DVD Reviews: The Tracker

The Tracker (TT) takes us on a journey into the underworld of the Russian Mafia whilst not lending itself too seriously.  It has many ingredients in the make-up of the story and has a little of almost everything.  There are displays of martial Arts along with murder, quick wit and a few twists are thrown in for good measure.  My favourite part being the martial arts which is superbly done, along with the great humour.   

There is the odd disappointing downfall, which is common to many action movies.  This is when some events turn out as if they were put there without considering loopholes that the audience will pick up on.  But hey, let’s face it this may not bother too many people.  Action films are made to entertain, not to be analysed. 

The beginning sees a house being shot to shreds with many people dying in the process.  During this incident a woman (Kim Chang) is kidnapped and story starts from there.  Enter Connor Spears (Casper Van Dien), a LAPD cop with emotional attachment to the kidnapped woman.   

Connor joins up with Rick Tsung, the brother of Kim and also a cop/martial arts extraordinaire, to track Kim and solve the mystery about who is behind all this.  The two officers meet a female ex-army, Taxi driver (Robertson) who helps with their mission and to also provide a little comic relief.  The investigation involves lots of fighting either with guns or fist and also a few car chase scenes to add to an already impressive repertoire. 

I must say the acting was not the most convincing ever witnessed but there is a lot of good in this film to outweigh the bad.  The fighting scenes are great whilst not being up to the standard of say Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon.  But we are comparing two totally different subject matters.  One is a western cop fighting film and the other is a fantasy eastern film.  The choreography is done well with a healthy injection of martial arts. 

The story may lose you between the shoot’em up scene and the middle but mostly it’s satisfactory.  This is purely an action stunt movie with a twist which Ill leave you to find out.  The dialogue is good with a few witty remarks put in for entertainment sake.  Comments like when Connor walks into a room where the other heroes are, looking a bit battered and says “I need an Aspirin” do add a bit more edge. 

The sound is clear and crisp, no low level noise and no black squares.  There are no filters used although there are some well-filmed stunts to be seen.  Definitely one for the action fans who enjoy martial arts and let’s face it this is a pretty popular subject.  There are no extras, which is ok but more could have been done in this department.  Maybe some Cast Biographies or a short doco about the making of it wouldn’t have gone astray.