The Specialist (1994)

I know, if you read some of the other comments people have posted, they say that The Specialist is just a lame action movie. Well, they're wrong. IT WAS A GREAT ACTION MOVIE. But then again, what else would you expect from Sylvester Stallone, the most entertaining actor in history. Sly stars as an ex-CIA agent who is hired by a mysterious women (Sharon Stone)to blow up the men who murdered her parents. The explosions are awesome, and the fight scenes are great too. Sly and Sharon both give great performances, and so does James Woods. Woods plays a phsychotic hired gun with a personel vendetta against Sly. All in all, The Specialist was a very entertaining movie. But don't take my word for it, go see it for yourself. Trust me, you won't be disappionted.

Fmovies: Although Stallone was already a big budget Hollywood star with many a title under his belt with Sharon Stone who also had a few films (most noticeably 'Basic Instinct') going for her and James Woods, again, with some reasonably successful outings (most notably in my opinion a 'Simpsons' episode), 'The Specialist' fails to live up to its talent hype and attempt as a film noir come action film.

What struck me upon looking this film up after seeing it was the director. He'd had hardly any experience previous to this film and thinking back to the film itself; it's no wonder it really turned out the way it did. A big budget and a big cast with a screenplay that wasn't terrible probably demanded a bigger and better director. I could kick around a few names like 'John Woo' but I won't get too into that.

Fatally, The Specialist doesn't do right what it's supposed to do right. The camera work is bad (I actually spotted one instance of camera shake in this film), the fight scenes are poorly choreographed and badly executed, the dialogue is a bit iffy at best and is rather clichéd at times and the stereotypes of Colombian drug lords are laughable. With the action scenes, the extras just sit up waiting to be hit and are poorly put together in a way that you can see Stallone's next move as he wins the punch-up from a beaten position. The dialogue put across via the recorded phone messages feels forced and they snap back at one another too quickly. The character played by Rod Stieger is a little too stereotypical and his pronunciation of the word 'you' like 'jew' can only be taken seriously for so long before a serious scene involving intense dialogue is broken up by a smirk here and there.

What makes the film also rather cheesy is the editing at some points. Early on in the film, a character threatens Stallone at knife point and asks him a question. Cut to a reaction shot of a silent Stallone and immediately, the character asks the question again – not even giving Stallone the time it takes to blink to reply. This was very noticeable and good editing, as they say, is un-noticeable. One other incident is where Stallone sneaks up on a pistol wielding guard during a hotel evacuation and knocks him out from behind in the lobby area. We keep on the same camera and pan as he runs away. From this, we see that for the entire time, people (extras) have been running right past, merely feet from the assault and don't even batter an eyelid at what just happened as Stallone runs off in the OPPOSITE direction.

Every action film has its effects and this films' was poor. The blatant blue screen effect of the water getting closer and closer via the window as the suite breaks off the side of the hotel and falls to the sea as a guy waves frantically at the camera crashing towards him without trying to get away really brought out a long shake of the head from me. The fact when one of the bombs went off in the room, one guy fell down before the other was also laughable. These are the action scenes of the film and should be suspenseful and nerve-wracking – not humorous, instead.

If you're looking for a decent Stallone action-based film from the mid-nineties, avoid this and see 'Assassins' instead. That film's particularly large cast rivals this one and the direction and script are a lot better.

Although I'm not really a Sly-fan I found this movie highly entertaining and it made me laugh quite a lot. I totally agree with the comment of bensonl who, in my opinion understands the value of entertainment. Right you are, mate! I think it's silly to look for a good plot (is there one?) in an action flick like this. Anyway, who cares? If you're in for a plot go see 'Usual Suspects', I'd say.

By the way, if you're being led by all the negative comments, you'll miss the chance of (yet again) seeing Sharon without clothes.....mmmm! 8 out of 10 to push up the score.

The Specialist fmovies. * 1/2 out of ****

Arguably Sylvester Stallone's last box office hit (unless you count Cop Land), The Specialist is not the typical Stallone testosterone fest. In fact, it remains a fairly atmospheric thriller revolving around obsession and revenge. But it's not as interesting as it may sound, thanks to the generally lackluster script and mostly unlikeable characters.

Stallone plays Ray Quick, an ex-bomb specialist who works for hire. After the movie's requisite prologue, he's in Miami working for May Munro (Sharon Stone), who wants him to kill three mobsters, especially the head mobster's son, Tomas (Eric Roberts), because they murdered her parents when she was a little girl. Quick contacts her only by phone, they are to never meet, but he's admittedly intrigued by her and vice versa. However, she's actually working for Ned Trent (James Woods), Quick's former colleague who's out for revenge.

Action fans expecting bombastic and over-the-top action sequences should steer clear, this movie will be too sluggish for them. The Specialist has no desire to function as a typical Stallone actioner. There are no large-scale gun battles, fisticuffs, or car chases. In fact, I gather Stallone received the role purely on the basis of his box office clout (and perhaps also his ability to brood and act generally depressed fairly well).

