The Specialist
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| The Specialist | |
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 The Specialist promotional movie poster |
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| Directed by | Luis Llosa |
| Produced by | Jerry Weintraub |
| Written by | Alexandra Seros |
| Starring | Sylvester Stallone Sharon Stone James Woods Rod Steiger Eric Roberts |
| Music by | John Barry |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | October 7, 1994 (USA) |
| Running time | 110 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $45,000,000 US (est.) |
| IMDb profile | |
The Specialist was a 1994 drama, action film from Warner Bros. Pictures. It was directed by Luis Llosa, produced by Jerry Weintraub, and written by Alexandra Seros. Among the cast were Hollywood notables Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, James Woods and Rod Steiger.
The film "won" the 1994 Razzie awards for Worst Actress (Stone) and Worst Screen Couple (Stallone and Stone). It was also nominated for Worst Picture and Worst Supporting Actor (Steiger).
The film runs for 110 minutes, in color. It had an MPAA rating of R for violence, sex, nudity, and language.
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[edit] Synopsis
The family of May Munro (Sharon Stone) was killed by the mafia when she was a girl. Now as an adult she wants to get revenge, and she decides that ex-CIA bomb expert-turned mercenary-for-hire Ray Quick (Sylvester Stallone) is just the man to do it.
Ray is at first reluctant. But he finds the case intriguing enough to shadow (almost stalk) May, and eventually decides to do the job. The remainder of the film involves Ray taking down the murderers one at a time, while trying to avoid retaliation from the Miami drug cartel. A former comrade of Ray (James Woods) becomes involves on the side of the mob, complicating the task.
[edit] Criticism
The movie is slow-paced at times, particularly during the early shadow scenes and the story and much of the acting was not well-received by film critics.
[edit] Box Office
The movie did well at the box office earning $170,362,582 worldwide.
[edit] Trivia
- The character of Ray Quick was inspired by the title character in a series of novels by John Shirley called “The Specialist”.
- Steven Seagal was offered the lead role but he wanted $9 million to star and direct, so the producers turned him down.
- Academy-Award winning screenwriter Akiva Goldsman did an uncredited rewrite of the script early in his career.
- Sharon Stone had long had a crush on Sylvester Stallone before working with him.
- The look on Sharon Stone's face when the bombs go off at the end is genuine fear; unlike Stallone she was not used to being around explosions.
