bkoganbing
Blackjack casts Dolph Lundgren the best developed Swedish body since Ingemar Johanssen as a US Marshal doing a good turn protecting the family of a friend who owns a casino from some nasty Russian guys trying to muscle in. Quite a few bad guys go down Rambo style with Lundgren protecting Padraigin Murphy, but in the process during an explosion Lundgren develops a whiteout disorder.He's finished as a marshal but bodyguard agency head Fred Williamson hires him to protect supermodel Kam Heskin who has a nasty drug habit to boot from a really vicious stalker who has lots of friends with guns to help him stalk. He learns about Lundgren's phobia and the dirty rat now dresses in formal white dress with a white cutaway. You'd think he was Fred Astaire.A television pilot that didn't sell I guess the network folks thought that the phobia wouldn't generate that many interesting episodes. They were probably right. The always beautiful and attractive Kate Vernon is Lundgren's psychiatrist. She's always worth watching.Lots of Rambo style action and why not as Lundgren got his first notice in a Rocky film.
david-sarkies
How can I describe Blackjack in one sentence? Blackjack is The Bodyguard directed by John Woo. As such it leaves The Bodyguard (and Bodyguard from Beijing) for dead. It is far more than a chick flick, rather it is a movie in which each of the characters are flawed and are struggling with themselves and each other to come to terms with their weaknesses. As in other Woo movies, the characters do not bask in their strengths, but the struggle through their weaknesses, and Jack (Dolph Lundgrun) seems to get more and more of them. At first he develops a phobia to the colour white, and then finds that he has become a father and he must slowly come to terms with this new development.Cinder was a southern waitress but was discovered by a modelling agent who brought her to New York and she is stunning the crowds. The problem is that she is being pursued by an obsessed fan who wants to kill or, or he seems to be an obsessed fan. I will be revealing much of the details of this movie, so if you don't want it to be spoiled, then stop reading now. The details are important to the studies of the main characters because it is their flaws that make them strong.Cinder and Jack are the main characters, everybody else supports them. The little girl is cool, but once again she is only a support. We know that she is intelligent, and also know that she can count cards, but this is not developed in the movie. The girl the a burden that Jack must deal with, and though the girl is burdened with the death of her parents, her development is left behind to focus on the development of Jack and Cinder, the two important characters.Jack has a problem with white, and this is used extensively during the movie. We believe that this problem developed when he was temporarily blinded by a flash grenade (and here the little girl helps him through), but soon we learn that his father used to drive a white Cadillac. His father was a card counter and would work the casinos, and while doing that he would have a code to prepare a quick escape. Unfortunately one day his lighter did not work (he flicked his light twice to tell is son to get the car) and the mob grabbed him and killed him.White is the traditional symbol of goodness and purity, but this causes Jack to constantly turn away. This seems to reflect an aspect of Christianity where the purity of God forces us, sinners, to turn away. Jack cannot get over the white himself, yet the movie falls down here as he struggles to overcome it, and when he does he is able to save the girl. Yet we are never actually told that he has overcome it, rather he struggles through his weakness so that Cinder might survive.Cinder is an even more interesting character because more and more is revealed about her. At first we know of her as a model, but soon we learn that she is a drug addict and it is because of pain that was inflicted upon her by a car accident earlier in her life. She has a great pain, but tries to cover it up with drugs. This does not work for not only does it keep coming back, but she hallucinates and at one stage tries to throw herself off of a balcony. By looking at her character we realise that she has a lot of problems and as such needs somebody to help her through.This is where the obsessed fan comes in. At first with think it is a fan, but when we hear his voice, something clicks. He has a southern accent and she, we know, is from the south. As such we start to think that he is more than just a fan but has a stronger relationship with her. Sure enough, we learn that he was at one stage her husband, and he is obsessed not with a model but with a wife that he lost and wants back. He claims that she needs him, but this desire to protect her is mixed with an anger and a desire to see her dead.Blackjack is not one of Woo's best movies, but it still has a lot of his style. In my opinion his movies have become much worse since he moved to the United States, but this is a man who moved to the US because in Hollywood he could spend more time with his family. His movies are still a higher quality than most, but generally are less outstanding that his Hong Kong efforts.
tuhomursu
... that even if I gave this movie a score of 1, I could as easily give it a 10. It's perfect entertainment with good friends and booze. It's so unbelievably bad in every way imagineable that it becomes almost too good to be true; you know those movies, right? They're so bad that they're actually good. This is one of those, crossing the line but staying perhaps a bit too close to it to really stick out.Why? Because as a fan of HK action flicks, this carries all the telltale signs (not a big surprise considering the director and the low budget. In fact, if all the actors were Asian, this would be a perfect example of the typical HK gunsmoked action flick.
