Steven Seagal

Under Siege 2: Dark Territory

The success of Under Siege made a sequel mandatory according to Hollywood's rules of maximum revenue, and as sequels go, this one's not half bad. Steven Seagal returns as former Navy SEAL and skilled chef Casey Ryback, who's trying to spend quality time with his niece on a cross-country train trip. But as luck and action-movie formulas would have it, the train has been hijacked by a demented genius (Eric Bogosian) who is using the train as a moving platform to seize computerized control of a top-secret U.S. satellite that is capable of causing earthquakes from space. Seagal has to stop the train or the villain (whichever comes first), and the action is fast and furious on its way to a high-speed climax. He's not as wacky as Tommy Lee Jones in the first Under Siege, but Bogosian has got a delirious quality that serves the comic-book plot, and action fans get more than their fill of dazzling stunts and special effects. --Jeff Shannon

Under Siege

Steven Seagal can consider himself lucky if he ever makes a better movie than this one, which was appropriately dubbed "Die Hard on a battleship" when released in 1992. Seagal handles the heroic duties with his usual wooden efficiency, but the movie's greatest assets are a punchy script and the scene-stealing performances of Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey. The two play leaders of a terrorist group who take over the venerable battleship USS Missouri during its final commissioned voyage. They're crazed psychotics who seize control of the ship's nuclear arsenal, but they don't know that Seagal--as the ship's cook, no less--is a former Navy hero, lurking in the shadows and waiting to spoil their nefarious scheme. Director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) helms the action with skillful style, and as the cheesecake stripper who proves handy with a hand grenade, Playboy Playmate-turned-actress Erika Eleniak gives Seagal another reason to strut his macho stuff. Under Siege is hormonal hokum for gun-happy viewers, but as action movies go, this one's a definite guilty pleasure. --Jeff Shannon

Out for Justice

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Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 8-FEB-2005
Media Type: DVD

Steven Seagal has always been an awkward action hero. Initially, he had a certain amount of credibility thanks to his nebulous association with secret government agencies and mastery of aikido, which helped to excuse his bad acting. But as a self-righteous action hero in the vein of Schwarzenegger and Stallone (which helps to explain his bad acting), Seagal fell into unintentional self-parody faster and more dramatically than either of his two predecessors. In Out for Justice, Seagal plays Gino Felino, a Brooklyn-born cop known and respected by everyone--both good and bad--in his neighborhood. The worst of the neighborhood baddies is Richie Madano (William Forsythe), a crack-smoking killer who murders his partner and terrorizes the neighborhood. Technically, Felino is a terrible cop--touching evidence at murder scenes, stealing evidence, intimidating witnesses--but only by breaking those rules can he bring in this horrible criminal. As his soon-to-be-ex-wife discovers, he does everything because he cares too much. Julianna Margulies (ER) has a small but thankless role as Richie's hooker girlfriend, and Gina Gershon (Face/Off, Bound) has an equally thankless role as Richie's foul-mouthed, bar-owning sister. The movie plays like a vanity piece for Seagal, and in that vein, it is fascinating to watch. --Andy Spletzer

Urban Justice

Steven Seagal (Attack Force Flight of Fury) and Eddie Griffin (Deuce Bigalow Norbit) star this no holds barred action crime-thriller about a man with a dark and violent past who is out for revenge against the murderer of his son. Max Ballester is a street cop working in the heart of the poverty stricken city who made the mistake of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gunned down in the street in a senseless act of violence his murder goes unsolved and the killer unidentified. When Simon Ballester (Seagal) a former government specials ops agent learns of his son s murder he soon moves into the very neighborhood where Max was killed in order to spend his days asking questions and cracking heads as he searches for the killer of his son. He quickly makes enemies with the local gang members and soon finds himself a target of their hostility.Simon s ability with weapons and his flawless fighting skills prove useful as he uncovers a tangled web of deceit and murder.System Requirements:Run Time: 96 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 043396190788

Exit Wounds

One can always count on Steven Seagal to act as the repository of yesterday's action-film clichés, and Exit Wounds is yet another case in point. Seagal plays Detroit cop Orin Boyd, a lone wolf lawman who gets in the middle of his precinct's losing battle against police corruption. Taking on a powerful but crooked cop named Montini (David Vadim)--who is busy making deals with a rich gangster (DMX)--Boyd soon sends fists and feet flying while Tom Arnold provides the comic relief. Director Andrzej Bartkowiak surely had less fun guiding Seagal through slow-motion fight sequences than he did Jet Li in Romeo Must Die, but as compensation he gets to work with the mesmerizing DMX, who looks as though he has leading-man possibilities. Plenty of gratuitous gore, awful cop banter, and miles of cleavage courtesy of Jill Hennessy, who plays Boyd's tough-as-nails boss. --Tom Keogh

A hero cop is busted to traffic duty when he threatens corrupt elements on the police force.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 14-FEB-2006
Media Type: DVD

Marked for Death

A DEA agent quits when he feels nothing the law does is working against drug dealers, only to find himself and his family marked for death by some particularly vicious dealers.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-DEC-2006
Media Type: DVD

