User reviews

Submerged is yet another putrid straight to video release involving a bloated and aging Steven Seagal trying unsuccessfully to hide the fact he can barely do any martial arts any more and the fact that he is really quite overweight. He still can't hide the fact that he can't act either, despite the fact he appears to be dubbed for sections of the movie (Which is why some of his dialogue is actually semi-intelligible for a change). The film-makers attempts to hide Seagal's lack of mobility and increasing girth are largely what make these latter day Seagal flicks entertaining. Clever tricks such as close editing in the fight scenes so you can't actually see Seagal isn't doing anything very impressive, dark lighting to hide his jowls and breadth and loose clothing so as to not accentuate his less than athletic physique.

Anyway, the movie involves Seagal and a ragtag group of ex navy bad-arses being pulled out of prison (There is some lame political cover-up after an operation gone wrong angle to explain their presence there) to go after an evil scientist who has developed a mind control device and hiding out with some vaguely motivated militants in Uruguay. It is never made clear exactly why the hell the government is using a bunch of convicts for this mission- I thought perhaps they would have been selected as it was more likely they hadn't been got at by the mind control device when it had been established the US special forces had already been compromised this way but such explanation was not offered on screen- in other words if the script-writers for this movie actually put as much thought into the plot in writing the script as I did in watching it for a few minutes it was lost in the editing stage. At least Seagal isn't playing an archaeologist, a scientist or an arch bishop or some equally unbelievable profession in this one.

Although the movie is called Submerged very little of it actually set on a submarine. It was rumoured before this one came out that it was to involve Segal on a submarine battling a sea monster but unfortunately this was not the case. (No cheap jokes about Segal playing the sea monster I promise). The first section involves the group getting together and raiding the baddies base, the middle section is actually on the submarine and actually seems kind of shoehorned in, almost as though they wanted to make this mind control action picture and then found half the budget had been blown on a submarine set they were then obliged to use. The last section of this meandering and goofy storyline is set in some South American city (Yes I'm too lazy to look it up).

The plot is meandering, is full of holes and makes little sense (I was quite frankly shocked) but the film is full of action and is never dull, even if it is because of unintentional laughs, of which there are many. My two favourites- Seagal's ultra cheesy slow mo entrance- chained in shackles walking slowly toward the camera (Naturally) with loud heavy metal playing in the background in a lame attempt to make him look cool. The second and funniest is at the end when Segal kicks one of the main bad guys about forty metres through the air accompanied by some bizarre trumpet blast sound effect. Seagal doesn't actually do much in the way of martial arts (Wonder why?) but there are plenty of goofy action sequences such as a Commando like sequence where Segal and friends take on a small army, complete with tanks and barely get hurt. As I said, the movie is fast moving and all over the place shifting from location to location, from a dam/naval facility to a submarine, to the streets of a South American city, to an opera house, to a cartoonesque super-villain base/ laboratory. There is a large supporting cast to distract from Seagals non-acting, most of whom are dead by the end of the movie, including two Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels alumni- Vinnie Jones, applying his usual cheerfully violent soccer hooligan type character that brings some much needed colour to the screen and Hatchet Harry. Most of Seagal's team is forgettable, the only other ones I remember a few days after watching it are stiff faced woman and skinny Latino dude.

In summation, if you want to watch a stupid, cheesy but on the whole entertaining(ly bad) action flick and laugh at the comedy institution that is Steven Seagal then Submerged is pure gold.

We are usually Steve Seagal fans but as time goes by, we find the plots get murkier and murkier and harder to follow. The director was over-enamored with jerky forwards; this device can be used to effect but not if done too often.

Most disturbing, however, was that early on I could no longer suspend my disbelief when the action takes place in Uruguay and they showed Mayan ruins (the Mayans lived in Central America and Uruguay is northeast of Argentina). Shortly thereafter one of Seagal's crew sits down to drive a submarine and notes in dismay that the instructions are in Spanish. Hello? The instructions are in Italian.

Also, even though most of the inter-acting protagonists were Americans, Spanish is the language spoken in Uruguay. I think I detected about two words in Spanish; it did not lend to the over-all authenticity.

