neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever
	Kaos Antonio Banderas, Lucy Liu, Gregg Henry, Ray Park, Talisa Soto, Miguel Sandoval 2002		Some of the worst visual storytelling and klutziest, emptiest narrative in film history are on display in the explosion-loaded waste of audience time and studio money, "Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever" — an incoherent action film that, frenetic set pieces aside, is a major bore. Even the title is clumsy and confusing. It's not like "Freddy vs. Jason," where we know all about those two indestructible psycho killers, star villains in their own movie franchises, before the opening credits roll. FBI agent Ecks, played by uninterested-looking, mumbling Antonio Banderas ("Spy Kids"), and destructive mystery woman Sever, played by limber but taciturn Lucy Liu ("Charlie's Angels"), are unknown quantities to start and display no personality throughout this diffuse, dimly-lit string of chase scenes, martial-arts fight scenes and crummy dialogue. The non-plot concerns the kidnapping of a small boy, a microscopic murder machine coveted by various unidentified factions and the disappearance of Ecks' wife. Not that you could tell.