Remember the glut of Mad Bomber movies that flooded movie theaters in the early 90’s? There was Lethal Weapon 3, Blown Away, and Die Hard with a Vengeance just to name a few. Ticker was made at a time when no one was making Mad Bomber movies. The fact that it was made five or six years after the Mad Bomber craze died down is probably the reason why it went straight to DVD.
Tom Sizemore stars as a cop whose partner Nas gets killed by mad bomber Dennis Hopper (who essentially played the same role in Speed). When Hopper escapes, Sizemore takes his girlfriend (Jaime Pressly) into custody, which royally pisses him off. Hopper then vows to blow shit up every hour on the hour until his little honey gets released. Sizemore teams up with Bomb Squad leader Steven Seagal to take Hopper down and put an end to his reign of terror.
Ticker wasn’t really all that bad but it wasn’t exactly what I’d call “good” either. It was directed by my buddy Albert (The Sword and the Sorcerer) Pyun and it’s filled with little Pyun-esque touches that made it somewhat enjoyable. I especially liked how Sizemore and Seagal never appeared in the same shot together for almost half the movie. There would be a shot of Sizemore walking into Seagal’s office then a shot of Seagal at his desk, then they talk back and forth for a bit, but they never appeared in the same frame together. They do this little round robin about four or five times before they are finally shown side by side. Of course, that isn’t until the movie’s halfway over. If I had to guess, I’d say they only had one or two shooting days together. Three tops.
Incredibly enough; there’s a part in the movie in which TWO Seagals appear in the same scene. That’s when Seagal and Sizemore walk into a blues club where an alternate reality Seagal is playing slide guitar onstage (under the name “Slowhand”) while wearing a funny wig and sunglasses. I shit you not. I could not make that up if I tried.
Pyun also has a way with his actors; Hopper in particular. Wait until you hear his Irish accent. It comes and goes more than Kevin Costner’s English accent from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. We also have Nas giving one of the unintentionally funniest death scenes I’ve seen in a long time. I wish there was a behind the scenes featurette on the DVD of Pyun coaching Nas through that scene. That would’ve been great. I think the most random performance came from Ice-T who is on screen for all of five seconds. That is no exaggeration on my part either. His scant appearance makes his cameo in 3000 Miles to Graceland seem like a starring role in comparison.
Then there’s the fact that all the major characters wear the same leather jacket. (Except for Seagal, who gets the customary trenchcoat.) Was the movie sponsored by Wilson’s or something? Albert, if you’re reading this, I seriously hope you got a leather coat out of the deal too.
Seagal actually gives a decent performance here. I think the fact that he had a supporting performance enabled him to relax a little bit. Since Sizemore does all the heavy lifting, it frees Seagal up to chill out a bit and not be so stiff. He also gives a pretty good pep talk to Sizemore in the end too. It’s not as good as his rousing speech from Hard to Kill; but it’s still much better dialogue than the usual stuff he gets to say in most of his Direct to DVD movies. He also gets the best line of the flick when he says, “Love is eternal… and that’s a long time!”
AKA: The Other Side of the Law.
