John Woo's Blackjack (1998)

108 Minutes, Color, USA, 1998

Written By: Peter Lance

Directed By: John Woo

Dramatis Personae:

Dolph Lundgren is Jack Devlin, Former US Marshal turned detective and bodyguard, tough guy with a heart of gold and a troubled past.

Kate Vernon is Doctor Rachel Stein, Jack’s therapist and chief provider of sexual tension.

Saul Rubinek is Thomas, Jack’s comic-relief manservant, and Alfred to his Batman.

Padraigin Murphy is Casey Stern, Jack’s precocious pre-teen niece.

Kam Heskin is Cinder James, up-and-coming supermodel with a Percodan habit and a stalker.

Philip MacKenzie is Rory Gaines, Cinder’s psycho ex-husband and stalker.

Fred Williamson is Tim Hastings, Jack’s former boss and owner of Prototel Security, hired to protect Cinder.

Andrew Jackson is Don Tragle, Hastings’s untrustworthy second-in-command.

Peter Virgile is Richard, Cinder’s sleazy agent.

Commentary:

There’s something poignant about a failed TV pilot. You always wonder where the show could have gone from the original movie, what plotlines would have developed, what new adventures our heroes could have faced. And sometimes you wonder why it didn’t get picked up. I don’t pretend to understand the thought processes of network programming executives, but I’m sure there are many diverse reasons – some good, some not so good – why pilots don’t get picked up. In the case of Blackjack, a backdoor pilot TV movie from the creative mind of no less than John Woo, it’s kind of obvious why it didn’t get picked up: it’s merely okay. You’re expecting something spectacular from John Woo, and when you get something merely okay from him, it just seems worse. Oh, there are plenty of Woo-esque setpiece to be found, and many do deliver, but for the most part it’s a good idea that’s badly executed.

Our story begins in Atlantic City, where casino owner Bobby Stern is being strongarmed by Mafioso types. Fearing for the safety of his young daughter Casey, Bobby calls Jack Devlin. Jack is an old friend and one of the few people Bobby trusts implicitly, and Bobby wants him to keep his daughter safe. Jack does his best, but he soon finds himself in a massive firefight as several armed thugs descend upon the Stern estate. Jack manages to hold his own and keep Casey safe from harm, until a flash-bang grenade blinds him. Being Dolph Lundgren, he of course manages to power through and defeat the thugs, and Casey is saved.

Months later, Jack is back in New York, consulting with therapist Rachel Stein. Jack has a problem: ever since the flash-bang blew up in his face, he finds himself subject to strange episodes whenever he sees the color white. He is paralyzed by dizziness and nausea if he sees a white object with his naked eye (forcing him to wear tinted sunglasses at all times). Rachel offers to help treat his strange ailment, but makes it clear it may be a slow process. Jack’s life is further complicated when Casey and a lawyer show up on his doorstep. Bobby Stern and his wife are dead, killed in a car accident. Jack has been named as Casey’s guardian. Although unaccustomed to having a pre-teen around his palatial New York penthouse, Jack nonetheless makes every effort to be a good surrogate parent.

Meanwhile, Tim Hastings, president of Prototel Securities, also has a problem. Supermodel Cinder James has been receiving threatening messages from a stalker, and Prototel has been hired to keep her safe until she leaves for Europe. Hastings is butting heads with his lieutenant, the arrogant Don Tragle, over the seriousness of the threat. Ultimately Hastings is proven correct, as the stalker decides to step up his reign of terror by taking a sniper shot at Cinder at a fashion show. Cinder is unharmed, but Hastings now no longer has any faith in Tragle’s competence. He gives his old friend Jack Devlin a call, and asks if he’d like to come on board with Prototel. Jack turns him down, citing his vision problem and his new responsibilities to Casey. However, while escorting Cinder to a photo shoot, a breakdown in security lands Hastings in a coma and Tragle poised to take over the company. Jack has no choice but to step in and take charge of the situation.

Jack arrives just in time to save Cinder from a suicide attempt, and works to help wean her off painkillers. He gets her someplace safe and gets her to open up to him. He learns that the stalker is her ex-husband Rory, a failed actor who she married as a teenager and who subsequently went nuts when Cinder made it big. When another security breakdown leads to a firefight, Jack ends up tailing Rory to a dairy processing plant. Needless to say, the fight does not go well for Jack, and he winds up face down in a vat of milk. Now that his enemy knows his weakness, Jack must work even harder to overcome his aversion to white, and save Cinder from certain doom.

Sounds very exciting, doesn’t it? And to the movie’s credit, it has its moments. It’s a John Woo film, after all. And there are plenty of his signature camera angles and action pieces. Lots of slow-motion action, lots of flourishes with overcoats and scarves and cloaks – and of course, lots and lots of gunplay. Bullets fly with reckless abandon, shooters dive out of range of explosions, and many a knickknack meets a grisly end. And there are hints of Woo’s signature humor as well, as the frenetic gun-fu is balanced by the strange old-married-couple dialogue that Jack and Thomas share. There are few directors better at ripping themselves off as is John Woo; I guess he figures everyone else has ripped him off, so he might as well show them how to do it properly. And that’s very much what Blackjack feels like: John Woo Lite. All the action, half the soul.

