The Specialist (1994) User Reviews

James Woods Steals The Show

[slightlymad22 · 6/10 · 29 January 2016]

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to 1994's The Specialist.

Plot In A Paragraph: Sylvester Stallone is Ray Quick, a freelance bomb expert who lives off the grid. (Don't worry he is a good guy underneath, it is Stallone after all, he won't kill innocent people, takes in stray cats and gives up his seat to pregnant women on buses) May Munro (Sharon Stone) contacts him and wants him to kill the three men who killed her family years ago, who work for the Leon crime family, headed by Joe (Rod Steiger) and his son Tomas (a fun Eric Roberts) Their head of security Ned (A brilliant scene stealing turn by James Woods) Just happens to be Ray's former partner.

Ray Quick has to be the blandest and dullest character had played at this point. I'm not sure if he was bored in the role, but he sleep walks his way through the movie. Like with 'Cobra' we get shots of Sly looking mean and moody behind his shades, or intense and moody as he works on a bomb. Lots of posing as he listens to Stones voice over and over as he stalks her. Lots of posing not much actual acting.

Sharon Stone does, what Sharon Stone did at that point of her career, look good and take her clothes off. Eric Roberts (how did this man not have a bigger career?? I'd much rather watch him on screen than his sister) is a lot of fun, and actually under used. Steiger is surprisingly under whelming, which is a shame. But it's James Woods who this movie belongs too!! He is simply fantastic, and the movie is s lot poorer when he is not on screen.

So once again, for the second movie in a row, Stallone is completely overshadowed by his costar. Like Wesley Snipes in 'Demolition Man', James Woods not only steals every scene he is in, he walks away with the full movie!! You could argue three with John Lithgow in Cliffhanger

As with Nighthawks and Demolition Man, Stallone had scenes cut featuring the villain (This time Woods) and more shot with himself (the scene with the thugs on the bus, and the one where Roberts threatens Sly with a knife) at the last minute. It made no difference, Woods still stole the movie.

Despite a relatively short running time, it actually feels a lot longer than it is.

An interesting note on this is David Fincher was set to direct this at one stage. Stallone liked Fincher, and wanted him, but he was overruled by the producers, because of the failure of Alien 3. Instead they went with Luis Llosa, who had directed the straight to video 'Fire On The Amazon' with a Sandra Bullock and Sniper with Tom Berenger in 1993. Whilst Llosa's career went nowhere (he only directed 2 more movies after this) whilst Fincher made the mega hit Se7en a year later.

Push a button .... blow it up

[merklekranz · 5/10 · 8 September 2019]

This movie makes very little sense, with it's brainless script. The revenge plot has been seen a thousand times and then some. The big difference is instead of guns to bring down the bad guys, here we have cartoon like explosions. If it weren't for James Woods, Eric Roberts, and Rod Steiger, "The Specialist" would be complete refuse. Woods especially, carries the film, as the smarmy evil enemy of Stallone. Speaking of Stallone, both he and Sharon Stone have a believability factor deficiency of monumental proportions. In fact the entire movie has a believability factor of less than zero. I've seen cartoons that made me think more than this does. Push button, blow it up, push button, blow it up. That's all there is to this "bomb". - MERK

Hardly Stallone's worst, but it's not worth mentioning.

[Li-1 · 29 July 2003]

* 1/2 out of ****

Arguably Sylvester Stallone's last box office hit (unless you count Cop Land), The Specialist is not the typical Stallone testosterone fest. In fact, it remains a fairly atmospheric thriller revolving around obsession and revenge. But it's not as interesting as it may sound, thanks to the generally lackluster script and mostly unlikeable characters.

Stallone plays Ray Quick, an ex-bomb specialist who works for hire. After the movie's requisite prologue, he's in Miami working for May Munro (Sharon Stone), who wants him to kill three mobsters, especially the head mobster's son, Tomas (Eric Roberts), because they murdered her parents when she was a little girl. Quick contacts her only by phone, they are to never meet, but he's admittedly intrigued by her and vice versa. However, she's actually working for Ned Trent (James Woods), Quick's former colleague who's out for revenge.

