Seagal Kicks Up a Storm
Having almost been caught by some mobsters whilst snooping on them down at the docks lone cop Mason Storm (Steven Seagal) returns home, not before heroically dealing with some low life scum who are holding up a liquor store. But it seems the mobsters saw Mason and at home Mason, his wife along with their young son are attacked and presumed killed. Whilst Mason's wife dies, his son gets away and he ends up in a coma for seven years although the official police line is he died as did his wife and son. But it seems the bad guys aren't convinced and after a long time when Mason emerges from his coma to find himself out of reach and being cared for by a nurse named Andy Stewart (Kelly Le Brock) Mason is going to be out for justice, driven to kill even if means he's marked for death and having to be above the law.
Considering Steven Seagal made his movie debut it 1988 it is kind of surprising that his follow up didn't come until 1990 with "Hard to Kill" which saw his then wife Kelly LeBrock starring alongside him. Now anyone who knows there Seagal movies will recognize a few of his movie titles dropped in to that synopsis for "Hard to Kill" and that isn't me just being smart but in truth just highlighting the formula driven nature of Seagal's early action movies. As such for all the set up which sees his wife killed and spending 7 years in a coma this is simply Seagal going after the bad guys because he wants justice.
But as pointed out "Hard to Kill" is early Steven Seagal, coming before the actor bunked up, slowed down and employed a body double to do the fight scenes for him. As such whilst much of the action, such as the scene in which Mason takes down the low life gang in the liquor store, is cliche the fact that it is Seagal delivering the quick hand work is what makes you smile. The other thing which makes you smile is that Seagal is acting alongside his then wife Kelly LeBrock and whilst the writing isn't great the chemistry they have in this makes it work with LeBrock delivering plenty of humour.
But the daft thing is that whilst "Hard to Kill" clearly has its positives some of which are only apparent in retrospect it is hard to get excited by the storyline. It is such a generic storyline of bad guys and police corruption that the other elements such as Seagal and LeBrock starring together is wasted on it. In fact some of the other familiar faces as in William Sadler are also wasted in this.
What this all boils down to is that watched now you can appreciate "Hard to Kill" as one of Seagal's better movies as he comes across as keen to make it entertaining. But at the same time it is for all the novelty of having Seagal star alongside his then wife Kelly LeBrock just a generic action movie with Seagal typically out for justice.
