Seagal's Dodgy Ticker
If I'd watched "Ticker" for the first time back in 2001 I would have been seriously disappointed, in fact I am sure I would be telling you it was one of the worst movies I had ever watched. But I've seen a few of Steven Seagal's more recent movies and in comparison "Ticker" almost seems to be good despite still being disappointing. But judging "Ticker" purely as a Seagal movie seems wrong because the focus is as much on Tom Sizemore as a detective with issues as it is on Seagal but even having Sizemore in the cast and also Jaime Pressly, Peter Greene and Dennis Hopper it doesn't stop "Ticker" blowing up on itself.
San Francisco detective Ray Nettles (Tom Sizemore - Saving Private Ryan) finds himself taking on a gang of terrorists when he arrests the beautiful Claire Manning (Jaimme Pressly - Inferno), girlfriend of Alex Swan (Dennis Hopper - Waterworld) the terrorist leader and bomb expert. But with Swan threatening to gradually set of a series of bombs till the police release Claire, Ray must call on the help of bomb disposal chief Frank Glass (Steven Seagal - The Glimmer Man) to help track down Swan before he blows up the whole of San Francisco.
There are some things worth knowing about "Ticker" starting with the fact director Albert Pyun had funding cut half way through and then the movie was taken from him and put together with footage from other movies. It partly explains why the end product basically sucks and feels stretched out with scenes such as an opening intro to Frank Glass not having any real importance when it comes to the big picture. Then you can add to this that the whole thing was filmed in just 12 days with Dennis Hopper doing his scenes in just a day and Seagal in just 6 days with neither ever meeting. That tells you that basically "Ticker" is a rushed movie which was chopped together in a not too coherent manner.
So a little history out of the way with and what "Ticker" is is your common all garden bomb movie. We have a terrorist threatening to blow things up and the police and bomb disposal team trying to solve the mystery before the big bomb goes off. Why? well to be honest you don't really care because the storyline is so mind numbingly boring and slim that you tend not to follow it that closely anyway. Oh it throws a twist at you but even then it fails to pep things up to ever being interesting.
Now whilst Tom Sizemore is really the lead as det. Nettles, a cliche cop with issues, and "Ticker" also features Dennis Hopper and Jaime Pressly the only real reason to watch is because it is a Seagal movie. But then this is a disappointing Seagal movie because for the first 85 minutes Seagal does little more than talk and try and act Zen like and when he does finally deliver some butt kicking action it is over so fast that they might as well not bothered including it. Although for pure laughs watch out for the scene in the jazz club when Seagal behind dark glasses and beard also plays a musician.
What this all boils down to is that "Ticker" is a mind numbingly boring movie which never once gets exciting or draws you into the slim storyline. But whilst it is disappointing it is by no means as bad as some of Seagal's more recent movies which I suppose is something.