Action fans expecting bombastic and over-the-top action sequences should steer clear, this movie will be too sluggish for them. The Specialist has no desire to function as a typical Stallone actioner. There are no large-scale gun battles, fisticuffs, or car chases. In fact, I gather Stallone received the role purely on the basis of his box office clout (and perhaps also his ability to brood and act generally depressed fairly well).

So what is The Specialist, then? Is it a thriller? Yeah, sort of, there are a few suspenseful moments, mostly pertaining to Stallone using his bombs to knock off the mobsters. Surprisingly enough, the twist of having the hero kill the bad guys with explosives (Speed and Blown away came out the same year) works well enough, mostly because the villains' impending doom bears a certain inevitability that plays to the movie's advantage.

But there's little else about the movie worth recommending. The story doesn't make much sense; as soon as it's revealed Roberts' murdered Stone's parents when she was a child, I scratched my head in confusion. He couldn't possibly be more than a year or two older than Stone, meaning he committed the murders when he was about, what, ten or eleven? More likely, it appears the filmmakers are trying to pass off Stone as a twenty-year old bombshell. Sure, Stone looks great (and I do mean great) in this film, but she can't even pass for thirty.

The romance is unsurprisingly perfunctory and generic. As soon as the hero and heroine meet, they almost immediately tear their clothes off and go at it. This is neither romantic nor sexy, even with the undeniably hot Sharon Stone as part of this tryst. I've always kind of liked Stallone, subpar an actor as he may be. He's always had a fairly commandable screen presence, though he has yet to translate that to genuine charisma (which is what puts him considerably behind that other big lug, Arnold Scwarzenegger).

Neither suspenseful nor exciting enough to recommend, The Specialist is of little interest to anyone except for Stallone and Stone fans (and maybe James Wood fans, who will either delight or wince at his maniacally over-the-top performance). I'm still waiting for Stallone to revive his career with a big-budget action blockbuster, but I don't see it happening. Hey, I'm one of the few guys out there who actually liked D-Tox, so I wouldn't necessarily say his career has gone down the drain.

Mediocre revenge thriller made watchable by Woods's performance and John Barry's score

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 1 July 2014]

The best thing about The Specialist is the performance of James Woods, who really sinks his teeth into his villainous role and is enormously entertaining. What he also does that is good is making his material more interesting than it deserved to be, much has been said about the scene with the shirt and for good reason. Eric Roberts is pretty good also, he doesn't have anywhere near as much to do and his character is rather one-note but somehow Roberts does bring some intensity and menace whenever he appears. The scenery is lovely too, the sex scene was appropriately steamy and John Barry's score is the other of the two assets most worth noting about The Specialist. Barry was one of the all-time great film composers and I have yet to hear a bad score from him, and the music for The Specialist has his typical lushness, beautiful harmonic writing and moodiness, these things may seem out of place for a film such as this but actually it works. Unfortunately very little else works. Sylvester Stallone is not the best of actors but as an action star he showed great charisma. Here he is very wooden and mumbles his way through his lines. Sharon Stone also flounders, Stone has shown she can be good(she is brilliant in Casino) but she does look awkward and there is the sense that her heart wasn't really in it, which makes her character's predicament difficult to engage with. Regarding the chemistry between them too, the only time where it works is in the sex scene, everywhere else you'll struggle to find any kind of passion. Coming off worst was Rod Steiger, giving a performance so embarrassingly over-the-top it was like watching a cartoon, which was completely out of kilter with the rest of the film. The characters have no real depth and personality, the most colourful character was James Woods's and his performance itself has a lot to do with it. The dialogue has its moments, all of which with Woods again, but on the most part it's very weak, often lacking sense and flow and often aimless with far too much talk. Story-wise, the lack of originality concept-wise can be forgiven(revenge thrillers often have that but it's not always a bad thing) but for it to be plodding, laughably implausible and at times incoherent is less forgivable, as well as parts being so predictable any suspense and tension is severely diluted and having parts that have little to no relevance. Other than revenge, you don't have a clear idea as to what the heroine's motivations are. The action sequences lack any kind of momentum or excitement and just looks so awkwardly staged and passionless, a few are so ridiculous that it brings unintentional laughter. The direction is flat and with the vibe that he didn't know how to direct a thriller, and visually only the scenery really impresses, some of the colours are nice but others are garish and the film in terms of photography and editing does often look like direct-to-video quality. Overall, Woods, the shirt scene and the score are great, Roberts, the sex scene and scenery are good but the script, story, leads and Steiger are just bad and the film on the whole is mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

