Marked For Death [1991] [DVD]

I'm a big fan of Steven Seagal, so much so that I have every film he as released to date across multiple formats, but even the most ardent of fans surely cannot deny the considerable drop in the quality of his output.There has been a gradual decline in production values from more or less his first few films, there have been the ocassional glimmers of hope offered but these are very much few and far between unfortunately.This film, 'Marked for Death', is generally considered to be one of his very best outings, released in 1990 it was an early hit but further established him as one of the leading action stars following 'Nico/Above the Law' Above the Law [Blu-ray] [2009] [US Import], Nico - Above The Law [Blu-ray][Region Free] and 'Hard to Kill' Hard to Kill [Blu-ray] [1990] [US Import].The film has a pretty standard storyline for this genre, but it has a pretty strong cast and a particularly memorable villian in 'Screwface'; the fight scenes are some of the very best from Seagal's career and the film is both tightly scripted and directed, with a couple of classic one liners eg. "One thought he was invincible, the other thought he cold fly............ they were both wrong"!I won't take the time here to provide a synopsis of the storyline, I can imagine that there are few purchasing this Blu-ray who have not seen the film at some point, I will instead concentrate on the reasons as to why someone who may already own this film on DVD should re-invest in this high definition version from America.Ok, first things first, this Blu-ray disc is REGION FREE.Secondly the disc casing whilst having the same general dimensions as UK versions is the thinner American type, measuring 10mm thick (rather than 15mm), I only mention this because it may bother some, personally I think I actually prefer them!The running time of the feature is 93 minutes, the UK DVD release is 89 minutes, and therein lies the first advantage of this version, it is UNCUT.Just about all of the Region 2 DVD releases of Steven Seagal's early films (ie. the best ones!) have been heavilly censored; I actually first became aware of this several years a go when I purchased the Region 1 DVD version of 'On Deadly Ground', this much maligned film certainly has its faults but I simply could not believe just how much better the longer uncut version was.And so it is also the case here.The main difference is that the scenes of violence are generally just that little longer, the camera shots linger just that second or two more when a limb has been broken for instance, but trust me when I say that it makes a huge difference. With my Region 2 DVD version I have always found the fight scenes in this film to be badly edited with them appearing clearly cut, always changing to another angle as the actual trauma occurs, in this version they flow much more realistically and the breaks that Steven Seagal applies to the various villians limbs are far more gratuitous with the camera lingering on the shot for that few seconds longer, this version of 'Marked for Death' feels like a quite different film and the violence at times is graphic.The film has many additions to the fight scenes, in fact just about every violent encounter has additional footage, and although there are no major alterations to the actual story, what changes there are do add up to it being very different to the UK version.With regards to the audio and visual improvements, they are superb.This Blu-ray release of 'Marked for Death' delivers everything and more that you could hope for from a 1080p High Definition transfer of a film that is now over twenty years old.I have played it side by side to my DVD version for comparison and the difference in clarity is that of 'night and day', the sharpness of the image on the surface textures is very impressive indeed, I would actually go so far as to say that it is the most impressive Blu-ray transfer of a back catalogue film that I have seen to date. The original DVD version was not of a particularly good quality, I was already aware of that, but when comparing it to this version I simply could not believe the difference; I have watched this film a fair few times of the years, probably 30+ when I think about it, and I would say that it almost felt like I was watching a different film, I simply could not believe the amount of detail and features that I had not previously noticed!The sound is also excellent, although it is not such a huge improvement as the picture, the upgrade to 5.1 DTS-HD from the DVD's Stereo is still very noticeable; despite these audio improvements I still have to use the subtitles to understand the villians (those familiar with this film will know what I mean!).With regards to the subtitles they are provided in just English and Spanish; the aforementioned audio track is provided in English 5.1 DTS-HD, English and French Dolby Surround and Spanish Mono.The disc is absolutely bare bones with the menu screen just offering 'Play', 'Set up' (audio & subtitles) and 'Scenes'.Overall I am really pleased with this Blu-ray; despite already owning the film on DVD (and VHS before that!) it has still proved to be a most worthwhile acquisition, with the added bonus of having additional footage that improves the film on top of the massively improved picture quality, thus making it a justifiable purchase for anyone regardless of whether they already own it on DVD or not.

At last, this classic film gets the release it deserves: full length, uncut and hi-def! And the good news is, I can confirm this US import is a region free Bluray!!!If you're reading this, chances are you've already seen Marked For Death about a hundred times and know it's not only Segal's finest film, but just a great action flick in its own right. If you haven't seen it - watch it!All the usual Steve Segal Akido and undercover badass is here - but mixed in with it is a theme of voodoo, black magic and Jamaican Yardies, which makes the film immensely enjoyable to watch.This film spawned some of the greatest lines ever committed to film and one of cinema's most terrifying villains in the shape of Screw Face, played brilliantly by one Basil Wallace.Scene after scene is totally incredible, whether its a fight scene with Segal or Basil delivering a captivating, spooky and terrifying performance. And there are so many brilliant monologues and one liners that vocal samples taken from this film virtually kept the Drum and Bass and Jungle scenes alive in the 90s.Great fun, brilliant acting, incredible fight scenes, a non nonsense story, a great twist and non-stop action - what more do you want? Screw Face is mesmerising to watch and even More so in HD, so if you're a fan of the film buy this region free Bluray now. It's an absolute classic!!!Until your copy arrives in the post here's a few of the best lines to refresh your memory and keep you going:"E'ry body wan' go heaven... nu'body wan' dead!""Who kill 'im, de white boy Hatcha?""If a man commit a crime against you - he must be paid back, a t'ousand times!""Screw Face give me a t'ousand deaths worse that you...""You a do tha selling... you a' be tha mule.""Don' worry... i's not ya body we wan'... it's your spirit.""Let no man stray from the pat' dat I 'ave prepared!""Me a'carve yer now bwoy, me a carve yer... I got you where I want you now, you like a dog without teeth!""I wan' Hatcha dead! I wan' him family DEAD!!!!... an' if you can' kill him, I gon' kill him...... an' then I go kill you."

Awesome movie

A 5 star rating for a 5 star great action movie. Steven Seagle at the top of his game. Well worth a watch

Steven Seagal is specialist when dealing with the most horrific. Stevens fighting skill is brilliant, one the best in the 1990's.

Great film with a really good sound track.

Don't normally post reviews on Amazon, but this time I had to. DVD is supposedly brand new and sealed, but when I opened it up the DVD was dirty, with marks on the disc, so it jumped a few times during playback. Not happy! ;(

Remember Steven Seagal at his very best? well okay that's pushing it some but you know when those films first came out and he was first on the scene of the action film era. This film is really very good and a thoroughly good watch on a Saturday night and some how one that my husband and I had missed all those years back which we found on Amazon Prime films. After seeing it we felt we wanted to add it to our collection so found it cheap enough from this supplier. The usual story line of course, this guy trying to stay out of trouble until they pick on his family and then that's it, the beast is unleashed and off he goes to get revenge and puts them baddies in their place. Loads of action, fighting and broken limbs etc. the same old same old really but it is full and was at a time when Mr Seagal was at his prime. If you are wanting a good old fashioned all action, rubbish story line but the good guy gets the bad guys film, go for it you can't go wrong really!