Sorry to say that I know know why this went directly to DVD. This film is not vintage Steven Seagal at his finest. He character in the film almost seemed like he was tired. If you like "shoot em' up" films just for the firepower then this is the film to see but if you enjoy an action film with a flowing story that makes sense then you're going to be horribly disappointed. Without giving anything away, right from the beginning you wonder how, under his current legal circumstance, he was picked for this mission. They don't explain why. If I directed this thing I would have at least had a line in the film saying "we can't trust anyone other then someone that has been locked away from the rest of humanity for quite sometime" which would have worked. The film went downhill from there. Even the film's title didn't make sense. It leads you to believe that the film takes place on or about a submarine which it does not. The submarine scene really had nothing to do with the plot. At one point one of his men say "we are submerged" hence the film topic. Point is that even the title wasn't suited for this film nor was the film suited for me. Mr. Seagal did one quick Martial arts scene in the entire film. Not what I expected from a marital arts action star. Many of his lines were vintage Seagal one liners but were very dorky. Sorry Steven but this is not your best work. I was very disappointed with this film and honestly I suggest keeping your money and renting one of his other films.

Syeven Seagal is gone for good. All he ever makes these days are crap B movies. The old stuff like Nico, Hard To Kill, Out For Justice and Under Siedge is in the past... If you don't wanna see a crap movie then just skip this one. Totally crap. I have seen all of Seagals movies and this is in the league of one of his baddest to date. Oh my god I say. Gary Daniels I expect this from but from Vinnie Jones? I hope I never see something this bad again ever in my life. But I know I will some day :) Forget this crap. I give it 1 out of 10 stars and that's just cause I have to give it one as it is the lowest. Pls Steven, get some backbone and stop making crap movies.

This picture is based in a country with bananas, terrorists, tyrant government, Heidi's girls raising goats...COME ON!!! URUGUAY IS IN SOUTH America, and we raise COWS no goats!!! This is one of the most peaceful countries in America, that's one of the most particular characteristics of our country. We have nothing in common with BULGARY (where it was filmed), we don't have Maya's ruins (that is in north and central America, please!!!), and we can't hide a submarine!! If you want to create a new country, be my guest! But you are showing this movie all over the world with bad concepts and a very poor history. Please...search a little more before you film a movie!!!

OK, we all know what we are to expect from a S.S. film. Definitely not good quality cinema, but a lot of laughs! Even if I did get the laughs, I also got quite upset about how they portray our country. The level of ignorance of these people is astounding!!

What you can find in the real Uruguay: people whose language is Spanish and whose accent is different from the rest of South America and only similar to the Argentinian accent; democracy; very little evidence of our Indian heritage; European looking people (we are mostly descendants of Spanish and Italian immigrants)

What you will find in "submerged" Uruguay: people who speak Spanish with a totally different accent from ours, probably from Central America; people whose written language is sometimes Italian, sometimes another language (pay attention to submarine instructions, find the words "telefon" and "revolution"); a revolution going on; Mayan ruins (!!!); Viking looking men and Swedish looking women(!!!!!)

So, just for the record, the country you'll see in submerged is not Uruguay (actually, it's Bulgaria), though for some reason the people involved in submerged thought it would be a good idea to say it takes place here. Anyway, I invite everyone to laugh at this joke of a film, just remember our country is nothing like submerged shows... and if you know someone from Uruguay, watch submerged together, and you'll have even more fun!!!

I am from Urguguay and i couldn't believe what my eyes were seeing!!!!! Is not that hard go to internet or to an encyclopedia and search a little bit about the country that you are going to make a movie in!!! Lets review some misunderstands:we don't have goats!, we have cows, sheets, horses... but not goats!!:( We don't have mountains! We don't have Maya's ruins!!we never had Mayas! We don't have bananas! We don't have terrorists! We don't look like people from Peru or Bolivia. Anyway i have to say that for a moment it was funny ;) see all this ruins and mountains he he he. But at the same time i felt a little insulted from the director of this movie because he had no idea what he was talking about. I have no idea what they were trying to do, they needed a place to make their movie but they cant just invent a culture and a geography and people and a government to a country that already exists!! If you want to invent a new country its OK for me but don't put the name of mine in your non existing place. it is very disrespectful to all south American countries the fact that Hollywood feels free to say and show absolutely everything that they want about us including fakes things. so Anthony for your next movie just try to be a little more informed OK?

First of all, I feel sorry for anyone who can't watch this movie and enjoy it. Anyone who rents a Seagal DTV flick and expects it to be good is either a glutton for punishment or has taken far too many drugs. Look, if you've seen one of them, you do realize they're all going to be roughly the same, right? It always amazes me when people post reviews that contain the following words: "Too many overdubs, Seagal is fat, the special effects are tacky." Alright...everyone...all together now...WE KNOW! Thanks.

