Specialist, The

Released By: Warner Brothers
Released On: Auugst 16, 2011
Director: Luis Llosa
Cast: Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods
Year: 1994
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The Movie:

A crazed product of big-budget ambition front-loaded with deliriously over-the-top acting, THE SPECIALIST is a film that has never quite received the love that it deserves.

We begin in the jungles of South America sometime in the 80's. CIA black-ops badasses and demolitions experts Ray (Sylvester Stallone) and Ned (James Woods in rare form) are busy setting up the assassination of a drug kingpin. Within minutes things go badly wrong and our nominal hero - Stallone, is engaged in a fistfight with his partner Woods. Viewers should contemplate this one for a minute. Not since Arnold Schwarzenegger went mano-a-mano with an overweight James Caan in ERASER has there been a fundamentally more ludicrous fistfight on film. But damned if it doesn't work! Thanks to Wood's choice dialog fraught with sexual undertones (“The rigger and the trigger') and his crazy-man act you can almost believe it. Wood's character is that crazy kid you knew in high school who weighed 100 pounds but would attack you with a chair in a fight.

It's a few years later and both Ray and Ned have settled in Miami. Ned, having been ousted from the CIA (thanks to Ray exposing his exploits in Columbia) is a “security consultant” for an organized crime family. Stallone's Ray is that old standby, the moral criminal. A hit man who only takes carefully vetted jobs Ray is contacted by a mysterious woman (Sharon Stone) who wants him to take out the men who murdered her parents when she was a little girl. The Cuban crime syndicate responsible is headed by a badly-accented Rod Steiger (giving Woods a run for his money in the overacting department) and his son Tomas (a welcome extra-oily performance by Eric Roberts). And guess who is the head of security for the Leone family? Ned Trent of course.

After Ray refuses her job offer, Stone's May Munroe decides to go after the Leone family on her own by seducing Robert's Tomas Leone. Not exactly a difficult task considering Robert's sleazy passion for the ladies, but old uptight Ray just can't stand to watch this reptile pawing May. So he takes the job after all. Oh, and Stone's character is not what she seems and there a bunch of double-crosses in the film (surprise!).

Fact is, THE SPECIALIST is a badly plotted revenge thriller but it doesn't matter. The real show here is the game of cat and mouse between Stallone and his old nemesis. The whole setup is to get these two to a slam-bang finale with BIG explosions. But getting there is plenty of fun. In one scene after another, Woods goes from one crescendo to another of delicious nuttiness. Always gifted with the ability to portray great nervous energy Woods may seem out of control but he really does know exactly what he's doing. The fact that his character has endlessly quotable dialog doesn't hurt either. Steiger plays his Cuban crime boss as a fat Tony Montana. If the SCARFACE legend had survived to old age on a diet of booze and chorizo THIS is what he would have looked like. Just hearing him say “ass-plosives espert” is enough to make even the most stoic viewer erupt in laughter. Then there is Eric Roberts. Never appreciated as much as he deserves, Roberts is a solid pro who delivers another top performance playing a slime ball. His bickering with Woods is priceless and his scenes with Stone make your skin crawl.

THE SPECIALIST has been called an embarrassment of riches in the so-bad-its-good acting department and indeed it is. And those of us that like to watch stuff blow up with panache will always love this film - because it's a movie about two explosives experts that has a ton of explosions. And that's EXACTLY as it should be.

It also happens to have a classic sex scene (for all the wrong reasons) between Stallone and Sharon Stone. Never have two vain stars showed off their worst egotistical tendencies more than in this shower scene. Its about 10 minutes and lit, scored and posed for maximum display of every single pec and ab on both actor's bodies. Anyone who's idea of sexy is a cheesy and oiled-up bodybuilding exhibit then this scene should make your week. The lack of self-awareness that both stars must have had to allow this into the film in this form is stunning. But we are glad that is there all the same.

I love this movie. A lot.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Warner Brothers brings THE SPECIALIST to Blu-ray with a bang in a sharp 1080p AVC-encoded transfer. Colors are generally very strong and black levels excellent. This movie features a lot of smoky shots (the aftermath of the film's many explosions) but detail is always good. THE SPECIALIST is set in Miami and, much like SCARFACE, there is a lot of colorful imagery - from the loud clothes to the party scenes but the transfer is up to the task. Colors “pop” and there are zero compression artifacts that I noticed.

As far as the audio goes, the DTS lossless 5.1 track sounds very good but it needs to be noted that this was mixed in the 90's so its nowhere near as sophisticated as what is available today. Rear channel activity is at a minimum but the subwoofer is used to excellent effect. Make no mistake though - THE SPECIALIST sounds pretty damn good even in the scenes featuring heavy explosions. And the movie is graced with a first rate score by John Barry that is almost too classy for the material but it sounds wonderful here.

The extras consist solely of a trailer in SD that really fails to do justice to the film but does feature some alternate takes and scenes that were not in the final cut. Too bad - as I would be the first in line for a true special edition of this movie.

Click on the images below for full size Blu-ray screen caps!