A terrible 'action' film that is more accidentally humorous than seriously suspenseful.

[johnnyboyz · 4/10 · 9 December 2006]

Although Stallone was already a big budget Hollywood star with many a title under his belt with Sharon Stone who also had a few films (most noticeably 'Basic Instinct') going for her and James Woods, again, with some reasonably successful outings (most notably in my opinion a 'Simpsons' episode), 'The Specialist' fails to live up to its talent hype and attempt as a film noir come action film.

What struck me upon looking this film up after seeing it was the director. He'd had hardly any experience previous to this film and thinking back to the film itself; it's no wonder it really turned out the way it did. A big budget and a big cast with a screenplay that wasn't terrible probably demanded a bigger and better director. I could kick around a few names like 'John Woo' but I won't get too into that.

Fatally, The Specialist doesn't do right what it's supposed to do right. The camera work is bad (I actually spotted one instance of camera shake in this film), the fight scenes are poorly choreographed and badly executed, the dialogue is a bit iffy at best and is rather clichéd at times and the stereotypes of Colombian drug lords are laughable. With the action scenes, the extras just sit up waiting to be hit and are poorly put together in a way that you can see Stallone's next move as he wins the punch-up from a beaten position. The dialogue put across via the recorded phone messages feels forced and they snap back at one another too quickly. The character played by Rod Stieger is a little too stereotypical and his pronunciation of the word 'you' like 'jew' can only be taken seriously for so long before a serious scene involving intense dialogue is broken up by a smirk here and there.

What makes the film also rather cheesy is the editing at some points. Early on in the film, a character threatens Stallone at knife point and asks him a question. Cut to a reaction shot of a silent Stallone and immediately, the character asks the question again – not even giving Stallone the time it takes to blink to reply. This was very noticeable and good editing, as they say, is un-noticeable. One other incident is where Stallone sneaks up on a pistol wielding guard during a hotel evacuation and knocks him out from behind in the lobby area. We keep on the same camera and pan as he runs away. From this, we see that for the entire time, people (extras) have been running right past, merely feet from the assault and don't even batter an eyelid at what just happened as Stallone runs off in the OPPOSITE direction.

Every action film has its effects and this films' was poor. The blatant blue screen effect of the water getting closer and closer via the window as the suite breaks off the side of the hotel and falls to the sea as a guy waves frantically at the camera crashing towards him without trying to get away really brought out a long shake of the head from me. The fact when one of the bombs went off in the room, one guy fell down before the other was also laughable. These are the action scenes of the film and should be suspenseful and nerve-wracking – not humorous, instead.

If you're looking for a decent Stallone action-based film from the mid-nineties, avoid this and see 'Assassins' instead. That film's particularly large cast rivals this one and the direction and script are a lot better.

Nice sense of irony, blowing up the bomb squad unit.

[Fella_shibby · 7/10 · 5 January 2020]

I first saw this in Sterling theater South Mumbai in the mid 90s. Man, it was the only theatre in India with Dolby sound during those days. The film is about a hot babe (Stone) who takes help from a bomb expert (Stallone) to eliminate fellas who killed her parents. While at the same time, the bomb expert's senior colleague (James Woods) who was fired from the CIA cos of our guy wants to take down our guy who is into hiding. The film became a lil talk of the town those days due to the sex scene. I enjoyed the film then but after revisiting it recently, found it to b a lil lengthy.