And one of the biggest problems is the casting of Dolph Lundgren in the title role. The character of Jack Devlin seems meant to be a Chow Yun-Fat type of role: a tough guy with a strong sense of personal honor, style, and humor. And Dolph Lundgren just doesn’t have the acting ability or the charisma needed to pull it off. To Dolph’s credit, though, he looks like he’s trying. So few of those 1980’s tough guys even tried to do more after the well dried up and audiences wanted action heroes that were more than just emotionless indestructible killing machines (hell, Arnold tried, and look where that got him). Unfortunately, he still falls short in the quiet moments. Scenes where he’s required to actually emote are painful to watch, and watching him try to be funny is even worse. He’s trying to be Chow Yun-Fat, and all he manages to do is remind us that Chow Yun-Fat just does this sort of thing BETTER.

Lundgren’s wooden performance is counterbalanced by Philip MacKenzie’s completely over-the-top performance as the crazy Rory Gaines. He’s basically a bad actor that went insane…so there’s really no ceiling to be found in his performance. When Rory’s not stalking Cinder, he hangs out at a warehouse that he’s decorated like a stage, where he recites Hamlet to a nonexistent audience. It’s ludicrous, but it’s so stylishly done that it’s a joy to watch. You really believe that this guy’s a bad actor. There are just so many levels to be found…

Despite its shortcomings, it is a little disappointing to realize they didn’t chronicle the adventures of these characters a little more. There were clearly some things being set up that were meant to be plot points later on. Jack’ s “mastery” of card tricks and sleight-of-hand (ahem). His checked past with the US Marshals – he and Hastings mention some incident that led to Jack’s dismissal, but they never say what it was. A traumatic incident from his childhood, which is related to his aversion to white. Casey’s above-average IQ and willingness to learn “Uncle” Jack’s trade. The never-resolved sexual tension betwixt Jack and Rachel. All things that were no doubt going to be addressed in a sequel or a series to follow, and all ultimately going nowhere. Even if the delivery was flawed, it was a solid concept: the whole story of the tough guy with a heart of gold never gets old, and a stylish retelling is always welcome. And even BAD John Woo is still John Woo, which means it’s better than most action movies you’re gonna see.

If you can handle Dolph Lundgren trying to be charming, that is…

Things To Look For:

- The first fifteen minutes of this movie, wherein Jack defends Casey from a small army of bad guys, is pure action gold. It’s very John Woo: it’s like a dance of bullets and explosions and the occasional one-liner. The mansion where the battle takes place is a stuntman’s wet dream, with lots of balconies and breakable objects, and a convenient trampoline outside should you have to make a sudden exit from the second floor. The bullets fly with typical gun-fu wackiness, knocking villains through glass doors and into precious Ming vases. Dolph pulls at least three different pistols out of thin air, and never has to reload once. The whole sequence is basically a how-to sequence for the budding action director. THIS is how you stage a John Woo shootout, boys and girls.

- Well do I remember, around about when this movie came out, that cigars made a comeback. And not simply cigars, but those huge foul-smelling phallic things. The bigger, the stinkier, and more blatant, the better. And a lot of women were smoking them (yet another thing to blame on Bill Clinton). Not just trashy women, either. Very elegant, attractive women sucking on these huge things. Bleagh. I never got the appeal, and there is a scene in this movie that fuels my disdain. Rachel actually lights up a cigar during her initial consult with Jack (not very professional for a psychiatrist, if you ask me), and it’s a really distasteful scene. I mean, did men really find a woman puffing on a stogie to be hot? Yeah, because nothing’s sexier than a woman smelling like my Uncle Butch. Of course, it doesn’t help that Kate Vernon went on to play the skeevy Ellen Tigh on the new Battlestar Galactica series. Just really really discomfiting all around.

- I’ve been fortunate enough to never require painkillers stronger than aspirin, but my girlfriend, who works in a drugstore, is somewhat familiar with Percodans. And the sequence wherein Cinder reveals the depths of her habit – 1300 miligrams a day – just made her laugh. Apparently, at that level of medication, you’d be too numb to stand up. So…slight nitpick there…

- Speaking of nitpicks, I usually find myself getting hung up on some small detail when watching a movie, and just being unable to unsee it. In this case, it was a not-so-small detail in the character of Thomas: he wears an eyepatch. Of course this is meant to make him memorable, and to keep the audience guessing about him. How did he lose his eye? What was he before he became Jack’s fussy and fastidious valet? And it works to a point…until you realize that Thomas is also Jack’s chauffeur. Would you trust your life to a man with one eye? In New York City traffic? I don’t care if you ARE Dolph Lundgren; that’s not a smart move, man.

Date Posted: July 8^th, 2007

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