Okay, now that I got that out of the way, let's face it. Seagal kicks ass. It is now time to introduce everyone to my concept of "bad-ass-itude". Seagal has it. In fact, his level of bad-ass-itude is directly proportional to his weight and the length of his curiously frizzy mullet. Whether we're talking about his major releases or his wonderfully awful DTVs, the man kicks ass. When I watch a Seagal film, I laugh at the awful parts, and cheer when he beats the crap out of someone. It's kind of like watching an 80s hair band, in 2005. Yeah, they're all fat and old now, but they still rock. And if you don't understand the Way in which Seagal rules, then you have no business renting his movies.

Submerged is actually pretty good. In fact, relative to his last few, Submerged is an early Oscar contender. The movie is actually quite stylish, for the budget. They do a good job of "teching" up the transitions (kind of like a low budget Enemy of the State or something of that nature). The jump-cuts and slow-mos aren't nearly as ridiculous as they have been in his previous movies. I think its really funny that we Seagal fans can actually have a discussion about the overdubs in THIS movie and the gratuitous use of superimposed text in THAT movie. It's like a genre of ridiculosity in and of itself.

Anyway, there are some truly brutal moments in this film. Seagal, though he doesn't have a lot of fight scenes, manages to beat down quite a few people. Yes, he's fat, but he could still waste about 99% of the people on this earth. As a person who has dabbled in the martial arts, his moves are somewhat more exciting to me than they may be for many of the "movie critics" on this page. Even though he's old and fat, he's still got it.

Has anyone else noticed that Seagal thinks he's black? That's always entertaining to me. I'm too lazy to check up on which one it is, but this reminds me of the movie in which he uttered the phrase "Ya ain't nothing' but a trailah park bitch." I don't know why he does this, but I'm sure glad he does. Anyway, he does it in this movie as well.

The only Seagal trademark this movie is missing is the completely unnecessary gratuitous boob-shot, but that can be forgiven. I was also slightly disappointed that there weren't any sea mutants, but hey...they can't all be winners. The plot was pretty good though, not very original, but entertaining. It was a little confusing at times, but then again there's no real point in analyzing the plot to a Seagal movie. These movies are vehicles for violence. In fact, all the movies are pretty much the same. Seagal is always a mercenary, ex-CIA, ex-Special Ops, ex-Navy Seal, history professor who's (*insert family member or wife here*) has been kidnapped by evil terrorists. He has issues with his superiors, has a terrible mullet, pretends he's a race other than his own, gains 15 pounds from the first frame to the last, and kills people. If you expect anything else (or more) from these movies, you are an idiot. So stop seeing them and leave us fans alone. These are as funny as they are awesome, and if you don't get that, then you don't understand bad-ass-itude.

"Ya ain't nothing' but a trailah park bitch."

Hello Everyone:

I have just rented and watched Steven Seagal's latest film entitled," Submerged." To tell you the truth Steven Seagal is not only the reason why this movie is so poor. To start with you have poor lightening as many, and I mean many of the scene's were shot way too dark, and even at times you really can not tell what is going on cinematically. Onward now we get to the director, as Hickox did a lousy job with this movie as I do give him respect for trying to attempt to entertain us with all of his directing tricks to keep us, the audience riveted, but it truly did not work.

Now in getting to the script, as it appeared to me that very little care went into this portion of the film. A total bust as far as I am concerned. The producing was terrible as well.

I have a question with this particular film. Why is Steven Seagal's vocal parts being dubbed? He was not overdubbed for a minute or two as in the case with his last five film's, but throughout more than half the film and that is way too much. It really seemed as if nobody gave a damn with this flick as the disappointment just sets in and sinks really hard!!

I know for a fact that Seagal's film," Ticker," was done rather quickly but ended up a good solid feature, which by the way starred not only Steven Seagal, but veteran actor Mr.Dennis Hopper and Mr.Tom Sizemore who did a great job, as these are clearly experienced actor's who know just what to do with a little bit and turn out a fine movie.

And finally let us get to the acting..... ah yes the acting. While I was watching this monstrosity I quickly learned that I really could not care about any of the actor's that appeared on the screen as they really could not hold my attention at all. Clearly these are all in-experienced actor's who need to get back to the basic's in their craft if they really want to go anywhere.