A really awful film

[EdwardCarter · 1/10 · 21 February 2013]

Stallone never could act at all but he comes off pretty well in this trashily risible flick alongside a hammy and ancient-looking Rod Steiger, a truly dreadful Eric Roberts, and the King of Hammy Overacting himself James Woods. However Sharon Stone is badly miscast as May Munro. Stone was never much of an actress and she only became famous by taking all her clothes off for a very exploitative piece of garbage called "Basic Instinct", when she was already in her mid-thirties. In this film she was 36, yet we are supposed to believe that as a child she witnessed her parents get killed by Eric Roberts. That is just laughable, when Stone and Roberts are clearly the same age. It would have been more believable if Woods had played the Roberts role. Eric Roberts is not even remotely believable as a mobster.

It's hard to believe this movie had a cinema release. Nowadays it would just go straight to DVD.

0/10.

Support for the "The Specialist"

[bensonl · 7/10 · 20 May 2000]

An entertaining film. The 30% of people who voted 1, 2, or 3 have no sense of what entertainment is! I guess they think the "Postman" or the "English Patient" are better films! But they have to be the most boring ever!

special kind of comedy

[SnoopyStyle · 3/10 · 13 December 2015]

In 1984 Bogotá, Columbia, CIA operatives Ray Quick (Sylvester Stallone) and Ned Trent (James Woods) plan to blow up a bridge to take out a drug lord. Ray notices a girl in the car at the last minute but Ned blows up the car anyways. Ray leaves in anger. Today, Ray is in Miami as a contract hit-man who uses specialized explosives to minimize innocent losses using a messaging board to find clients. May Munro (Sharon Stone) wants to kill three men who murdered her family when she was a child. May infiltrates the mob by dating the drug-lord Joe Leon (Rod Steiger)'s son Tomas (Eric Roberts). Ned Trent is now a security expert working for Joe Leon and made a consultant to the police.

This is so over-the-top and overwrought. It almost works as a comedy. Woods is working so hard to be a cartoon character. Sly is deliberately intense and Sharon Stone is soaking in sex. There is a lot of sexual posing. Eric Roberts is sleazy and even Rod Steiger reaches back to go over the top. The plot is tortured and so is everything else. It could have been fun except it takes the story so seriously.

Over-The-Top-But Entertaining Revenge Flick

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8/10 · 13 February 2006]

Hey, I enjoy a good revenge movie as well as the next guy, even though I know forgiveness is the better way. Revenge films satisfy base urges in all of us. But, holy smokes, this crosses the line a little bit with the glorification of such....at least with the ending (which I won't give away but involves Sharon Stone's character).

Along the way is a fun ride as the revenge-obsessed Stone hires Sylvester Stallon (The Specialist, a term for his bomb-making talents) to kill all the people responsible for her parents' murder years earlier.

The villains are over-the-top, to say the least. One almost has to laugh out loud at one of them: James Woods. Few people in his era (70s and 80s mainly) were better at playing despicable villains than Woods, and in this film he plays that role to the hilt. He also rattles off the best line in the movie when he tells some tourist to "get a new shirt, too."

The other villains are played by Eric Roberts and Rod Steiger. Roberts is nasty and arrogant all the way and Steiger - as he has so often since the 1970s - appears cartoonish in his over-acting.

The film moves quickly which means it's very entertaining and some of the bombing scenes are quite memorable, such as a chunk of a condo building falling into the ocean.

Even though the villains are really nasty, there are no "good guys" here, either. Everyone is seriously flawed, as is the message of the film. I guess this is one of those "guilty pleasure" movies they talk about, because I still enjoy watching it every five or so years.

