"Ticker"

Albert Pyun's films fill me with a weird sort of glee. The typical atrocity of the acting, generic scores, disconnected, usually hard-to-follow narratives, and stock footage are painted over with stylish, sometimes strikingly unique cinematography. The un-storyboarded compositions are sometimes dead on and other times aesthetically inept. He creates confusing, disoriented worlds - albeit in a very distinctive, memorable way. There is so much to look at in Pyun's more ambitious films, if one can bare the lack of substantial narrative quality.

"Nemesis" is my favorite of his films that I've seen. It has a bold visual style that transcends its "Blade Runner" meets "Terminator" script. The dialogue may as well be in a different language - the real treat are the gorgeous action scenes. "Nemesis" is Pyun at his best, staying on track with almost every unit of production. Even the acting is a step above crap, with stone-faced Oliver Gruner and some recognizable faces like Tom Jane and Pyun regular Yuji Fujimoto.

Pyun's 2001 film "Ticker" is him on autopilot, which is a dangerous place for him to be. Some directors make perfectly entertaining films with their hearts clearly not in them (i.e. Spielberg's "Lost World: Jurassic Park"), but most others simply can't afford to fluff their way through a picture. "Ticker" is a mess, a pure paycheck project featuring either talented actors turning in half-assed performances or bad actors doing absolutely nothing for the movie. Dennis Hopper has never proved himself to be a worse actor, this time attempting an Irish accent in some scenes and completely forgetting about it in others. Peter Greene, who was terrific in the classic indie "Clean Shaven," is given little to work with. The rest of the interesting cast include Nas, Tom Sizemore, Jamie Pressley and a weird cameo from Ice-T, who is underused having delivered an impressive performance in Pyun's bizarre "Mean Guns."

Rumor has it that Steven Seagal had considerable control in the final product. His role as a bomb squad leader/zen philosopher is at least an attempt at making his character slightly different from any of those he has tried to play before. No matter what hand he had in this film, or how interesting the writers tried to make his character, he struggles with his performance. This movie has absolutely no effort, and is predictable despite the surprising potential.

For such a large cast and a sprawling story, Pyun does manage to keep things together in a linear fashion. The problem is that there are no memorable scenes or characters or anything. The special effects suck (look for the worst rear projection in movie history at the end, where cheap background video is used for hilarious contrast) and everything else is painfully mediocre.

Most people, no matter what profession, have dry spells of uninspiration and boredom. Every member of this film's cast and crew seem to be simultaneously experiencing such things in "Ticker."