So what is The Specialist, then? Is it a thriller? Yeah, sort of, there are a few suspenseful moments, mostly pertaining to Stallone using his bombs to knock off the mobsters. Surprisingly enough, the twist of having the hero kill the bad guys with explosives (Speed and Blown away came out the same year) works well enough, mostly because the villains' impending doom bears a certain inevitability that plays to the movie's advantage.

But there's little else about the movie worth recommending. The story doesn't make much sense; as soon as it's revealed Roberts' murdered Stone's parents when she was a child, I scratched my head in confusion. He couldn't possibly be more than a year or two older than Stone, meaning he committed the murders when he was about, what, ten or eleven? More likely, it appears the filmmakers are trying to pass off Stone as a twenty-year old bombshell. Sure, Stone looks great (and I do mean great) in this film, but she can't even pass for thirty.

The romance is unsurprisingly perfunctory and generic. As soon as the hero and heroine meet, they almost immediately tear their clothes off and go at it. This is neither romantic nor sexy, even with the undeniably hot Sharon Stone as part of this tryst. I've always kind of liked Stallone, subpar an actor as he may be. He's always had a fairly commandable screen presence, though he has yet to translate that to genuine charisma (which is what puts him considerably behind that other big lug, Arnold Scwarzenegger).

Neither suspenseful nor exciting enough to recommend, The Specialist is of little interest to anyone except for Stallone and Stone fans (and maybe James Wood fans, who will either delight or wince at his maniacally over-the-top performance). I'm still waiting for Stallone to revive his career with a big-budget action blockbuster, but I don't see it happening. Hey, I'm one of the few guys out there who actually liked D-Tox, so I wouldn't necessarily say his career has gone down the drain.

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

The Specialist (1994) is the most underrated bashed hated Stallone action thriller flick from it's fans and critics! I grew up with the film and it is still one of my best favorite action Stallone films! People seriously,simply don't understand what the movie is about. It's an action thriller, revenge Flick! The film is misunderstood and it is different Stallone film than in any other action films he played. The Specialist is not a masterpiece, the greatest or the best action film, but it is solid and good. It is an Entertaining action thriller from the beginning to the end.

Stallone plays an trained Ex CIA agent who kills accidentally in Bogota, Colombia a wife and a kid and the bombing goes awry. I loved it how a CIA agent went trough hell, than he leaves the business and becomes a gun for hire. I love the character Ray Quick, I even memorize Stallone's Character! He is a trained henchman an Ex Special Forces The Bomb Specialist expert and Ex CiA Agent turned mercenary for hire, I love that! In this movie Stallone doesn't use a hand gun or any machine guns trough whole film, but he uses his expatriate, high explosives and hand to hand combat to kill a mobster and corrupted cop who was once a promising CIA agent but killed an innocent people and set up Ray!

Stallone's character is well done written, he has a heart. He refused to kill innocent people, women and children, when he set up the bomb in Miami to kill Tomas Leon, inside was May and the bomb explodes, Ray cared and run to stop the bomb but he was too late. Stallone goes to the funeral of the woman identified as May Munro, he mourns and he is filed with quilt with killing an innocent person again. On a bus ride, Ray gets out of his seat and offers it to a pregnant woman. The people haven't see that or noticed, how a good hearted person the character is. He even took a cat under his wing. I love Ray Quick I don't care what anyone says! This movie has always been flawed with it's screenplay, a powerful score, lush cinematography and a solid cast. It has plot holes, but I still love it.

I love the twists, the action sequences, the erotic's sex scenes in the hot tub, this scene really never bothered me. The special effects were great, the bomb explosions. I absolutely love this movie. It is very stylish, sexy and explosive. Stallone and Stone were perfect together. The Miami scenery was awesome. The music score was amazing. And the action was intense. Sylvester Stallone is truly an amazing actor and a truly a great talent. Also James Woods gave a powerful performance as Ned Trent a vengeful a hired assassin and a corrupt cop! Sharon Stone did a wonderful performance as a drop-dead beauty! I love the bus ride scene! Ray Quick gets out of his seat and offers it to a pregnant woman, only to have a young hoodlum take the seat instead. Quick calmly beats the crap out of the hoodlum and all his friends, throwing one of them out a window (not open), and then re-offers the seat to the woman. This scene has no bearing on the plot, but helps us get to know Quick. It is awesome powerful scene!

Why I love this movie? I love it because in this movie Stallone doesn't use gun or machine guns but he uses his expatriate, high explosives and hand to hand combat. The Specialist is the most Underrated Action Thriller. I love Sharon Stone from Basic Instinct to another action thriller The Specialist and I love James Woods playing a villain in this movie. This was the only action movie that Stallone made in 1994 it was su