Good...But Not Great

[jamesmalzard · 6/10 · 29 June 2008]

I'm a big fan of action films, love the explosions, gunfire and fights!

By no means is this a bad movie that you should avoid, its got a good, solid story thats easily understood, Sylvester Stallone puts in a solid performance, however this is surpassed by Wood's evil, cowardly character, pent up on revenge. Stone's performance was however the best in the movie, showing true disgust in the presence of woods, and amazing admiration when in the presence of Stallone.

A few good twists, great explosions, albeit with a couple of random, unneeded fights. Introducing a cat to show the characters sensitive side was pretty bad to be honest.

However this was in no means a bad film, it takes a lot to impress me and in a way, this film did. Not the best action movie ever, but definitely worth the watch.

It Was Special Alright

[Slarkshark · 4/10 · 4 May 2022]

The whole movie felt like an extended episode of Red Shoe Diaries mixed with explosions. It was pretty painful. Literally the only redeeming quality was James Woods who plays such a good bad guy. His dialogue and delivery makes this film slightly bearable. Otherwise it's whole story and chatacters are bland as can be.

Just Barely Not Watchable

[lavaside-60237 · 4/10 · 25 September 2023]

It's almost watchable.

For me, watchable starts at 5.

First off, it has Eric Roberts in it. ALWAYS a bad sign. Lol The biggest names for the time were Sly and Stone; and they somehow get zero real scenes to shine.

Stone's scenes are dominated by Roberts, as if he was the star. Other than that, nothing but noir-esque tape recording voice overs.

Sly is wooden the entire picture. The only attempts to get you to sympathize - action scenes to save people. Scenes of him just talking to extras would have done more to that end. He's clearly the intended protagonist - and somehow plays 5th fiddle; to the 3 villains and the girl. It's weird.

The only gem in this turd is James Woods, who carries the entire picture like Atlas; unfortunately, to no avail.

He simply couldn't save it.

A Big Disappointment All the Way Around

[Uriah43 · 4/10 · 14 May 2017]

This movie begins in Colombia with two men named "Ray Quick" (Sylvester Stallone) and "Ned Trent" (James Woods) getting ready to blow up a car being driven by a drug lord when Ray spots a child in the backseat and tells Ned to abort the mission. But when his partner refuses--and the bomb subsequently explodes and kills both passengers--a fight ensues which results in extremely bad feelings between them afterward. The scene then shifts to Miami where a beautiful woman named "May Munro" (Sharon Stone) has requested that Ray kill three men who murdered her parents when she was a child. The problem is that Ray is an explosives expert and doesn't feel comfortable with the job at hand. But after following May in order to gather more information concerning the task at hand he reluctantly agrees. Yet even though his assignment is certainly difficult, what he doesn't know is that Ned has formed an uneasy business partnership with these men, and he has been forewarned that Ray might be coming after them. Needless to say, Ned would love another opportunity to get back at Ray for what happened earlier. At any rate, having reviewed the basic plot I must admit that, in spite of the solid cast, this film turned out to be more than a little disappointing. For starters, it appeared that neither Sylvester Stallone nor Sharon Stone really cared that much about this film and simply went through the motions. Be that as it may, while those who like pyrotechnics might enjoy this film, I must say that--given the quality cast--I don't think it lived up to its potential and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Late Night Pop Corn Flick

[nickochris · 7/10 · 16 April 2021]

Still love this movie after all these years.

Beautiful Miami settings and Sharon Stone looks like a billion dollars, Wow.

James Woods always good and a lowkeyed Stallone makes this movie easy on the eye and great fun to watch.

Defending an underrated and misunderstood Stallone's Action Thriller!

[ivo-cobra8 · 8/10 · 5 November 2015]

The Specialist (1994) is the most underrated bashed hated Stallone action thriller flick from it's fans and critics! I grew up with the film and it is still one of my best favorite action Stallone films! People seriously,simply don't understand what the movie is about. It's an action thriller, revenge Flick! The film is misunderstood and it is different Stallone film than in any other action films he played. The Specialist is not a masterpiece, the greatest or the best action film, but it is solid and good. It is an Entertaining action thriller from the beginning to the end.