To sum it up, " Submerged," is a poor film as it clearly is Steven Seagal's worst to date. Even with the straight to DVD release's such as, " The Foreigner," " " Out For A Kill," " Belly Of The Beast," " Out Of Reach," and one of Seagal's finest movies that should have had a theatrical release here in the United States, " Into The Sun," (no overdub's with Seagal's voice as far as I could tell) were all great and very enjoyable in their own personal way. I own all of Steven Seagal's film's, yes, some of them are better than other's, but this film will not see a space on my DVD rack. Forget this one.

To close this commentary out, Steven Seagal is truly my all time favorite action hero as he alway's will be. I have a lot of respect for him and I alway's have enjoyed his film's whether or not they ended up on the big screen in recent year's. Nobody can compare to Seagal as he is in a class all by himself. Remember fan's, we all get older too each and every day so give Steven Seagal the respect he deserve's. Every action hero is entitled to a dud so let us just forget about " Submerged," and make like it was never made.

Now I am looking forward to September 2005's release of " Today You Die," and the December 2005 release of," Black Dawn." These two are expected to be much better films, more like his last grouping of movies. ( As of February 1st,2006- " Black Dawn," was a great Spy/Drama/Action film. Seagal had very little action sequences in the release, but the story was quite interesting. There were also very little to no dubbing on Seagal's voice. Check it out.)

Peace:

Nicky Tuzio

e-mail: tuztones@peoplepc.com

"Submerged" is an absolute B-movie blast of fun & old school Action like a 90's flick!!! As far as B-movies & DTV films go well Submerged, is one of the best & most fun I've ever seen!!!

I'm a Seagal fan but i admit often his DTV films can be terrible garbage (Black Dawn,Shadow Man,Flight of Fury,Attack Force,A Good Man) but there's also the really good & decent enjoyable one's (Against The Dark, Belly of the Beast,Urban Justice,A Dangerous Man,The Keeper,Driven to Kill) among others, & here with his own "Expendables" style movie (Stallone must've copied the idea as this came out many years before) & is one hell of a blast of a well made & good looking B-movie. Seagal is good here as tough Ex-mercenary, Chris Cody who with his team have been given a full pardon from military prison in order to track down & capture an evil brainwashing Doctor played greatly by Nick Brimble, who is brainwashing captured soldiers & using them as Assassins to get into secured places & kill their target. Among the crew of Seagal's Mercs is the always fun to watch British tough guy Vinnie Jones, who is a big B-movie star & seems to be in as much stuff as "Danny Trejo" & that's saying something!!! Here Vinnie plays the good & trust-worthy Henry, he's a very cool character & does some Awesome fight scenes. We also get the pretty & just as tough Alison King (Carla from Corrie) as Damita, also there's another hard as hell British B-movie star Gary Daniels (The Expendables) as a mind-worped soldier named Sharpe & some, might know the face actors but it's a solid cast & a well acted movie. This flick is a higher quality DTV film than most but there's a few silly bits like Seagal still had that stupid voice dubbing now & then, i think because he's so hard to work with I've heard alot that he won't listen to the Director's or come back for re-shoots or for any sort of voice over bits!!! I do read alot about how hard he is to work with, he's does come accross a an arrogant A-hole but he's still enjoyable to watch "Taking out the trash" & often makes fun & violent B-movies so that's why he still has a big fan base. Also other actors i hear are hard to work with like, Bruce Willis. Anyway Seagal probably isn't the nicest of the Action legends such as Schwarzenegger, Stallone & Van Damme but as we grew up watching these guys we're more forgiving to how they are in real life.

The look & cinematography of "Submerged" is excellent with lots of bright contrast colour & a proper good budget movie look. This DTV film has a feel of quality all over it & feels like everyone involved wanted to make a decent & totally entertaining Action Thriller & they did. This is not just a great Steven Seagal film but it's genuinely a great B-movie Gem. Submerged, is well made, well directed & well acted for a low-budget movie. The action is Awesome & shot just like you would get in a big budget blockbuster movie, so there's definitely a level of care & effort put into making this movie. I liked Seagal's character & i liked his team & the main villain or "Bad guy" was really good. I enjoyed the story & set-up, as with a DTV film called "Submerged" it sounded like a cheap & tacky Navy-war type of Thriller but it's nothing like that at all!!! The "submerged" Submarine is apart of the story in a few scenes but that's it. This is a rescue mission adventure.

"Submerged" is a great late night movie, just stick on & relax to a great piece of B-movie Action with a nice solid Cast in a good looking Action packed Thriller. Easily one of Seagal's best DTV films

Unfortunately, this total stinker of a movie repeats all the previous mistakes from Steven Seagal's recent films. I'll mention a couple of them

-Almost no fighting. The action scenes mainly consist of really boring gunfights, and they are performed rather badly. I guess Seagal just got to lazy to try something more physical. Shame on you, man.

