The Movie
Okay, I'll admit it: There was a time in the early '90s when I (along with my brother and cousin, share the shame) thoroughly enjoyed the guilty pleasure of a Steven Seagal movie. And before the days of the pony-tailed action hero's almost flukish high-water mark, Under Siege, his best work was probably Marked for Death. Don't get me wrong, the dialogue and "acting" can sometimes induce more physical pain than one of Seagal's bony hand-strikes to the throat, but compared to some of his past and future turds ("fu-turds"?), MfD plays like Proust with a lot of spurting blood. Our favorite part is the grim determination with which he snaps the bad guys' bones, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
As John Hatcher, Seagal is a deep-cover DEA task force lawman who's seen and done too much. He walks away from the job and returns to the small town where he grew up, in hopes of rediscovering the good man he used to be. But the proliferation of drugs, and a violent Jamaican drug posse to go with it, put an end to his retirement as he wages a one-man war (give or take a couple of guys) from Main Street all the way to Jamaica. Let the posing begin!
The Picture
The back cover touts a solid data rate of 26 megabits-per-second for the 2.35:1 AVC master, which helps fend off more severe potential issues with the video, which is a little soft, a little noisy, and a little grainy, much of this due to the quality of the original film. The photography of said film is a bit iffy at times, some questionable camera angles and so forth, but the gradations of the frequent bright-lights-at-night are thankfully smooth, although blacks are typically lifeless.
The Sound
This is a solid effort if not a stunner, with fine moments like the sustained flight of a helicopter in the surrounds, and a couple of different nightclubs each with a distinctive 360-degree spread of music and crowd noise. There's discrete rear-channel activity for the weather and such, although I found the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track to be lighter on the bass than I was expecting for an action movie. Owing to the high resolution however, I heard more nuance in James Newton Howard's musical score than I remember from my many previous viewings.
The Extras
None. I guess at this point, twenty years later, there's not a lot to say.
Final Thoughts
Watching Marked for Death again for the first time in a long time was a minor hoot not nearly so much at face value but as a reminder of a simpler time when a few decent fight scenes were enough to carry an action flick. Kudos to Fox for their true HD remaster, and as far as the complete lack of bonus material, yeah, sometimes it's best to let the past lie.
Product Details
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