Stallone plays an trained Ex CIA agent who kills accidentally in Bogota, Colombia a wife and a kid and the bombing goes awry. I loved it how a CIA agent went trough hell, than he leaves the business and becomes a gun for hire. I love the character Ray Quick, I even memorize Stallone's Character! He is a trained henchman an Ex Special Forces The Bomb Specialist expert and Ex CiA Agent turned mercenary for hire, I love that! In this movie Stallone doesn't use a hand gun or any machine guns trough whole film, but he uses his expatriate, high explosives and hand to hand combat to kill a mobster and corrupted cop who was once a promising CIA agent but killed an innocent people and set up Ray!

Stallone's character is well done written, he has a heart. He refused to kill innocent people, women and children, when he set up the bomb in Miami to kill Tomas Leon, inside was May and the bomb explodes, Ray cared and run to stop the bomb but he was too late. Stallone goes to the funeral of the woman identified as May Munro, he mourns and he is filed with quilt with killing an innocent person again. On a bus ride, Ray gets out of his seat and offers it to a pregnant woman. The people haven't see that or noticed, how a good hearted person the character is. He even took a cat under his wing. I love Ray Quick I don't care what anyone says! This movie has always been flawed with it's screenplay, a powerful score, lush cinematography and a solid cast. It has plot holes, but I still love it.

I love the twists, the action sequences, the erotic's sex scenes in the hot tub, this scene really never bothered me. The special effects were great, the bomb explosions. I absolutely love this movie. It is very stylish, sexy and explosive. Stallone and Stone were perfect together. The Miami scenery was awesome. The music score was amazing. And the action was intense. Sylvester Stallone is truly an amazing actor and a truly a great talent. Also James Woods gave a powerful performance as Ned Trent a vengeful a hired assassin and a corrupt cop! Sharon Stone did a wonderful performance as a drop-dead beauty! I love the bus ride scene! Ray Quick gets out of his seat and offers it to a pregnant woman, only to have a young hoodlum take the seat instead. Quick calmly beats the crap out of the hoodlum and all his friends, throwing one of them out a window (not open), and then re-offers the seat to the woman. This scene has no bearing on the plot, but helps us get to know Quick. It is awesome powerful scene!

Why I love this movie? I love it because in this movie Stallone doesn't use gun or machine guns but he uses his expatriate, high explosives and hand to hand combat. The Specialist is the most Underrated Action Thriller. I love Sharon Stone from Basic Instinct to another action thriller The Specialist and I love James Woods playing a villain in this movie. This was the only action movie that Stallone made in 1994 it was success but it turned in to one of very underrated movie and honestly I don't care.

This movie is, apart from the film music, as a whole a must-see for action movie lovers with erotic scenes, built in smoothly. The double role of May makes the movie richer: there IS a plot possible in these kind of movies!. Action abound and well distributed over the time. Eric Roberts and James Woods play their roles at the same high level as Sylvester Stallone and Sharon Stone. I see originality, in the sense of action: the highly developed explosive devices-do hey really exist? CIA will know.. A flaw ,which I do not understand up to now, is that the getaway boat from M&M seafood seemed to be so readily available. The goofy trick with the telephone in the Fontainebleau Hotel as well, but those are not disturbing details. The movie has a steady pace and ends with the Miami Sound Machine!. Best scene is of course , the intimate scene in the hotel. Superb entertainment!

Two of Hollywood's biggest stars combine fiery action with steamy sensuality in The Specialist. Sharon Stone, a drop-dead beauty with a fatal past. She's sworn death to the mobsters who murdered her parents and she's decided the method of their disposal: blast 'em- one by one- to kingdom come. She also knows the right man for the job: cool-fire ex-CIA explosives expert Ray Quick (Sylvester Stallone). That is your basic plot!

