Places To Go, People To Bore (Seven Seconds (DVD))

Member Name: Andy.mack

Product:	Seven Seconds (DVD)
Date:	01/11/06 (114 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nothing at All

Disadvantages: Poor direction, acting and dubbing in general it's just awful

It seems when you're an action star on top of your game that inevitably you have to resort to straight to video releases. In the past Van Damme and Seagal have both headed off in that direction and now it seems after the success of the Blade trilogy that Snipes is going down that road too. The quality of his movies in 2005 certainly took a dip and having seen the Marksman from late 2005 I decided to give 7 Seconds a try. Of course having seen the Marksman I really didn't hold out much hope for this one either but what was there to lose, I quite like Snipes so settled down to watch it.

Snipes stars as a disgraced military commando by the name of Tuliver. Now an experienced thief he plans a heist with a number of ex army colleagues. After pulling off the perfect job they are intercepted during the get away by a rival gang and all of Tuliver's team but him and one other escape. Having escaped the scene with the aid of a Military police officer (Tamzin Outhwaite), Tuliver must now try and find out who set him up and get some revenge.

The market place seems to be flooded with films of this type at the moment. Snipes himself is releasing 3 or 4 a year, Seagal is doing 5 and even Van Damme is releasing something every now and again. The film is very formulaic and unlike the Seagal movies that have become my own guilt little pleasures I didn't find anything remotely entertaining about this movie. The action scenes seemed to be hastily cobbled together and although Snipes is a martial arts expert he didn't seem to really showcase his talents as much in this movie as I felt he could have done.

In director Simon Fellows they have someone with limited ability. His CV doesn't boast any other films I'd actually heard of and it seems that the entire budget was used getting Snipes into the starring role. In truth this has something of a low budget BBC drama feel to it. The direction and camera work is all over the place. The car chase try to replicate the intensity of those in Ronin but only manage to remind the viewer that all the budgets been spent. Of course the key with these types of films seems to be filming them in Eastern Europe to keep the costs down and while that does work it, the actual film making screams out that the director can't use his environment.

As if all that wasn't bad enough the film is so clearly dubbed that it doesn't even try to hide it. You can see the actors talking but the voice doesn't seem to be in sync with the lip movement's. Obviously this is something that happens a lot on straight to video releases but its normally done far better than this film seems. The special effects look reasonable but for a film of this sort they always look slightly cheap and that's the closest I can get to a positive about the whole film. The soundtrack fits the film but with a script that seems to have been taken directly from the Straight to Video for dummies guide book nothing could have saved this film.

Even Snipes can't save this film and in fact I would say that this is possibly the worst performance I've ever seen him give. The character isn't the most charismatic of guys, even with the writers trying to give him some witty lines. Snipes disappoints and it seems this could be the first disastrous step on a slippery road that sees him permanently join Seagal and Van Damme in the bargain bucket sections of the local video stores. His performance in The Marksman was slightly better but in truth this is Snipes at his worst and as a fan of his work I really regret wasting an hour and a half on this film.

Alongside him is a staring role for ex Eastender Tamzin Outhwaite. It's her presence along with Deobai Oparei, a former member of the cast of Holby City, which really give the film that cheap BBC drama feel to it. Her performance is quite forgettable and despite numerous attempts to create some there is absolutely no spark between her and Snipes. The rest of the cast is made up largely of Russian and Romanian actors, who seem to appear in just about every straight to video film ever made. There are no stand out performances, in fact I can't even remember a good one.

Overall this is a dire film. I'm only glad I didn't actually spend any money to see it. I can certainly think of better ways to spend an hour and a half of my time. While Seagal movies have become my guilty little pleasure I think it's fair to say that Snipes will not be joining them. The direction is clumsy, the dubbing isn't even in sync and the film in general is just shocking. If however you do still fancy seeing it with that said it will be available from your local video store, but personally I'd recommend holding onto your money instead.

Amazon: £9.97
Amazon Marketplace: £1.33

Summary: Snipes follows Van Damme and Seagals Straight to video footsteps