I'm going to comment on this movie, but before I do, I have to mention Steven Seagal's running. This is the fifth movie I've seen him in and I don't know where he learned how to run. His right arm flails like it has a mind of its own. It is not an effective way to run yet he is really fast in his movies.
OK, I said my piece.
In "Marked for Death" Hatcher (Steven Seagal) finds himself at odds with a Jamaican cartel known as a posse. In this movie where Jamaican involvement in drug dealing is grossly exaggerated, Screwface (Basil Wallace) and his crew run the streets of Lincoln Heights, Illinois. That means we see a bunch of dreadlock wearing Black guys selling drugs to suburban white kids.
As if.
Hatcher was retired from police work and wanted nothing to do with fighting drug gangs until a couple of Jamaicans cruised through his suburban neighborhood and shot up his home. It was the absurdest of actions based upon the lamest of pretexts, but what better way to bring a guy out of retirement than revenge?
Once Hatcher was effectively activated by the Jamaicans like a killbot that was given the proper password, he began shooting, stabbing, and snapping his way up the Jamaican food chain. He had his partner Max (Keith David) along for backup and sloppy seconds because Hatcher had to contend with violence AND Voodoo. It seems the Jamaicans' evil ways were aided by witchcraft as well as weapons.
"Marked for Death" was hardly distinguishable from "Above the Law" or "Hard to Kill." The plots were different, but in all three Seagal is with law enforcement, is out for revenge, and does all the typical action hero stuff (gun battles, car chases, explosions, and hand-to-hand combat). "Marked for Death" was cool when I was twelve, but now it seems a little stale.
