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Jeremiah Ecks (Antonio Banderas) is an ex-FBI special agent known for his tenacity. Before he quit the Bureau, he was credited with bringing to justice several of the FBI's most wanted. He now spends his time trying to drown his grief in alcohol; seven years before, he lost his wife to a car bomb and he may be blaming himself. Ecks is approached by his former boss, Julio Martin (Miguel Sandoval), who explains that he needs him for a very special case. Ecks isn't interested until Martin reveals that his wife is alive and he's willing to exchange information about her whereabouts for Ecks' cooperation.

Sever (Lucy Liu) is a rogue agent, formerly of the DIA - Defense Intelligence Agency. She was "recruited" by the agency from a Mainland Chinese couple disappointed that their only permitted child was a girl. The baby was taken away, raised, and trained as a killer adept with any number of firearms, explosive devices, and martial arts. Sever has just kidnapped her former boss's young son, taking out a half dozen experienced DIA agents in the process, most in hand-to-hand combat. Her ex-boss is Robert Gant (Gregg Henry), and it doesn't take very long to understand that he's up to no damn good. Gant is aided by one of his senior agents, the amoral Ross (Ray Park of Episode I fame), a lethal gofer who seems to enjoy killing.

The film's McGuffin is a microscopic stealth weapon that can find its way into the bloodstream of an intended victim from something as innocuous as a Band-Aid. It's designed to travel to the heart and cause what appears to be a massive heart attack when activated by remote control. The FBI is aware that Ross broke into the research lab where the miniature weapon was being developed and that he walked off with the only prototype. So Martin wants the prototype recovered, Ecks wants to find his wife, Sever wants to take a sizable piece out of Gant, Gant wants to use that tiny assassination machine for some nefarious purpose and everyone tends to shoot first and ask questions later.

Perhaps it's an indication of the depth of character development in McElroy's screenplay that Lucy Liu has perhaps thirty-seven words of dialog in the entire picture. When she isn't kicking the crap out of someone, she's most often asked to stare meaningfully into the eyes of other actors, or perhaps to glare menacingly. McElroy portrays both the FBI and the DIA as tactically inept. His characters behave irrationally. His plot has holes the size of Buicks. And the filmmakers persist in violating the laws of logic, the laws of physics, and plain good sense. The action sequences are intense and well staged, but we're dogged by that action movie cliche in which hundreds of rounds fired from automatic weapons zip around our protagonists without inflicting so much as a scratch. Cars fly through the air as the result of collisions that should have grounded them for good. And the climactic battle begins without the attackers knowing whether or not the McGuffin is anywhere close by. What a mess.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film's theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in anamorphic video. This is yet another good-looking, film-like transfer from Warner Bros., but it's not quite up to Warner's best work. Small object detail and fine textures are conveyed very well. Edge halos are present, but they rarely intrude. Skin tones have a natural hue, but color intensity seems a bit anemic. Shadow detail is quite good, with the exception of aerial shots at dusk found during the beginning of the film. I noticed no compression artifacts like mosquito noise or blocking.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is first-rate. The surrounds are very active, immersing the viewer in the action. Once again we have a non-EX mix that greatly improves with EX decoding enabled. Sound effects, and gunfire in particular, are better located with EX enabled; directional sounds emanate from locations that correspond to the actors' eye lines. Deep, deep bass punctuates the many explosions; you'll need a superior subwoofer to fully appreciate the extension into the bottom-most octave. Sound effects are conveyed with very little compression. In fact, to accommodate the extended dynamic range those sonic fireworks require, you may find that the dialog runs a little low. The score, such as it is, was composed by Don Davis; he's delivered better, emulating John Williams for Jurassic Park III for example. This rock-influenced score was clearly intended to add energy to the show; it merely grates. The modest amount of dialog found here remains quite clear throughout, with one possible exception. Banderas does mumble from time to time and when he does, his accent tends to make some of his low-key scenes a little difficult to understand.

The alternate language track is in French, dubbed in Quebec. To support the audio, subtitles are offered in French, Spanish, and English, for which Closed Captions are also included.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Cast & Crew provides filmographies for six of the cast and the screenwriter. Next is Know The Enemy, one of the silliest supplements I've ever seen. It's a video game in extreme slow motion and without the graphics. This is a fight between Ecks and Sever; you may be either. You attack your opponent with a choice of one of three moves, selected by maneuvering to your choice with the remote control. The DVD player then selects at random a countermove from that same list. If the player's selection is the same move, no points are awarded. The more effective of the two moves scores a point, either for you or for your opponent (kind of like rock, paper, scissors). Pointless.

A full screen featurette entitled The Making of Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever (13:02) begins as a typical fluff piece that promotes the film by describing the nature of the characters and some of the plot points. Banderas and Liu are prominently featured; Liu has more to say here than in the entire feature film. But the featurette quickly evolves into a rather interesting, if not cursory, description of how some of the major sequences and effects were accomplished. Consider this featurette a cut above the usual self-promoting publicity short. The theatrical trailer (2:25) is included and presented in respectable anamorphic video. The 91-minute feature is organized into twenty-six chapter stops.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts