Blackjack (1998)

Dolph Lundgren as "Jack Devlin"
Kam Heskin as "Cinder James"
Padraigin Murphy as "Casey"
Kate Vernon as "Dr. Rachel Stein"
Phillip MacKenzie as "Rory"
Saul Rubinek as "Thomas"

Written by Peter Lance
Directed by John Woo

You know, I would normally consider it the saddest thing in the world when Dolph Lundgren is the best actor in a John Woo movie - or in any movie, for that matter. But something's different here. This isn't like Rocky IV, Masters of the Universe, or The Punisher. It isn't the Dolph of ten years ago. We're dealng with a Dolph that (dare I say it?) can act. He isn't the best actor by any stretch, and he isn't great at it. It's arguable as to whether or not he's that good. But I must have missed a lot, because Dolph delivers a capable, even consistent performance as Jack Devlin, an ex-marshal and the usual tough guy with a heart of gold. It is also the best performance in the movie, but that's easy to say, considering the rest of the cast (save for the precocious little girl) kinda sucks.

It would be very ironic to say "Come on, this isn't Shakespeare," because the film's villain, our obligatory obsessive psycho hitman Rory, performs the Bard's works to an audience of none when he isn't trying to ice supermodel Cinder James. This comes at a really bad time, because Cinder's about to sign a multimillion-dollar contract with an Italian cosmetic company, a deal that would send her career soaring. With Rory jeopardizing the deal, however, it falls to a security company headed by Hastings (Fred Williamson) to keep Cinder safe.

By this time, however, we've seen Jack in action. In a brief prologue, Jack is hired to protect Casey, the daughter of a casino owner friend, from gangsters. He succeeds in keeping her alive during a shootout at her home, though during the fight, he is temporarily blinded by a flash grenade. About a month or so following the incident, Jack is beginning to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Stein (but he can call her Rachel) about an unfortunate result of that incident. Somehow, the bright flash became associated with memories of his father's death, for which he feels responsible, and...man, this is going to sound stupid...he has developed a mortal fear of the color white.

Yes, it's that easy to see the movie become more inane by the moment.

And yet, while Jack could protect Casey (in the movie's best action sequence), no one could foresee her parents' death in an auto accident. As per their will, Jack is charged with raising Casey, with the help of his one-eyed butler, Thomas.

Fear of white and the responsiblity of child-rearing are enough to prompt Jack to retire, but when his old partner Hastings is shot while trying to protect Cinder, Devlin returns to the bodyguard business, if only because Cinder's protection is key to the survival of Hastings' company.

Since this is made for cable, we shouldn't expect the frenzied excitement and unabashed bloodshed of John Woo's more memorabe offerings (such as "A Better Tomorrow" or "The Killer"). More attention is paid to character development and plot than action, and if we had interesting characters in a story that isn't a third-rate knockoff of "The Bodyguard," we'd have a pretty good movie. But we don't, and almost everyone is out-acted by a preteen girl.

But not Dolph. Oh Lord in Heaven, not Dolph...

I would normally detract major points from "Blackjack" for being a bad John Woo movie, but I'm convinced that it's a miracle this is a good Dolph Lundgren movie. In fact, I'm shocked at how much I actually enjoyed Dolph. Admittedly, he acts pretty genial most of the time, but he actually brings a sense of intensity not only to his action scenes, but to his dramatic scenes as well. Even humor isn't lost on our man Dolph. And hell, his expressions vary.

The rest of the cast ranges from passable (most of them) to slightly grating (Rubinek's badly accented Thomas) to bad (Heskin as Cinder) to extremely painful, that being our Phillip MacKenzie as our psychotic friend Rory, who seems dead set on regaling us with his feature-length impression of Kenneth Branagh in Wild Wild West. Let's just call him Bargain Basement Branagh and leave him at that.

Those expecting a huge John Woo action extravaganza may be disappointed, because this isn't it. There are a couple of great action sequences, such as the first shootout at Casey's home, but the rest seem - at the very least- tedious. This is more of a movie for B-grade action fans, and Dolph fans (though I'm sure the groups overlap).

But...he can act!

6.29.01