shakercoola A decent enough story but a poorly executed production. It's a film which is led by Tom Sizemore, as a grieving unstable police detective, attempting to thwart a bomber in San Francisco, and by the end has Steven Seagal as a bomb-defusing spiritual guide. Dennis Hopper, on the other hand gives a bit too much on the histrionics and his Ulster accent is all over the place. The backstory to the detective is unexplained and action seems to be inserted so not enough tension is built in some sequences. There are some twists, and there are bangs in your buck, but on the whole it is a below par production.

Leofwine_draca Albert Pyun. The name of this director will leave a bad taste in the mouths of any self-respecting Z-grade movie fan out there. For more than a decade, Pyun has effortlessly (and I mean that in a literal sense) churned out one rubbishy movie after another, generally cheap science fiction films with only the minimal levels of editing and post-production work. So far he's only managed one halfway decent movie, CYBORG, and his latest film TICKER is yet another bomb and that's also in the literal sense of the word. Despite the man's lack of talent and budget, bad film lovers still find themselves drawn to Pyun's work like moths to a flame, only to get burned by his sheer ineptitude and to steer well clear for a long time afterwards. Like the body of Pyun's work, TICKER is a pretty awful movie but not without interest; watching it with friends or relatives is a sure fire way to spend an enjoyable evening just having a laugh at all the poor points this film has to offer.The plot is one of those run-of-a-mill edgy cop vs. terrorist thriller stories that were run into the ground back in the '90s. Maybe the scripting will save this film I thought, sadly not as it never rises above the norm. Everything about this film screams cheap television movie but it can't even achieve that; no network would finance Pyun to create his abominations let alone broadcast them. Nope, the only reason I watched this film was for the cast. Taking the lead of the maverick cop is a down-on-his-luck Tom Sizemore (usually seen in bigger budget fare like RED PLANET), who surprisingly puts in a halfway decent performance despite the lack of professionality in all other departments. Although his character is clichéd and hard to believe, Sizemore makes a good job of it and does the best he can. I wasn't disappointed.On the other hand, Dennis Hopper is very disappointing as the villain, but hilariously so. Slumming his way through a terrorist role which is a direct reprise of his villain in SPEED, Hopper doesn't even try here. To make matters worse, he attempts a ludicrous Irish accent which comes and goes throughout the movie with much hilarity. Apparently Hopper is a member of the IRA and hangs around with a couple of other shifty guys in long black trench coats like they've failed auditions for THE MATRIX. Poor old Hopper. A long way from his glory days and hard to believe that his career has reached this low an ebb.Third-billed and barely bothering to sit up from his chair (where he spends two thirds of the running time), Steven Seagal is a long way from his recent cinematic success with EXIT WOUNDS. It's like he doesn't even bother in this movie. He never gets out of his seat, instead he just sits around and talks weird dialogue in his role of a laid-back bomb expert. Fans looking for some trademark Seagal action will find it in short supply. After piling on the pounds and having grown a ridiculously large ponytail, this old and tired Seagal is far from the lithe and pounding NICO: ABOVE THE LAW he gave us fifteen odd years ago. To add insult to injury, he doesn't even get to do any martial arts until the very end of the film, where some tacked-on scenes show him fighting a bunch of guys in a dark corridor. A small, poorly-choreographed pleasure, but the lack of action before this moment led me to jump from my chair shouting in admiration for Seagal, having been starved of the bone-breaking I'm used to from the rest of his career.The rest of the cast barely registers. The less said about Jaime Pressley's performance the better, although she is an attractive actress and should have been used far more. Some rap stars turn up for little more than cameos, but why? And who put the stock footage of Ice-T into this movie and for what reason? Speaking of stock footage, Pyun is up to his old tricks here, shooting scenes with actors alone and cutting them in with other actors to make it look like they're in the thick of the action. Seagal often has a body double, especially noticeable at the ending (walking in silhouette) and during a fight scene. He even has a voice double to cut costs. Same thing for Hopper, you see the back of his head and can tell it's a guy thirty years younger with spray-painted grey hair. The funniest moment in the film comes when the good guys swarm city hall and we're treated to footage of some laughing goons at a Halloween party being evacuated. What the heck? Sheer bliss, incompetence you don't often see in modern cinema fare. Things like this make TICKER something of a guilty pleasure although far from a "good" film.

xdarkiex Shame shame shame. I'm convinced that Dennis hopper and Steven Segal and other actors in this so called "movie" want to forgot all about this as soon as possible!The acting was poor .... and not a little bit as well. Dennis and Segal we're just a couple of flat actors that only try to lift this movie up with their names and not by their performance.*spoiler (somewhat)* The movie started out nicely with a blown up house etc etc, but it really took a drastic turn down when Romany Malco tried a death scene which was ..... everything from a death scene. No blood ... not even sweat was coming out, he tried to cough a little bit but my 3yr old nephew does a better imitation cough then that!After this "death" scene I already gave up on the movie and started to irritate myself more and more about small things that went wrong. I saw the movie till the end (god knows why) but even the end was .... flat.Glad Segal did better movies after this one .... hence all the actors did lol.

marcelotoniolo I like watching Steven Seagal movies and I agree that he is not an excellent actor however I really admire his Aikido skills. He is a master and I respect him (actually I am an Aikido student).He has made some bad movies, some of them are hard to understand, some are too fast and you get lost and some of them like Marked for Death is quite good. On Deadly Ground is very confusing and fast. Not good...I thought it could not be worse than that but the Ticker is.The interesting thing is that the story of the film is interesting...it has all elements for a good film, some good actors, IRA terrorists trying to explode some San Francisco places, etc...but everything gets confusing and lost.Seagal just talks most of the time and I hardly can understand what he says. Not sure if the copy of the DVD I got was bad or what...He sounds tired or not really in the mood.Anyway, The Ticker is the worst Seagal film I watched so far (I have watched probably near 10 films).