Under Siege 2 - Dark Territory [Blu-ray]

I've always put off watching Steven Seagal movies, due to the fact that they've never really appealed to me. But after a lot of persuasion (arm being twisted up behind your back, you know, the usual), and being told to wait outside until the menus etc had passed, the start credits of the movie was met with a big "oh no!"

It doesn't really make that much sense to watch a sequel, when you haven't seen the original, so lets not go there.

The first thing I thought about this movie was that it had similarities to True Lies. In True Lies, it was Arnie-baby trying to rescue his daughter (Eliza Dushku) from the hands of an evil tyrant. In Under Seige 2, it's Steven Seagal trying to rescue his niece (Katharine Heigl). But apparently, it's just a coincidence that these two films are similar.

Eric Bogosian didn't really come across as your typical bad guy, which I thought was quite good. He looks like a wimp, one of those guys who sits staring at his computer, day in, day out. And the mop-top of curly hair just added to the whole effect.

Steven Seagal doesn't seem your typical action hero either. He doesn't seem to have the muscles that Arnie flexes constantly, nor does he have the drop dead gorgeous looks. (I'm not saying that Arnie's drop dead gorgeous, I'm just - oh never mind) Thankfully he's got that damn ponytail cut off, that really irritated me in some of his other movies. And he's so deadpan! Imagine someone Botoxed up to the eyeballs, and you'll have Steven Seagal. He shows no emotion either in any of his scenes, and manages to break guys necks left, right and centre quite convincingly. In that way, he's good as the good guy. He gets rid of the bad guys, each time in a different way - although he does break three guys necks. He does set a couple of people on fire.

What I also noticed is that at the end, like True Lies, when the girl originally hated her dad/uncle, she's now all over him like a rash.

It's a shame that Peter Greene - aptly named "Mercenary #1" - has to die in this movie (one of the three who gets their neck broken). He always seems to play the bad guy, and whereas he is quite nice looking, it must be his looks that make him bad guy material.

Overall, it was an OK film, if not a little long between action scenes. Thankfully, none of it follows on from the first, so it's not like you're watching a sequel that you have to have seen the first, to understand the second. But unlike some people, I won't be going all out, and buying the Steven Seagal doll (sorry, it's NOT an action figure). When a film get released, it can sometimes have "action figures" to accompany the movie. So why was there never one to accompany The Matrix? I want to play with Keanu :) Shame it's all plastic, au naturel is so much better.

THIS TIME, A TRAIN IS HIJACKED AND IT'S UP TO CASEY [STEVEN SEAGAL] TO SAVE THE HOSTAGES. WHILE NOT AS GOOD AS ITS PREDECESSOR, IT STILL DELIVERS NONSTOP EXCITEMENT. IT'S JUST TOO BAD THAT THIS MOVIE DOSEN'T HAVE A VILLAIN LIKE TOMMY LEE JONES. BUT STILL, THAT DOESN'T STOP THIS MOVIE FROM BEING A THRILL RIDE. AGAIN, SEAGAL FANS SHOULD BE THRILLED BY THIS MOVIE.

There are action movies (Schwartzenneger) and then there are Steven Seagal movies. Seagal's movies are nothing fancy. They aren't really there to make you think (although Seagal occasionally explores some right on themes like the problems facing Native Americans and the environment)in a way he's a modern day Billy Jack you might say. But one thing you can always count on with a Steven Seagal movie is even when its bad its kind of good. Generally he has great actors in his films and this one isn't an exception to that rule (i.e. Morris Chestnut, Eric Bogosian) and he always throws in some very likeable characters. And then of course there is his martial arts skills which are pretty top notch considering. This is the sequel to the very successful and superior Under Siege. But this film ain't half bad. I love the train setting. And the shootouts are pretty tight. The only really weak link to this film is the complete implausibility of the plotline. Even for most action films this one is way out there in terms of something that could possibly happen in real life. Watch the film if you're a die hard action film fan. Don't watch it if you're looking for high action art like say Terminator, Robocop, True Lies or anything remotely like that. As I said before there are Schwartzenneger films and there are Steven Seagal movies.

Go figure: Under Siege 2 was driven purely by contractual obligation. It's also superior to Seagal's previous effort, On Deadly Ground, an abomination he also directed and produced.

Being the most successful Seagal film at the time (and subsequently, ever) Under Siege could not get away without a sequel. The producers follow a tried and true method: they just make the same exact movie all over again. Once again, Seagal dispatches a team of highly trained yet bumbling terrorists. Instead of a battleship it's a massive train that gets taken over by terrorists with a master plan to kill a lot of people and make a lot of money. In other words, Die Hard on a train. Eric Bogossian plays yet another insane former CIA resource running amok, having stolen a top-secret satellite thingee that can fire laser beams from space and cause earthquakes. Or something like that.

It's up to Seagal, as Casey Ryback (former Navy SEAL who, according to the niece/hostage whom with he's travelling, has 'medals so secret he can't show to them anybody') to bump off the terrorists one by one. Dressed entirely in black in order to hide his expanding waistline, Seagal does it all: shoots, stabs, blows up, punches, kicks and maims a team of bad guys led by Everitt McGill, another arch bad guy who actually wants to fight Seagal because 'he scares me'. Seagal himself gets shot, falls off a train, falls off a cliff, and outruns a speeding train. He even gets in a plug for the first PDA, the Apple Newton, which saves the day while Seagal breaks necks and shoots ears off.

I enjoyed this one immensely. Eric Bogossian is perfect as the loony toons leader of the pack, another guy who plans to blow up half of America for a lot of money (not wondering what his money would be worth after that).

Seagal utters about 100 words in this film, another direct correlation to the quality of the film. The less Seagal says, the better. The more bones he's breaking, baddies he's shooting, and bombs he's making out of the contents of a wet bar, the better. No preaching, no Zen philosophy. At one point he tells his sidekick, a scared porter hiding in the luggage car, "I'm gonna get through my bag of tricks, and we are going to rescue those hostages." Then he stares into the distance, doing that crazy eyebrow thing in what is supposed to represent grim determination in the face of grave danger.

Whatever. The movie is brisk at under 100 minutes, the direction is sharp and economical. The bad guys are evil. They die violently, including a female assasin who gets dropped out of a helicoptor and bounces off the side of a train with a loud, satisfying *thunk*. Fingers get chopped off, necks are broken, people get thrown off moving trains, and Seagal makes a constipated face as he settles into a martial arts stance that suggests he's going to rip his pants. Plot holes? Sure, like who's driving the train after Seagal shoots everyone in the locomotive? Seagal even takes a sniper bullet but ignores it, as if he only deals with serious wounds. ('This ain't being shot.') His black blazer is in great shape at the end despite the fact that he's been dangling off the side of cliffs, crawling on top of trains, getting shot, etc.

It's completely acceptable on a slow night. Incidentally, Basil Pouledouris' score is not bad.

Also note that Morris Chestnut, playing Seagal's 'sidekick', would go on to play the villain in a later and much worse Seagal outing (Half Past Dead) which is a high or low, depending on your pov.

watch 007 die another day they have satalites that can destroy things. in under siege 2 there's do earthquakes in the air it locks heat from the plane and blows it up and they two passwords just to hijack it from the goverment. he blows the cumpter up with one bullet but goverment blows it up two finale count. 007 is being chased by laser beam in die anther day and the satalite melts a ice palace in iceland.in die anther day it destroyed land mines almost the base the got destoyed . this satalite also gave some light. the in under siege 2 is not powerfull die anter day they both could destroy world. the movies had almost same plot with satalite. if had choice between them 007.