Forget the likes of THE FOREIGNER or even OUT FOR A KILL, as this, Seagal's latest offering, is a cut above the rest. Director Siu-Tung Ching takes the reins and delivers a surprisingly stylish, OTT, action-packed DTV venture that is sure to please any fan of Seagal's, looking for one more decent movie to watch. The Chinese influence is clear in that there is plenty of wirework in the martial arts sequences, but thankfully the action is generally slick, fast and exciting. My only complaint is that they played a pop song over one of the most potentially exciting showdowns – what the hell were they thinking?!
The plot is slimfast and slightly reminiscent of COMMANDO: Seagal's daughter is kidnapped by a mock Al-Qaeda sect and he has 76 hours to rescue her. The setting is Thailand, with pretty good use of location photography, and there are lots of peripheral characters milling around. Seagal even has a young lover and a romantic interlude in a bed, you have to wonder if he wrote her into the script himself as a reward for his chastity in his last three or four movies. Anyway, back to the action, and we have lots of bone-breaking, high-kicking fun, including attacks by she-males, sword-wielding nutters, common thugs and an arrow-shooting general in the Thai army who seems incredibly fit. There are huge shoot-outs with hundreds of bullets flying and Seagal's pistol has about 200 bullets in it, amazing stuff.
Seagal is looking older every day, and wider. Yet he's more active here than in previous outings and kicks ass in quite a few scenes. There are other hilarious times when he jumps up, changes body shape and does a flying spin-kick on somebody, hmm, can you say body double? Also hilarious are the 'stunts' "performed" by Seagal, such as diving through a wall shooting, or rolling on a rail cart and shooting. Astonishingly, his voice is dubbed too in some moments. Is there anything else this man can surprise us with? Seagal's ranged support includes Rue from STREET FIGHTER (Byron Mann) as a partner who shoots an innocent woman and becomes a monk, and Ash from CASUALTY(Patrick Robinson), pretending to be an American CIA agent. Tom Wu is underused but imposing as a villain. Not a lot else to say, except I haven't seen a film this much fun in a film since it was directed by Mark Lester. Oh, and keep an eye out for the voodoo subplot, great stuff, harks back to the fun of MARKED FOR DEATH.
The plot is slimfast and slightly reminiscent of COMMANDO: Seagal's daughter is kidnapped by a mock Al-Qaeda sect and he has 76 hours to rescue her. The setting is Thailand, with pretty good use of location photography, and there are lots of peripheral characters milling around. Seagal even has a young lover and a romantic interlude in a bed, you have to wonder if he wrote her into the script himself as a reward for his chastity in his last three or four movies. Anyway, back to the action, and we have lots of bone-breaking, high-kicking fun, including attacks by she-males, sword-wielding nutters, common thugs and an arrow-shooting general in the Thai army who seems incredibly fit. There are huge shoot-outs with hundreds of bullets flying and Seagal's pistol has about 200 bullets in it, amazing stuff.
Seagal is looking older every day, and wider. Yet he's more active here than in previous outings and kicks ass in quite a few scenes. There are other hilarious times when he jumps up, changes body shape and does a flying spin-kick on somebody, hmm, can you say body double? Also hilarious are the 'stunts' "performed" by Seagal, such as diving through a wall shooting, or rolling on a rail cart and shooting. Astonishingly, his voice is dubbed too in some moments. Is there anything else this man can surprise us with? Seagal's ranged support includes Rue from STREET FIGHTER (Byron Mann) as a partner who shoots an innocent woman and becomes a monk, and Ash from CASUALTY(Patrick Robinson), pretending to be an American CIA agent. Tom Wu is underused but imposing as a villain. Not a lot else to say, except I haven't seen a film this much fun in a film since it was directed by Mark Lester. Oh, and keep an eye out for the voodoo subplot, great stuff, harks back to the fun of MARKED FOR DEATH.