7 Seconds

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Big-screen action heroes come and go. Some, like Big Arnold, Bruce Willis, and Sylvester Stallone, go and come back as good as or better than ever; most, like Steven Seagal, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Wesley Snipes, leave the big screen and don't return (at least not as of this writing). If they're lucky, they find a spot for themselves in the direct-to-video market, as these latter fellows have, where their fans can still appreciate their special talents. So, here we have a direct-to-DVD (and now direct-to-Blu-ray) release from Snipes, the 2005 DAM (Dumb Action Movie) "7 Seconds."

Written by Martin Wheeler ("Black Dawn," 2005, for Seagal; "The Detonator," 2006, for Snipes) and directed by Simon Fellows ("Second in Command," 2006, and "Until Death," 2007, both for Van Damme), "7 Seconds" is obviously a tailor-made product for Snipes.

As we might expect, Snipes plays an ex-military man, Jack Tuliver, trained to kill. What we might not expect is that Tuliver served four years in Leavenworth; he's a disgraced Delta Force commando now turned crook. Upon getting out of prison, he decided the best way to put his unique skills to work was by stealing stuff. So, as the movie starts, Jack's in Bucharest, Romania, masterminding a elaborate armored-car heist that should net him and his gang about $20,000,000. But it doesn't come off. In the middle of the stickup, a group of Russian Mafia horn in, killing almost all of Jack's men and taking off with the loot.

All well and good. But it gets even more complicated. You see, the Russians weren't after the measly $20,000,000. They wanted a case containing a rare Van Gogh painting valued at $65,000,000. Still well and good, except they don't get the painting. Jack escapes carrying the case with him, not knowing what's inside. The rest of the plot concerns the police chasing Jack for the robbery, the Mafia chasing Jack for the painting, and Jack trying desperately to clear himself of killing his own men and a few policemen as well.

Snipes's Jack Tuliver is an unusually coolheaded guy, adept not only with guns, knives, fists, and flying feet, but equally adept at pleasant banter and clever negotiating. For me, the lighter moments, the repartee, and the intrigue were far more fascinating than the rather routine action sequences. Snipes is more animated than Seagal and more charismatic than Van Damme, so he makes a fine action hero, but he's also good when he's simply talking to someone. Although he's not quite as high on the charm scale as Willis, Stallone, or Schwarzenegger, he's at least close.

Supporting players liven up the proceedings as well. Georgina Rylance is appealing as one of Jack's gang and a romantic ally; Tamzin Outhwaite is also engaging as Sgt. Kelly Andrews, an attractive NATO police officer who begins believing that maybe Jack isn't the villain in the piece that the rest of the police think he is and starts her own investigation of the case; Deobia Oparei provides pleasant comic relief as Spanky, another of Jack's gang that survives; and Pete Lee-Wilson and Serge Soric are appropriately sinister as Russian gangsters.

While high-speed chases, cars driving over other cars, shoot-outs, crashes, explosions, fistfights, punching, kicking, torture (ugh, too much torture), and sundry other diversions pad out "7 Seconds" to ninety-six minutes, the character interactions are what make the film worthwhile. Why action-movie directors think they have to load the screen with violence every two minutes is anybody's guess. A little goes a long way, and the more of it, the dumber the film.

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