I am giving this film a 8, because what the hell, this film deserves it! I love this film it is my best Stallone fifth favorite film!

The Specialist is a 1994 American action film directed by Luis Llosa, starring Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone and James Woods.

8/10 Grade: B Studio: Warner Bros Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods, Rod Steiger, Eric Roberts Director: Luis Llosa Producer: Jerry Weintraub Screenplay: Alexandra Seros Based on The Specialist novels by John Shirley Rated: R Running Time: 1 Hr. 50 Mins. Budget: $57.000.000 Box Office: $159,055,768

A silly but entertaining film

[ebert_jr · 7/10 · 18 December 2004]

Rod Steiger is a hilarious Latino mob boss, dropping lines like "Ju think I'm going to..and Ju know whaddd?" James Woods here is at his over-acting best; screeching and hollering out his lines as he chases Sly's trail around Miami. And then there's Sly and Sharon Stone. She is as hot as he sounds dumb...like as in fresh from the Rocky film ring, post fight, drooling, monotone line reading, dumb. But, his character is an explosive expert who, as Stone points out, can "shape his charge" and, "direct" his "explosions". Hot hot hot. If Sharon Stone weighed in at about 200 lbs, this movie would be unwatchable, but it is Sharon Stone, and the rest of the cast seem to have fun doing what they're doing, I say it's a good diversion if you have absolutely nothing to do with your time.

Mob, revenge, and lots of pyrotechnics in this crime film

[SimonJack · 5/10 · 22 April 2017]

Miami mob rule, revenge, and a contest between two former CIA demo experts make up "The Specialist." James Woods is especially good as Ned Trent, the former CIA assassin who enjoys killing and brutality. Sylvester Stallone is Ray Quick, the former sidekick who brought him down in the CIA and now confronts him in the mob rule of Miami. Sharon Stone is May Munro who seeks revenge 15 years after she witnessed the Leon family killing of her parents.

Rod Steiger is Joe Leon, the head of the family. He has hired Trent to update security of his operation. Leon's son, Tomas (Eric Roberts) was one of the three killers of May's parents. He and Trent despise one another. "The Specialist" may have more explosions in it than any other film – surely any one that's not a war movie.

Viewers can enjoy the sly Sly Stallone in his craft of rigging every kind of explosive device imaginable to take down the bad guys. But, overall this is a crass and rough film with lots of brutality, violence and yes – a very long scene with full nudity of the two leads, back and sides in the shower. Definitely not a family film – and not a good one at all beyond all the pyrotechnics.

Stallone + Stone = Fireworks!

[dtrent-2 · 28 July 2000]

This seems like a film tailor-made so Sly & Sharon can 'strut their stuff' in the coupling dept. Sharon vamps, Sly warbles thru his lines. Yea, he's got a deep & sexy voice but you can only pick up on what he's saying to her on the phone if you got close-caption on your set! Anyway, they both look VERY fine in this film. James Woods is the pest you'll love to hate being the back-stabber that he is. "Slime" is the only word to use for Eric Roberts role & Rod Steiger's Hispanic accent is fun! See the edited version of this one. It's got a slick color to it that's quite appealing being that it was shot in Miami where everything's bright pink & green.

What a stinker

[Josh-70 · 1/10 · 11 April 1999]

Apart from the wooden acting, the heavy-handed direction, the vapid dialogue, farcical 'action' scenes and the incredulous plot, this movie was the worst film I've seen in a long, long time. Given a choice between stabbing myself repeatedly with a pen and watching this movie again, I'll take the pen.

The Wrong People Saw This Movie

[bluzman · 6/10 · 19 December 2004]

This was an okay, but not great movie. With a little work it could have been much better. They needed less over-dramatization and cartoonishness concerning several of the characters. They needed more development of a few characters. They needed to work more inside Stallone and Wood's heads beyond simple character development -- Dennis Hopper or even Charles Bronson could have done a good job in Stallone's role.

