To be honest, it seemed as if Austin wasn't in this movie much either? But I do think Seagal had the most screentime of the two. Austin (it seemed) was ok playing second fiddle to Seagal (which makes him petty cool in my books) But Austin only had one decent fight scene near the end (in the prison courtyard) Whereas, Seagal had some good (albeit, fast edited) fights (That arm-snap, was a beauty...you could see the bone sticking out of the convicts shirt...and the exchange of dialogue at this point was laugh out funny!) and Seagal got the drop on the main bad-guy at the end. Austin got his ass kicked by a woman (which, like I said earlier, shows that he has a sense of humour?)
I'll admit, that the middle sagged a little, with (like you said) too many prison lay-out displays, and corridor wandering. But (at least) it actually felt like a REAL movie, and not a direct-to-video snooze fest. It had good spurts of violent action, a game cast, nice production values and a robust (cinematic) music score.
All-in-all, a blessing (given the dire TRUE JUSTICE series, that Seagal seems to be wasting his time on) and good to see Seagal back in some R-rated action. With a slight bit of tightning in the editting suite, this could have very easily hit the multiplexes. And the open-ending may indicate a sequel?
"If you're lying...I'll be back!"
reply
share
Hitman187
12 years ago
*Some Spoilers*
Yeah, to be fair it did feel like a real movie, not like most of Seagals' others direct to DVD films. And yeah I suppose Seagal might of been in it a little more than Austin, but it didn't feel that way to me when watching it. Probably because for some parts of the film, Seagal disappears for a good 10-15 minutes at times. So it just feels like he's in it less.
Why I can't give this movie exactly a positive rating is because like you mentioned, the middle was way too slow moving for my tastes. There was probably 20 minutes total of the characters just walking around wandering pointing guns at nothing. Also, there was almost no plot at all in this film. I'm not expecting some complex plot in a movie like this, but at least give us something better. Another thing I disliked was there felt like there was way too many characters in this film. There was Seagals' team who added absolutely nothing to the film. They might of been in it for less than 10 minutes total. They basically were just there to give Austin a weapon, & for the end.
As for what I liked about the film, I did think Michael Pare was a cool villain. I thought his acting was pretty good. Also, most of Austins' scenes were good. Seagal was okay, but I was expecting him to do more. Some of the action scenes were good, but like I said some felt really generic. I feel like I seen some of the shootout scenes in this a million times before.
I may give it another watch eventually to see if I'd like it more, but my first viewing of it I'd probably rate it a 5 out of 10 at best.
reply
share
andersonchris17
11 years ago
Honestly it could have a sequel but where would they take it would it have to be another prison for it to even be a sequel or would all it have to have is austin back in it for it to be one?
reply
share