Bullet Points: Soul Assassin
In 1901, Pablo Picasso would enter what has become known as his Blue Period. The Spanish born painter was using shades of blue and blue-green during this time to create monochromatic paintings.
Nearly a century later, Hollywood would enter their Blue Period with the release of The Matrix in 1999. The success of The Matrix seemed to spark a trend in Hollywood with movies opting for the blue tint.
One example of a movie that decided to go blue… 2001’s Soul Assassin…
- Rising Star: Skeet Ulrich plays Kevin Burke, a young executive on the rise at Jorgensen Financial, a multinational investment bank headquartered in Rotterdam. Burke has impressed his boss Karl Jorgensen so much, that Mr. Jorgensen delivers Kevin some good news… Kevin is being promoted to the Vice President of Security for Jorgensen Financial. If getting promoted is not enough of a positive, Kevin is just hours away from a romantic evening he has meticulously planned with his girlfriend/fellow Jorgensen Financial employee, Rosalind. Kevin is equal parts nervous and excited about his night out with Rosalind as he plans on popping the big question! Kevin is on cloud nine and even his office rival, the boss’ son, Karl Jorgensen Jr. can’t ruin his day.
- Plans Change: Kevin takes Rosalind up to their hotel room with a blindfold on, when they get inside Rosalind removes the blindfold and sees the beautiful view of Rotterdam outside, flower pedals on the bed and a bottle of champagne on ice. The two manage to get in a little sexy time and arguing before there is a knock on the door… this is it, the big moment, Kevin tells Rosalind to answer the door while he gets the ring ready… a delivery man has roses for Rosalind… roses and a GUN! He shoots Rosalind right in the gut… after a brief skirmish with Kevin, the gunman takes off and Rosalind, who has been rapidly losing blood, dies right there in the hotel room.
- Why Rosalind?: Kevin can’t believe the woman he loved has been murdered, his mind is racing as to why anyone would want to kill Rosalind… a question the Interpol agents on the scene are also wondering. Kevin gets some unexpected answers from his boss Mr. Jorgensen. Jorgensen tells Kevin that Rosalind had been laundering money for some of their clients and had actually been receiving death threats for some time… Kevin can’t believe it. But before he has time to really process the information, Jorgensen gets some intel as to where the gunman is hiding out… Kevin wastes no time. He wants to find the man who killed his would be wife and more importantly find out who hired him. And Kevin does locate the assassin, but before the guy can spill the beans he is shot dead by Karl Jr… this only adds to the tension between the two young business rivals and makes the audience think that Karl Jr. was so jealous of Kevin that he went to some real extremes to ruin Kevin’s life.
- Steel Away: Kevin is once again fed some more intel from his boss and this time Kevin finds himself going to a steel mill to track down a guy named Nikolai… Kevin believes that Nikolai is the man who paid to have Rosalind killed, but as Kevin points a gun at Nikolai, Nikolai drops some knowledge on Kevin that makes him question just about everything. But before Kevin can get more answers, Nikolai’s team spot Kevin holding a gun to their boss’ head and a shootout ensues. People die and now Kevin is a wanted man by the authorities and on the run. I should note that it is there at the steel mill that Kevin has his first encounter with Kristy Swanson’s character Tessa Jansen (she worked for Nikolai). Tessa will prove to be Kevin’s key to unraveling the mystery of Rosalind’s death and much more!
I am not sure Soul Assassin knew exactly what it wanted to be (or why it was titled Soul Assassin). That could be one reason why the 96 minute runtime felt about three times longer than it actually was. There were scenes and characters that really dragged the pace of the movie down.
Skeet Ulrich did manage to do his best Jason Bourne impersonation as he battled his way through a web of corporate espionage… but in the end it wasn’t enough to save the movie and after watching I couldn’t help but feel a little blue.
Bonus Bullet Points:
- If You Ever: …wanted to see Skeet Ulrich engage in a bicycle chase up and down the streets (and steps) of Rotterdam, then this is the movie for you.
- Blue Quote: “I don’t give a damn if she’s blowing every banker on the eighth floor.” And speaking of blow jobs…
- If You Ever: …wanted to see a former male co-worker offer to go down on Skeet Ulrich, then this is the movie for you.