The glowering brutality that is aikido headbanger Steven Seagal's substitute for a star persona at least gives us a rancid taste of authenticity in this cookie-cutter action picture. This glum lug seems to really enjoy hurting people; he snaps limbs and shatters noses with visible relish. Pitted against a crew of Jamaican gangsters who invade his (white ethnic) Chicago neighborhood and threaten his family, retired DEA agent John Hatcher sets out to solve the case with robotic efficiency, kicking butt in just about every scene. Not quite as pudgy in this 1990 outing as he became a few films later, Seagal looks like the genuine, lethal article in the fight sequences, but like a hopeless amateur when he tries to act his way out of the waterlogged-paper-bag of a script. So what else is new? The one bright spot here is Basil Wallace, a mostly unsung actor who throws himself into the showy role of the Rasta gang-boss Screwface, a garishly scarred psycho with piercing ice-blue eyes. --David Chute

Executive Decision

Despite Steven Seagal's imposing presence in this enjoyable thriller, Kurt Russell turns out to be the real star as an American intelligence expert who finds himself leading a strike force against Islamic terrorists who have seized in-flight control of a 747 jetliner with 400 passengers. It's not all that different from Air Force One, but the formula story perks right along with considerable suspense as Russell's cohorts (Oliver Platt, Joe Morton) try to defuse a chemical bomb that could wipe out (you guessed it) the entire Eastern seaboard. John Leguizamo plays one of the U.S. commandos attempting to stop the violent hijackers, and Halle Berry costars as a flight attendant who risks her life to assist Russell's rescue team. As action movies go, Executive Decision marked an impressive directorial debut for veteran film editor Stuart Baird. --Jeff Shannon

Hard to Kill

After making his action-hero debut in 1988's Above the Law, Steven Seagal followed up with this typically formulaic action thriller, in which the ponytailed crime fighter is shot full of bullets and left for dead after he uncovers a powerful circle of corrupt politicians. After seven years in a coma, he returns to consciousness and is nursed back to health by--surprise, surprise!--a gorgeous woman, played by Seagal's then wife Kelly ("don't hate me because I'm beautiful") LeBrock. Once in peak condition, snarlin' Steve sets out to satisfy his hearty appetite for revenge, and the bone-crunching action kicks into high gear with the requisite chases, hand-to-hand combat, and escalating body count. This is one of Seagal's best vehicles, establishing the star's screen persona before it grew stale in later films. --Jeff Shannon

Shadow Man

He has a thousand disguises and the cunningness and strength to outmaneuver the deadliest opponents and he's out to uncover the secret to the legendary treasure of the knights templar. With the calculating blood-thirsty mind of a veteran assassin Shadowman vows to destroy anything - and anyone - that comes between him and the treasure.System Requirements:Running Time 95 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR UPC: 043396149915 Manufacturer No: 14991

The Glimmer Man

Steven Seagal needed a new approach to his standard head-busting heroics, so he teamed up with Keenen Ivory Wayans for this routine 1996 action flick. This time stone-faced Steve plays Los Angeles homicide detective Jack Cole, newly transplanted from New York and teamed up with Jim Campbell (Wayans). They're assigned to track down "The Family Man," a serial killer who earned his nickname by crucifying entire families and leaving religious graffiti as his calling card. The case heats up when the latest victim turns out to be Cole's ex-wife, and Cole is considered a primary suspect. That makes Seagal get really mad--you don't wanna get Seagal too upset, y'know--but he still has time to quote Buddhist wisdom and crack wise with Wayans, who plays it relatively straight as the practical half of this partnership. It's typical Seagal stuff all the way, with obligatory fight scenes every 10 minutes or so, but Seagal fans will enjoy it, and Brian Cox makes a suitably hissable villain. --Jeff Shannon

Steven Seagal stars as a cop on the trail of a serial murderer in this psychological action-thriller. Seagal is John Cole a lieutenant specializing in serial murderers who teams with a homicide detective (Keenen Ivory Wayans) to track an elusive killer.Running Time: 92 min.System Requirements:Starring: Steven Seagal Keenen Ivory Wayans Director: John Gray Interactive Menus Production Notes Scene Access Theatrical Trailer Languages: English and French Subtitles: English French and Spanish Standard version formatted from its original version to fit your screen Widescreen version presented in a "matted" widescreen format preserving the 1.85:1 aspect ratio of its original theatrical exhibition enhanced for 16:9 widescreen TVs Dolby Digital 5.1 Special Features: Production Notes Theatrical Trailer Interactive Menus Video Format: Widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio Standard 1.33:1 (4.3) Enhanced for 16x9 TVs Subtitles: French Spanish English Track Info: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround French: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Closed Captioning: Yes # Discs: 1 # Sides: Dual Produced by Steven Seagal Julius R. Nasso; written by Kevin Brodbin; running time of 92 minutes; Closed Captioned. Copyright: 1996 Warner Bros.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: R UPC: 085391447924