The Specialist may not be great cinema, but it does offer some good bang-bang explosives action and also some interesting characters.
Sly Stallone is a former CIA-attached Army explosives expert, Raymond Quick, skilled at focus detonations that blow up certain areas while leaving surrounding areas unharmed. In 1984 he and his partner, Ned Trent, must blow up a bridge frequented by a Columbian drug lord, but a civilian bus enters as the explosives are set to go off. When Trent callously goes through with the mission, Ray disarms the bombs, then beats up Trent before having him discharged from the Agency.
Ten years later Trent now works as security chief for a Miami mafia chief who years earlier had a former underling named Munro killed - in front of the man's daughter, May. May Munro now wants her parents' killers blown up, and she wants Ray Quick for the job. Ray is initially reluctant, believing it to be a setup, but eventually accepts, and starts blowing up the three thugs responsible one by one.
But it is a setup - May Munro is in reality working for Trent, who is using her very real desire for revenge to smoke out Ray. Quick, though, is too smart for Trent's traps - until Ray and May's passion heats up ad Trent gets the break he needs to finish off the both of them.
The film's highlights are James Woods' over-the-top performance, the explosion scenes, and also John Barry's haunting score, fleshed out by Gloria Estefan's garish cover of Vicki Sue Robison's 1970s disco classic "Turn The Beat Around."
Sly Stallone is a former CIA-attached Army explosives expert, Raymond Quick, skilled at focus detonations that blow up certain areas while leaving surrounding areas unharmed. In 1984 he and his partner, Ned Trent, must blow up a bridge frequented by a Columbian drug lord, but a civilian bus enters as the explosives are set to go off. When Trent callously goes through with the mission, Ray disarms the bombs, then beats up Trent before having him discharged from the Agency.
Ten years later Trent now works as security chief for a Miami mafia chief who years earlier had a former underling named Munro killed - in front of the man's daughter, May. May Munro now wants her parents' killers blown up, and she wants Ray Quick for the job. Ray is initially reluctant, believing it to be a setup, but eventually accepts, and starts blowing up the three thugs responsible one by one.
But it is a setup - May Munro is in reality working for Trent, who is using her very real desire for revenge to smoke out Ray. Quick, though, is too smart for Trent's traps - until Ray and May's passion heats up ad Trent gets the break he needs to finish off the both of them.
The film's highlights are James Woods' over-the-top performance, the explosion scenes, and also John Barry's haunting score, fleshed out by Gloria Estefan's garish cover of Vicki Sue Robison's 1970s disco classic "Turn The Beat Around."