-Very stupid story. It was rather hard to follow, and had so many twists and turns that the movie instead seemed like a mess of a mix of random events.

It's just so clear that Seagal doesn't care about his movies anymore, since everyone can see that he makes no effort at all here.

Also, it was very sad seeing Gary Daniels sinking into the gutter together with Seagal here. A great martial artist like him, and he only had one very bad fight who involved no fighting techniques at all. A total waste, people. Do your hear me? A TOTAL WASTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please quit the business, Steven.

I'm Uruguayan, and in fact, I'm not offended at all... I mean, OK, it has a lot of misconceptions, and I think it is actually funny that they put mayan ruins in Uruguay, the Italian instructions that were supposed to be in Spanish (and a latino validating this!! simply priceless) and also the fact that there is a port to the NORTH of Montevideo? I mean, if you researched Uruguay enough, at least look at a map and see that the coast is in the SOUTH.

However, I'm really sick of my fellow Uruguayans being offended with everything (The Colbert Report incident as well... come on!! It was a joke!! put it in context!!!)... it is just a made-for-TV movie, nothing else, so don't expect to much. Also, quit attacking Americans for portraing us as terrorists... as far as I'm aware, the US government didn't play any role in the production of this film.

IN synthesis: loosen up!!!!!

I really had my hopes up for this one. After reading the original description of the film describing biological cargo...submarine...terrorists I thought we had the makings of an unrelated "Under Siege" sequel and since "Under Siege 2" was better than "Under Siege 1" and with the recent likable Seagal film "Into the Sun", I figured let me give it a look. And it wasn't even worth my viewing it for the full 90+ minutes. The storyline was way off the original description and it seems that we are now watching a poor man's "The Dirty Dozen". Though I rented this movie because I am a Seagal fan, I found that Vinnie Jones played a pretty good role and B+ movie action lead Gary Daniels is totally under-utilized. And the direction style used by Anthony Hickox does not lend itself to the movie in any way. It's a shame that this is what Seagal has come to with the movies he makes. Perhaps he should take a step back and look at "Into the Sun" which brought him back to his original form.

Obviously, you "americans" don't learn geography in school. This is shown clearly in this movie. I'm not going to review all the geographical, language and political mistakes made in this movie. But I want to say that URUGUAY is maybe the most peaceful country in the world. We may not have palm trees or blue-water beaches (which we don't, as you may think), but I can assure you that our people is not the kind of terrorists depicted in this movie. Not even the people of other south American countries are like that. However, we are the target of your infamous jokes. Not only Steven Seagal is guilty of this crap, but also other actors, like your beloved Californian governor. In the end i'd like to add that if you see this movie, laugh and don't believe in it. PD: Thanks to every Uruguayan who place their comment re-assuring the real condition of our country (I'm sorry that I can't write this in Spanish, the page won't let me)

Seagal's workload was huge in 2005. He had four releases: "Into The Sun", "Submerged", "Today You Die", and "Black Dawn" . As long as the paychecks keep coming, he churns them out like there's no tomorrow.

This time around, Seagal plays "Chris Cody" who is released from prison to go on one last assignment: To infiltrate some double agents or something. It's very confusing. You also can't see what's going on most of the time because to hide Seagal's nonstop weight gain, he is shrouded in black (note all his black clothing).

All you see is Seagal's fat head. He also doesn't do his own ADR work. He once again uses a voice double that sounds NOTHING like him. But this time he was trying to be clever and put on an "Cajun accent" to fool people. The saving graces are the performances by those wacky Brits Vinnie Jones and Gary Daniels.

Here's an idea: Vinnie Jones Vs. Gary Daniels in a duel to the death! Now there's an action movie! For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com

Sorry, I am cheating because I didn't see it, but being an Uruguayan, having read the plot, and having watched some other awful Seagal's movies is enough for me. In fact, I became aware of this movie as it appeared today in Urugay's newspapers as an hilarious article. As another uruguayan said, this film is a celebration of ignorance! We don't have goats, we don't have any Mayan ruins, we have a (truly) democratic government with 80% of acceptance among the population, we have no terrorists at all (and we don't like them either) and no major incident has happened here since the late 70's. Also, we are a *sub*-tropical country with no bananas at all, having a nice 0 to 10 Celsius degree winter right now. It is all so ridiculous that the film is truly becoming a cult movie down here! Everyone wants to watch it (including me). After all, there are not many good funny films around lately...

