The Specialist

_Explosive comic book crime thriller with Stallone, Stone and Woods_ An ex-CIA demolitions expert (Sylvester Stallone) is hired by a grim beauty in Miami (Sharon Stone) to take out the mobsters who murdered her parents when she was a girl. Rod Steiger and Eric Roberts play high society gangsters while James Woods is on hand as the specialist’s rival, who works for the mob. "The Specialist" (1994) is a competent Stallone action flick set in Miami, albeit seriously comic booky with Woods really hamming it up; Roberts too, to a lesser degree. Stallone was 47 during shooting and in exceptional shape. Not that I care, but he and Stone are shown totally nude in a shower scene (in a tasteful way). She looked great at 35, but this flick doesn’t beat “King Solomon’s Mines” (1985) where Sharon’s shorts kept getting shorter as the story progressed. Her character in that film wasn’t ultra-bitter as she is in this one; she was all-around vibrant. It’s kind of glaring, but the movie borrowed music from the 80’s Bond films; obviously the producers wanted that vibe. While it lacks the globetrotting of 007, it’s basically a mix of 80’s Bond and “The Punisher” (1989). The film runs 1 hour, 50 minutes and was shot in the Miami area, Florida, with the opening done at Great Falls Dam, Rock Island, Tennessee. GRADE: B-/C+