Facundo Nicolas M
Awesome 90's action movie , puré testosteron.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
08/06/23
Full Review
Josh G
A drama at it's core with a great cast but lacks pacing and excitement at all, this is the odd film in the Stallone catalog. Sharon Stone and James wood talk a lot and there is some action with more and even more talking.
Perhaps Sylvester was trying to change his image to be taken seriously after cliffhanger and stop or my mom will shoot but it doesn't really work. He doesn't show how he could be the villain and an anti hero and has very little screen time. It wants to be a better movie but is held back by trying to be an action film.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
07/26/23
Full Review
Twitter G
I enjoyed the movie because it was interesting to see several famous actors and their appearances in 1994. I also liked seeing the old technology that was used back in that decade.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
05/29/23
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Sergio C
All I'll say is Sharon stone is extremely hot and good movie
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
08/26/22
Full Review
Audience Member
In 1984, Captain Ray Quick (Sylvester Stallone) and Colonel Ned Trent (James Woods), explosives experts working for the CIA, are on a mission to blow up a car transporting a South American drug dealer. But when the car appears, a little girl is inside with the dealer. Ray insists they abort the mission, but Ned intends to see it through and allows the explosion to happen, resulting in the deaths of both the drug dealer and the child. Furious by the girl's wrongful death, Ray savagely beats Ned and flees, effectively resigning from the CIA. Years later, in Miami, Ray works as a freelance hit man. He lives a solitary existence with his cat, named "Timer". Desperate people contact him via an Internet bulletin board and he takes the cases that interest him. Ray specializes in "shaping" his explosions, building and planting bombs that blow up only the intended target while leaving innocent bystanders unharmed. He answers ads placed by a woman named May Munro (Sharon Stone) and speaks to her often to decide if he should take the job or not. During the talks, he becomes intrigued by her story, coupled with the fact that he sees how attractive she is while following her. She is the only child of parents who were killed by Tomas Leon (Eric Roberts) and his men. Against his better judgment, and pushed by her insistence that she will infiltrate the gang with or without him, Ray is persuaded to accept the job. Even though he has agreed, May ingratiates herself into Tomas' world as Adrian Hastings. Ned now works for Joe Leon (Rod Steiger), Tomas' father and director of their organized crime syndicate. Once the hits on their lower level guys begin, they contact the chief of police to place Ned in their bomb squad. May tolerates Tomas and plays along as his girlfriend so she can watch the hits one by one. It is revealed after the second target is killed that May has actually been forced into a partnership with Ned, whose goal was to coax Ray out of hiding. After the job in South America went wrong, Ned was dismissed from the CIA and is intent on revenge. When the trap for Tomas is set, May is in the room; the resulting explosion appears to kill them both. When Ned goes to Joe to pay his respects, he is left alive only so he can find Ray and bring him to Joe before Tomas is buried. Both Ray and Ned believe that May is dead, yet Ray discovers that bulletin board messages are still being posted. He responds to one, quickly realizing that it is a trap set by Ned and the bomb squad, and baits Ned into an explosive tirade...
Roger Ebert gave it two stars out of four, stating that "The Specialist is one of those films that forces the characters through torturous mazes of dialogue and action, to explain a plot that is so unlikely it's not worth the effort. You know a movie's in trouble when the people in line at the parking garage afterward are trying to figure out what the heroine's motivations were." James Berardinelli rated it one and a half out of four stars, writing "This movie is excruciatingly dumb. And, given the releases of Speed and Blown Away this summer, there's no dearth of explosion-based motion pictures. The only twist this one offers is that here, the bomber is the good guy (...)." The film is listed in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book The Official Razzie Movie Guide as one of "The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made". (via Wikipedia)
"The Specialist" is loosely based on "The Specialist" series of novels by John Shirley. The film met with negative critical response, but became a box office success, and Gloria Estefan's version of "Turn the Beat Around" became a dance sensation. This Stallone vehicle is a painful experience with a wobbly script, poor dialogue, poor acting (despite having James Woods and Rod Steiger in the film), laughable scenes like the shower scene between Stallone and Stone, silly nudity that adds nothing to the film, wobbly editing, horrendous FX and a general B-movie feeling. This belongs to Stallone´s, Woods, Steiger´s and Stone´s worst films.
Trivia: Sylvester Stallone demanded for some of James Woods's scenes to be cut out of the movie and for some of his scenes to be re-shot in order for Stallone to have more screen time. The reason for that was because Stallone was worried that Woods would "steal" the movie away because he was a better actor then him. Stallone also cut out some Rutger Hauer's scenes from Nighthawks (1981) for same reasons. David Fincher was set to direct this at one stage. Sylvester Stallone liked Fincher but he was overruled by the producers, because Fincher's career was still in deep freeze after the failure of Alien 3 (1992) and wasn't revived until the massive success of Se7en (1995).
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
02/21/23
Full Review
jelisije j
The Specialist would have been better if it didn't have any romance and was a straight up revenge film. I still enjoyed it, but without James Woods this movie crumbles.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
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