I've heard of hackwork, but this is getting silly. Why does this guy still have a career? It's pretty obvious that he has nothing but contempt for his audience.
The scenery and photography is great, the supporting actors are fine (especially the exotic female love interest), the plot and the writing are OK (if a little hackneyed); in other words the overall content of the movie is good B movie stuff (with some inspired directorial touches in a lot of places).
And into this potentially pleasing and exciting melange comes Steven Seagal, who sleep walks through the entire thing as if he had pressing business elsewhere and spends the entire movie with his inner dial set to 'squinty eyed tough guy' and using one of two expressions -('squinty eyed scowl' and 'eyes slightly widened'). I've watched a lot of movies (even a lot of action and martial arts movies) and I've rarely seen a lazier "lead" performance than this.
You doubt me? Check out the fight scenes - Seagal used to do nice, snappy Aikido/Aikijutsu style fight choreography, and his gunfight choreography was fast, fluid and visceral. Now he uses a stunt double for any scene involving kicking, leaping, or leg fencing. Now he seems to be pretending to be some kind of Tai Chi master and Hung Gar stylist, with a lot of extraneous wire work to hid the fact that he isn't putting ANY 'oomph' or speed into his motions (no matter how hard the director tries to frame him, he's obviously loafing); in fact, Seagal can hardly be bothered to raise his hands above his head or pick his feet off the floor anymore. And he's gotten really fat - the generous fit of the loose kung-fu GI and the numerous flattering camera angles can't disguise his girth or the way his neck balloons out of the shirt collar to give him wattles and a double chin.
Almost anyone other actor with a martial arts background and a 'tough guy' persona could have taken the lead role in this move (Jet Li, Gordon Liu, Donnie Yen, or even Don Wilson or Oliver Grunier) and done a better job. Heck, David Carradine could have pulled this off with aplomb. In fact, this could have been a killer movie with a relative unknown in the part. one that could take some acting direction and was eager to prove himself. But someone somewhere still thinks that Seagal's name can sell a movie, and so he gets to grunt out another performance.
There are also some weaknesses to the plot that aren't especially Seagal's fault, but I'll blame him anyway: Of course, he gets the exotic Thai call girl in the end for no apparent reason other than the plot requires it. Seriously, there is literally almost NO transition between the point where they are allies and when they are lovers- it's a couple of lines of dialog and that's it. And Seagal's friend the Buddhist Monk comes out of seclusion to help him rescue his daughter, and is immediately able to leap into demanding physical action after 10 years of asceticism, living on 1200 starch based calories and an average of 4 hours of sleep each day. And Southeast Asia apparently has its own brand of voodoo mind control, because a weird shaman type appears for 10 seconds nears the beginning of the movie, and never shows up again until Seagal's final showdown with the bad guy, and then the shaman starts sticking pins into a voodoo doll to slow Seagal down only to be fought off somehow by the chanting and good vibes of the remaining monks. The whole thing is so badly and transparently handled that it will leave you scratching your head in confusion. The plot element is completely out of place in this kind of movie and makes no sense. (It might work in a 'sword play' style movie). The film makers just threw it in there to make Hopper/Seagal even more of a knee-jerk hero than before - the monks are on his side and fight for him, so he MUST be a HERO, right?
I sound as if I hate this movie. I don't. I like almost everything about the movie except Seagal, and even he doesn't suck all that much here. It's just that I can't imagine any actor in a leading role of an action movie who has even a shred of self respect doing this little actual work and expecting his fans to accept it.
I have no idea what has happened to Seagal in his private life (and it's none of my business) to turn him into such a total hack with such a threadbare schtick. I can hope that he either shapes up and turns his life around, or that he just finally has enough money saved up that he can retire.
The scenery and photography is great, the supporting actors are fine (especially the exotic female love interest), the plot and the writing are OK (if a little hackneyed); in other words the overall content of the movie is good B movie stuff (with some inspired directorial touches in a lot of places).
And into this potentially pleasing and exciting melange comes Steven Seagal, who sleep walks through the entire thing as if he had pressing business elsewhere and spends the entire movie with his inner dial set to 'squinty eyed tough guy' and using one of two expressions -('squinty eyed scowl' and 'eyes slightly widened'). I've watched a lot of movies (even a lot of action and martial arts movies) and I've rarely seen a lazier "lead" performance than this.
You doubt me? Check out the fight scenes - Seagal used to do nice, snappy Aikido/Aikijutsu style fight choreography, and his gunfight choreography was fast, fluid and visceral. Now he uses a stunt double for any scene involving kicking, leaping, or leg fencing. Now he seems to be pretending to be some kind of Tai Chi master and Hung Gar stylist, with a lot of extraneous wire work to hid the fact that he isn't putting ANY 'oomph' or speed into his motions (no matter how hard the director tries to frame him, he's obviously loafing); in fact, Seagal can hardly be bothered to raise his hands above his head or pick his feet off the floor anymore. And he's gotten really fat - the generous fit of the loose kung-fu GI and the numerous flattering camera angles can't disguise his girth or the way his neck balloons out of the shirt collar to give him wattles and a double chin.
Almost anyone other actor with a martial arts background and a 'tough guy' persona could have taken the lead role in this move (Jet Li, Gordon Liu, Donnie Yen, or even Don Wilson or Oliver Grunier) and done a better job. Heck, David Carradine could have pulled this off with aplomb. In fact, this could have been a killer movie with a relative unknown in the part. one that could take some acting direction and was eager to prove himself. But someone somewhere still thinks that Seagal's name can sell a movie, and so he gets to grunt out another performance.
There are also some weaknesses to the plot that aren't especially Seagal's fault, but I'll blame him anyway: Of course, he gets the exotic Thai call girl in the end for no apparent reason other than the plot requires it. Seriously, there is literally almost NO transition between the point where they are allies and when they are lovers- it's a couple of lines of dialog and that's it. And Seagal's friend the Buddhist Monk comes out of seclusion to help him rescue his daughter, and is immediately able to leap into demanding physical action after 10 years of asceticism, living on 1200 starch based calories and an average of 4 hours of sleep each day. And Southeast Asia apparently has its own brand of voodoo mind control, because a weird shaman type appears for 10 seconds nears the beginning of the movie, and never shows up again until Seagal's final showdown with the bad guy, and then the shaman starts sticking pins into a voodoo doll to slow Seagal down only to be fought off somehow by the chanting and good vibes of the remaining monks. The whole thing is so badly and transparently handled that it will leave you scratching your head in confusion. The plot element is completely out of place in this kind of movie and makes no sense. (It might work in a 'sword play' style movie). The film makers just threw it in there to make Hopper/Seagal even more of a knee-jerk hero than before - the monks are on his side and fight for him, so he MUST be a HERO, right?
I sound as if I hate this movie. I don't. I like almost everything about the movie except Seagal, and even he doesn't suck all that much here. It's just that I can't imagine any actor in a leading role of an action movie who has even a shred of self respect doing this little actual work and expecting his fans to accept it.
I have no idea what has happened to Seagal in his private life (and it's none of my business) to turn him into such a total hack with such a threadbare schtick. I can hope that he either shapes up and turns his life around, or that he just finally has enough money saved up that he can retire.