Steven Seagal, oh Steven Seagal, why must thou continue to make movies? IL' Stevie boy is at it again, as he lumbers around this occasionally diverting, yet heavily recycled piece of garbage. Seagal over the last few years has made a whole plethora of films. Ever since he experienced a brief comeback in hit film Exit Wounds, Seagal has reverted to doing DTV movies, with only the disastrous Half Past Dead as his last Cinema film. Since 2001 Exit Wound's we have been offered, HPD, Ticker, Foreigner, Out For A Kill, Out Of Reach, Belly Of The Beast, Into The Sun, as well as a small role in Korean Action flick, Clementine. That is a lot of movies from 2001-2005, andhe has a possible 3 more films to come this year or early 2006. My god! Exit Wounds came after Seagal had, had a 3 year break from filming and he is making up for lost time. Steve's cinema appeal has seemingly waned now but in the video market he continues to draw in punter, with some of his movies making upward of 20 million dollars in the rental market. He is certainly still the market leader, despite his laziness and complacency. His efforts, post Wounds, have been dire to say the least, with one common feature: Seagal looking bloated, old and extremely bored. It gets so bad at times he is being dubbed by some one else and in Submerged this is particularly evident, with large chunks of the trite dialogue being performed by a rather bad Seagal impersonator. So his movies stink, he stinks and can't be convincing as an action hero anymore, so why do people rent his movies? God knows. I do so in the vein hope that one day he'll make another kick ass action flick like Nico, and be about 3 stone lighter. Chance would be a fine thing!

So how does Submerged rate in the grand scheme of things. Well firstly for a DTV action flick it isn't too bad on some levels. It is also perhaps Seagal's most enjoyable since Exit Wounds as well. The film has an inane plot about brainwashing which they have stolen form classic films like The Manchurian Candidate and Ipcress File, and done without any of the cleverness of those films. It's a pretty conventional action film to say the least but has the advantage of having plenty of bang for the buck. There is a good amount of action and we have shootout's and car chases and all manner of explosive and bloody deaths. It's solid R-rated violence. Of course although the plot is stale, that matters not in a DTV Friday night easy going piece of entertainment. We want action and B-movie veteran Anthony Hickox handles that side reasonably well. The action is solid, with plenty of carnage and some neat stunts. This certainly marks a step up from the directors recent works, with far lower budgets. With a bit more money to play with he has done a lot better it seems. Of course his view on the action is to simply mimic John Woo, but if your going to mimic an action director it may as well be the Woo. The main problem with the flick though, is thus: Steven Seagal. The film starts off not half bad with some neat action and a good pace to open with. However no sooner does Seagal lumber towards the screen in slo-mo accompanied by a Heavy Metal soundtrack do the problems arise. Seagal stinks up the movie whenever he appears. From his atrocious accent, one expression, lameness, to his heaving, plodding physical performance in his action scenes, he just stinks. The movie has a good cast, with no fewer than 3 people who appeared in Guy Ritchie films, most notably Vinnie Jones, who is the best thing in the film. Action veteran Gary Daniels appears, acts as badly as we know he can, and gets killed like a little bitch and after co-starring with another action superstar Dolph Lundgren, he has been thoroughly wasted in what should have been his best two movies. Brit babe Alison King is sexy in full on Lara Croft mode as well. The action is well staged but it's the old problem that when Seagal is on screen fighting, the director has to make up for his lack of speed and agility by filming from the chest up and watch him wave his hands about. It's embarrassing. Of course Seagal doesn't actually participate in a great deal of the action anyway, only about half, so thankfully we don't have to put up with him too much in that respect. One can't help feeling though that with a more able leading man, this could have been a grade up and more enjoyable. Van Damme, Snipes, Lundgren, even Lorenzo Lamas, would have been better in the lead. Vinnie Jones could have led this movie, he steals the film to be honest, looks tough. Jones in fact revels as an action man and you can't help but feel that when he puts on his crazy face in his fights scenes, he is a bit too into it and probably landing a few punches on the poor old stunt guys or co-stars.

Overall this is fairly polished and although not as crisp looking as Seagal's Into The Sun, looks better than some of his other efforts, while the amount of action is ample for genre lovers. However thanks to Seagal this manages to become somewhat avoidable. Watch Lundgren's Direct Action instead. **