But, to get to the point of my comment title, this movie was probably pulling the wrong audience from day one -- the right one never showed up. Everyone saw Stallone's name and they wanted Rocky and Rambo, or stayed away because of Rambo, more than Rocky. They are going to be disappointed. This is not a John Wayne Shoot'em Up movie, it is more a Clint Eastwood Spaghetti Western. They are not gonna see 10+ knockout punches per round complete with slo-mo flying sweat, grimaces and groans. They are not gonna get a guy who carries more ordinance than a Hummer and can walk through a hail of lead from "professional" shooters and shoot them at will.

Underwhelming

[Vartiainen · 4/10 · 17 December 2016]

Sylvester Stallone plays a former CIA bomb expert turned hit man, who gets hired by a beautiful woman to take out the crime boss responsible for the death of her parents. He plans the hit, gets pulled in by the feminine wiles of his employer, meets a nemesis from his past, things get blown up, the usual.

It's a passable film by most standards. Stallone doesn't bring as much ham as he usually does, which is a shame, but the explosions themselves are pretty neat, especially the end scene in a house filled with things designed to go kaboom. But, as you've probably already guessed, the characters are utterly lifeless, the plot is paper thin, the dialogue is laughable and the story telling is something that could be topped by a kindergartener.

Still, there's something about Stallone and his particular style of action films that makes this a watchable movie. Nowhere near one of his better films, but I in no way regret seeing it.

A fast paced action movie with capable actors.

[scubamike · 7/10 · 14 May 2000]

Stallone and Woods are ex CIA commandos who have become opposing forces. Stone is a not so defenseless damsel in distress and you guessed it Stallone comes charging to the rescue. This is not "Gone with the Wind" and if you are looking for it just keep looking. However, if you are a fan of Stallone or Stone and like fast paced action movies go down to the video store now. Stallone and Stone work really well together and they give you a great movie never slows down. James Woods is the Champ of heavys. No one even comes close to his talent for creating evil characters and in this movie he breaks his own record.

I think they forgot to write a plot

[kcorley-2 · 1/10 · 25 August 1999]

Truly appalling This is an action movie by numbers... but the action isn't very exciting and the plot holes just annoy. For example, when rehashing the well worn cliche of hero deals with gang on bus, the violence is totally disproportionate to what the gang has done......and these little explosive devices that magically only take out one person (even knowing which way round they hold a saucer) are frankly dull

A bad plot with terrible acting and only semi-amusing stunts

Good movie, but not Slys best...

[richieandsam · 7/10 · 15 January 2013]

THE SPECIALIST

I love cheesy action movies... especially those from the 80s and 90s. And let's face it... the royalty of action movies has to be Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone.

I had seen The Specialist a long time ago, but I didn't remember much about it... apart from the most famous scene in the movie.

I really enjoyed it... it was good action and also a good thriller too. This was made when Sylvester Stallone was in his prime in my opinion. He made some classic films in the 90s. One of my favourite movies of the 90s is Demolition Man.

This is not one of his best movies, but it is still a very good one. In case you don't remember it, the story is about a guy who is a trained killer hired by the government who goes into retirement after an innocent person gets killed by mistake. He gets hired by a lady who saw her parents get murdered when she was a little girl, to kill the guy who killed her parents. He is the son of a mafia boss. The problem is, Stallones old boss now works for the mafia.

The acting is pretty much what you would expect from a cheesy action film. It's alright but some of it is comical. Sharon Stone plays the lady that hired him and she does a great job in this. But then back in the day I liked her as an actress. She has made some great films. Eric Roberts plays the guy that Stallone is after. Eric is really good at playing a bad guy... although I think he was really good in Best of the Best. He has been is so many big movies, yet doesn't seem to get the recognition he deserves. Rod Steiger plays the mafia boss... he is funny. His accent just sounds so fake that every time he spoke I smiled. J

I will give this film a 7 out of 10.

I really liked it, but Stallone has made better.

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