Blackjack (1998) Dolph Lundgren, Kate Vernon, Phillip MacKenzie, Kam Heskin, Fred Williamson Movie Review

Blackjack (1998)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Blackjack (1998) Dolph Lundgren

Not All White

When Jack Devlin (Dolph Lundgren) comes to the aid of some friends who are being hassled by the mob he ends up being blinded by a white light from a grenade. Whilst he gets his sight back Jack also ends up with a phobia of white light which leads to his blacking out. Having tried to keep a low profile as he deals with his phobia Jack finds himself approached by his old friend Tim Hastings (Fred Williamson) as model Cinder James (Kam Heskin) is being stalked by her ex-husband and he wants Jack to use his expertise to bring him down. But when Cinder's ex discovers Jack's Kryptonite is the colour white it seems for once he may be beaten.

Oh yes you did read that right, the hero of this movie is scared of the colour white which whilst I can accept people have colour phobias the use of it here is completely ridiculous. But then to be honest "Blackjack" is full of ridiculous things; for example in the moment where Jack is temporary blinded he is still able to take down bad guys with instructions such as roundhouse kick at 9 o'clock. You quickly realise that "Blackjack" is that sort of movie where it is entertainingly bad and those involved realise that as well, playing up the humour of the bad writing.

Of course "Blackjack" is two other things and they are a TV movie directed by John Woo and you can feel Woo's style all over the movie with slow motion camera work, close ups on faces and wind blowing people's hair. But of course this is also a TV Movie so then you have Woo on a budget and that means whilst you get the big stylish scenes you don't get the build up to them because frankly there isn't the money to do the whole thing. Yet "Blackjack" suffers from John Woo never knowing when enough is enough and there are many scenes which are not needed and add up to this feeling drawn out.

What this all boils down to is that "Blackjack" is entertaining but really for being such a ridiculous movies rather than for being good. And if you can accept that then this movie will often make you smile whilst also shaking your head at how daft some of it is.


LATEST REVIEWS