Memorable, crazy movie

Beautiful, moving film.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

An okay film. I wasn't bored and the action is fine. Steven Seagal is actually standing and that's something that you don't see everyday. And he's too old for erotic scenes, please do not do that.

In 1988 an action star broke onto the screen in a modestly budgeted film that took the world by storm. This mystery man claimed to have worked for the CIA, became a master of aikido at a young age in Japan and worked with Hollywood celebs before making his move in front of the camera. The movie was ABOVE THE LAW and the star was Steven Seagal.But in the late 90s his films dropped in popularity, he divorced and most of the later output went straight to DVD. This doesn't mean that his films lacked quality or that they were any less ambitious than in the past but that times had changed. As we all do he'd grown older and wasn't as rail thin as he appeared in ABOVE. In Hollywood this is a no no. But he didn't care what they thought and continued making movies that remain some of the best action films even when the budgets dropped from what they once were.CONTRACT TO KILL is a great example of a quality action film starring Seagal that delivers the goods. Seagal plays John Harmon, an ex CIA/DEA asset brought out of retirement to handle a particularly sensitive contract. Arab terrorists are about to set up a deal with a Mexican cartel head that will help them gain access to enter the United States with ease. This gives them the opportunity to smuggles in people and weapons up to an including a dirty bomb. What the government wants Harmon to do is pinpoint the location of their meeting and let them know where it is.But as with most movies involving spies these days crosses and double crosses are the rule of thumb and Harmon isn't your typical low level asset. He's been there, he knows how they work and figures out that the original plan wasn't what he was told. So he takes him team, FBI agent Zara (Jemma Dallender) and drone pilot Matthew Sharp (Russell Wong), and sets in motion his own plan.Harmon realized early on that the location for the meet wasn't in Mexico as the intel thought it was but in Istanbul instead. With his team they ramp up the paranoia of the terrorists and plant the seeds of suspicion between the two. It won't be enough to prevent the deal from going down completely but it will allow them a greater margin of success in accomplishing their goal. And does that goal align with that of the agency that sent them in giving the plausible deniability? Watch and see to find out.Segal remains the strong, silent type in his films and this one is no exception. His demeanor and vocal stylings are low key and subtle. Why yell when you can quietly put things in motion? His fighting style while aikido reminds me of the term Bruce Lee created with jeet kune du, the way of the intercepting fist. He allows his opponent the chance to throw at him and then uses their energy and the flow of their own body against them providing him with ample opportunity to deliver more debilitating blows. It's worked for him in all of his films and continues to do so now.The supporting casts here does a great job. Dallender shows plenty of future potential here with an acting ability and attractive appearance that makes you wonder why she isn't doing more mainstream features. Wong seems on the same career path as Seagal having been in higher priced fare in the past but seemingly relegated to lower tier films of late. He too is a victim of Hollywood where age isn't seen as a positive thing no matter what you can still do which is sad. At least he helps elevate the roles provided him as in this film.On the whole the movie will probably not make anyone must see list but does provide plenty of entertainment for action fans. Seagal fans will rate this one higher than some of this other films and the plot ties in perfectly with what is happening in the world since word has come out that there is a possible connection between cartels and terrorist organizations actually taking place. One can only hope there is a team like Seagal's seen here in place to stop them.

Another year, another Seagal movie......but wait, haven't we seen this before? Seagal as a former government-super-secret-special-something-something taking on the entire world by his merry lonesome? Yep. And haven't we seen that since the 1980's? Indeed we have! "Contract to Kill" offers nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing to the genre, and nothing that Steven Seagal haven't already done to the brink of pointlessness in one of the endless heap of movies similar to this one that he has notched on his black belt.It used to be fun to watch Steven Seagal back in the 1980's and 1990's, but it has progressively just become more and more tiresome to watch his movies, as they are all exactly the same, year after year. It is time to branch out and try a new approach.However, it was sort of embarrassing to witness Seagal in this movie, as he seemed like a beached whale fighting to survive as he waddled his way through scripted fighting and stuttering dialogue.I managed to survive for about 50 minutes into "Contract to Kill", before I just simply lost the will to go on. I got up and just gave up on the movie. It offered nothing new to the genre, nor nothing new to the Seagal repertoire.If you have seen any single one of the myriad of Steven Seagal movies in the past, then you have essentially already seen this movie as well. Trust me.The characters in the movie were so generic that it was just amazing. They could be cut out of this movie and pasted directly into any other Seagal movie and they would fit right in. So don't get your hopes up for anything that even remotely resembles character development and progression.This was nowhere near being anywhere near the usual entertainment, albeit its overwhelming generic entertainment, that Seagal usually delivers, and I have no intention of returning to finish the rest of the movie, because I already know exactly what will happen."Contract to Kill" was a wide swing and a wide miss, even for the teddy bear of action movies Steven Seagal.

The contract has been put out on a triple cheeseburger and Steven Seagal is here to collect the bounty and everybody is stoked on him about it. It's clear Steven Seagal is no longer limber enough to whip all the ass that's flung at him...As a result, Contract to Kill looks like it's edited by a seeing-eye dog, you can't tell who's doing what to whom. lolSteven Segal..and nothing else. if they got money to waste, I think a few charities could use the money because I doubt these flicks make any money at allAs usual,a lazy,by the numbers effort from Seagal.