall, I was originally intrigued by this movie's concept in the early goings, but by about the 30 minute mark is had completely unraveled and never gets wound up again. If you like this fare, watch Assassins or Tango & Cash instead. Those aren't great movies either, but at least they do some things right, which is more than can be said about "The Specialist".

The Specialist is everything that action was about in the 90's, and simply one of the most exhilarating Stallone flicks out there. This is the type of early career stuff he tried to infuse into his meta action extravaganza The Expendables, and while fun, those films always seemed like a mimicry of original gold like this, trying a little too hard to recreate feelings from a bygone era. This one is right up there with Nighthawks and Rambo as one of his best, despite a lukewarm reputation that has long since settled. You can't even find a decent DVD of it, which is kind of sad. Sly plays Ray Quick, an ex explosives special ops tough guy who turned in his talents after a falling out with former livewire partner Ned Trent (a rabid James Woods) resulted in needless bloodshed. He spends his days moping around Miami until his services are once more required, by a woman in trouble. Sharon Stone is mysterious May Munro, whose entire family were slaughtered when she was but a young'n hiding in the closet. The mustache twirlers responsible are Cuban mafia don Joe Leon (Rod Steiger juggles his accent like three filing cabinets) and his brash, violent son Tomas (Eric Roberts, never scummier). They have anticipated Ray's involvement though, and as soon as bombs start decimating their lovely beachfront nightclubs, they hire none other than (guess who) James Woods, now a berserker of a freelance mercenery, to hunt our hero down. It's big, bold and full of explosions, machismo, gunfights and old school bad boys doing what they do best. Woods nearly walks off with the whole film in a performance so robust it almost outshines the pyrotechnics themselves. Stallone dispatches hordes of baddies using both fists and fancy C-4 gadgetry, bringing home the action bacon enough to sate the fans. Using the sweaty, neon spattered locales of Miami as a playground for these heightened characters to leer at one another and blow everything to smithereens, the filmmakers have forged what I consider to be one of the best in the genre for the decade.

In 1984 Bogotá, Columbia, CIA operatives Ray Quick (Sylvester Stallone) and Ned Trent (James Woods) plan to blow up a bridge to take out a drug lord. Ray notices a girl in the car at the last minute but Ned blows up the car anyways. Ray leaves in anger. Today, Ray is in Miami as a contract hit-man who uses specialized explosives to minimize innocent losses using a messaging board to find clients. May Munro (Sharon Stone) wants to kill three men who murdered her family when she was a child. May infiltrates the mob by dating the drug-lord Joe Leon (Rod Steiger)'s son Tomas (Eric Roberts). Ned Trent is now a security expert working for Joe Leon and made a consultant to the police.This is so over-the-top and overwrought. It almost works as a comedy. Woods is working so hard to be a cartoon character. Sly is deliberately intense and Sharon Stone is soaking in sex. There is a lot of sexual posing. Eric Roberts is sleazy and even Rod Steiger reaches back to go over the top. The plot is tortured and so is everything else. It could have been fun except it takes the story so seriously.

The best thing about The Specialist is the performance of James Woods, who really sinks his teeth into his villainous role and is enormously entertaining. What he also does that is good is making his material more interesting than it deserved to be, much has been said about the scene with the shirt and for good reason. Eric Roberts is pretty good also, he doesn't have anywhere near as much to do and his character is rather one-note but somehow Roberts does bring some intensity and menace whenever he appears. The scenery is lovely too, the sex scene was appropriately steamy and John Barry's score is the other of the two assets most worth noting about The Specialist. Barry was one of the all-time great film composers and I have yet to hear a bad score from him, and the music for The Specialist has his typical lushness, beautiful harmonic writing and moodiness, these things may seem out of place for a film such as this but actually it works. Unfortunately very little else works. Sylvester Stallone is not the best of actors but as an action star he showed great charisma. Here he is very wooden and mumbles his way through his lines. Sharon Stone also flounders, Stone has shown she can be good(she is brilliant in Casino) but she does look awkward and there is the sense that her heart wasn't really in it, which makes her character's predicament difficult to engage with. Regarding the chemistry between them too, the only time where it works is in the sex scene, everywhere else you'll struggle to find any kind of passion. Coming off worst was Rod Steiger, giving a performance so embarrassingly over-the-top it was like watching a cartoon, which was completely out of kilter with the rest of the film. The characters have no real depth and personality, the most colourful character was James Woods's and his performance itself has a lot to do with it. The dialogue has its moments, all of which with Woods again, but on the most part it's very weak, often lacking sense and flow and often aimless with far too much talk. Story-wise, the lack of originality concept-wise can be forgiven(revenge thrillers often have that but it's not always a bad thing) but for it to be plodding, laughably implausible and at times incoherent is less forgivable, as well as parts being so predictable any suspense and tension is severely diluted and having parts that have little to no relevance. Other than revenge, you don't have a clear idea as to what the heroine's motivations are. The action sequences lack any kind of momentum or excitement and just looks so awkwardly staged and passionless, a few are so ridiculous that it brings unintentional laughter. The direction is flat and with the vibe that he didn't know how to direct a thriller, and visually only the scenery really impresses, some of the colours are nice but others are garish and the film in terms of photography and editing does often look like direct-to-video quality. Overall, Woods, the shirt scene and the score are great, Roberts, the sex scene and scenery are good but the script, story, leads and Steiger are just bad and the film on the whole is mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox