Out of Reach (2004)
AKA: n/a
Premise: A former CIA agent (Steven Seagal) heads to Eastern Europe in search of a young orphan he has been corresponding with after she disappears. The trail of coded messages she leaves behind leads to a human trafficking ring.
Review: Steven Seagal ended 2003 with a promising actioner entitled Belly of the Beast from the great action director Ching Siu-tung. This release actually made up for the other dismal releases he dumped onto video store shelves earlier in the year. But in 2004, Out of Reach finds Seagal slipping back into his pre-Belly of the Beast days with bland action and increased sloppiness masked by a thin veneer of Hollywood polish. A touchy plot involving the exploitation of underage girls only makes the whole affair more unpleasant.
Seagal's schtick as brooding ex-CIA man who turns to spiritualism is definitely wearing thin. This time, instead of embracing Buddhism, Seagal is shown as a natural conservationist with a token nod to Native American culture, which unfortunately brings back shades of On Deadly Ground. For no specific reason he happens to be sponsoring a young girl in an Eastern European orphanage. When she goes missing, Seagal flies over and puts his agent skills to use in trying to track her down, which unfortunately brings back shades of The Foreigner. His only leads are a series of codes the brainy kid leaves behind as she and several other girls are prepped to be sold by human traffickers lead by The Transporter villain, Matt Schulze. Seagal teams up with a pretty, female police detective to stop them, while some of Seagal's old agency "pals" team with Schulze in hopes of getting rid of their loose cannon permanently.
It's really getting hard to justify watching a Seagal flick as an action film fan. A few actors like Clint Eastwood and Terence Stamp know how to bow out gracefully in their old age, but Seagal, who still has a few years left (age-wise), is bound and determined to hang onto past glory, or at least make an attempt. Everything about his role in Out of Reach is painfully routine, except that he moves slower, fights less, and must have had at least half of his lines dubbed by a voice actor. Note to filmmakers working with Seagal: if the man has trouble speaking into a microphone, cut his lines. Nothing is worse than unnecessary dialogue in an action movie, especially when it's not even from the voice of the star.
In the last three years, Seagal has toyed with Hong Kong action, including wirework which reached his highest and lowest point in 2003. In Out of Reach, Hong Kong veteran Yuen Tak choreographs the action, but you'll hardly be able to tell. Seagal returns to more direct fighting moves and they're barely visible in a couple of brief action scenes, two of which are shrouded in darkness. Most of the film's action is reserved for gun battles. The main event takes place in a bordello and is nicely shot. With the excessive number of rounds fired, it's much like a reprise of the end battle in Belly of the Beast, but better laid out.
Schulze is frequently shown training and fencing as foreshadowing of his obvious final encounter with Seagal. The fight takes place within a picturesque white structure that looks a bit like an amphitheater. It's an excellent site for a sword duel. Furthermore, it's quickly established that Seagal is going to be using Japanese sword technique with a saber while Schulze assumes a Western fencing posture with his blade. This could have been a great scene to show how Western and Eastern styles clash, except that neither actor is especially adept at handling their weapon onscreen and the decision is made to simply steal a cheap maneuver already done better in countless chambara films.
Sadly, Schulze is adrift in his role as the lead baddie and part of the blame goes to the poor script, or rather an awful script riddled with gaps and bad dialogue. Schulze's character takes an unhealthy interest in Irena, who can't be more than thirteen. But what this means for either character is only vaguely hinted at, but never clear. Director Po Chih-leong shows an uneasiness and indirectness in his handling of this aspect of the story and the audience is left with awkward scenes of Schulze playing chess with her, drugging her drink for no good reason (I hope), and making allusions about her pen-pal relationship with Seagal. Almost everyone working for Schulze is uncomfortable with selling girls on the black market. That leaves Schulze with the task of playing the man with no conscience, but he doesn't seem to have any grounding with the character he plays, and I don't blame him. Frankly, getting this close to anything involving the exploitation of children should not be made the premise of a sloppy, B-grade action movie.
There is not much left to say, unless you care about the state of Hollywood action filmmaking, even at the the indie level. Out of Reach is another in an increasingly-long line of stinkers that Seagal can't steer clear of. The Eastern European setting also marks this as the latest in a growing list of B-actioners set in that part of the world in order to cut costs. Not one of these films, also starring the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Olivier Gruner, have benefited from their settings when it comes down to entertaining the audience. It apparently hasn't crossed the minds of Seagal and his peers that a lean, character-driven script with high-impact screen fighting set in a simple location is worth more than all the other nonsense they continue to throw into their films. Chang Cheh knew best; keep the plots simple, the pace of action continuous, and make sure the stars always look they're best. If a filmmaker can't meet those standards, then they're selling their audience short and ought to find another line of work. -
- Mark Pollard
************************************************
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AKA: n/a
Premise: A former CIA agent (Steven Seagal) heads to Eastern Europe in search of a young orphan he has been corresponding with after she disappears. The trail of coded messages she leaves behind leads to a human trafficking ring.
Review: Steven Seagal ended 2003 with a promising actioner entitled Belly of the Beast from the great action director Ching Siu-tung. This release actually made up for the other dismal releases he dumped onto video store shelves earlier in the year. But in 2004, Out of Reach finds Seagal slipping back into his pre-Belly of the Beast days with bland action and increased sloppiness masked by a thin veneer of Hollywood polish. A touchy plot involving the exploitation of underage girls only makes the whole affair more unpleasant.
Seagal's schtick as brooding ex-CIA man who turns to spiritualism is definitely wearing thin. This time, instead of embracing Buddhism, Seagal is shown as a natural conservationist with a token nod to Native American culture, which unfortunately brings back shades of On Deadly Ground. For no specific reason he happens to be sponsoring a young girl in an Eastern European orphanage. When she goes missing, Seagal flies over and puts his agent skills to use in trying to track her down, which unfortunately brings back shades of The Foreigner. His only leads are a series of codes the brainy kid leaves behind as she and several other girls are prepped to be sold by human traffickers lead by The Transporter villain, Matt Schulze. Seagal teams up with a pretty, female police detective to stop them, while some of Seagal's old agency "pals" team with Schulze in hopes of getting rid of their loose cannon permanently.
It's really getting hard to justify watching a Seagal flick as an action film fan. A few actors like Clint Eastwood and Terence Stamp know how to bow out gracefully in their old age, but Seagal, who still has a few years left (age-wise), is bound and determined to hang onto past glory, or at least make an attempt. Everything about his role in Out of Reach is painfully routine, except that he moves slower, fights less, and must have had at least half of his lines dubbed by a voice actor. Note to filmmakers working with Seagal: if the man has trouble speaking into a microphone, cut his lines. Nothing is worse than unnecessary dialogue in an action movie, especially when it's not even from the voice of the star.
In the last three years, Seagal has toyed with Hong Kong action, including wirework which reached his highest and lowest point in 2003. In Out of Reach, Hong Kong veteran Yuen Tak choreographs the action, but you'll hardly be able to tell. Seagal returns to more direct fighting moves and they're barely visible in a couple of brief action scenes, two of which are shrouded in darkness. Most of the film's action is reserved for gun battles. The main event takes place in a bordello and is nicely shot. With the excessive number of rounds fired, it's much like a reprise of the end battle in Belly of the Beast, but better laid out.
Schulze is frequently shown training and fencing as foreshadowing of his obvious final encounter with Seagal. The fight takes place within a picturesque white structure that looks a bit like an amphitheater. It's an excellent site for a sword duel. Furthermore, it's quickly established that Seagal is going to be using Japanese sword technique with a saber while Schulze assumes a Western fencing posture with his blade. This could have been a great scene to show how Western and Eastern styles clash, except that neither actor is especially adept at handling their weapon onscreen and the decision is made to simply steal a cheap maneuver already done better in countless chambara films.
Sadly, Schulze is adrift in his role as the lead baddie and part of the blame goes to the poor script, or rather an awful script riddled with gaps and bad dialogue. Schulze's character takes an unhealthy interest in Irena, who can't be more than thirteen. But what this means for either character is only vaguely hinted at, but never clear. Director Po Chih-leong shows an uneasiness and indirectness in his handling of this aspect of the story and the audience is left with awkward scenes of Schulze playing chess with her, drugging her drink for no good reason (I hope), and making allusions about her pen-pal relationship with Seagal. Almost everyone working for Schulze is uncomfortable with selling girls on the black market. That leaves Schulze with the task of playing the man with no conscience, but he doesn't seem to have any grounding with the character he plays, and I don't blame him. Frankly, getting this close to anything involving the exploitation of children should not be made the premise of a sloppy, B-grade action movie.
There is not much left to say, unless you care about the state of Hollywood action filmmaking, even at the the indie level. Out of Reach is another in an increasingly-long line of stinkers that Seagal can't steer clear of. The Eastern European setting also marks this as the latest in a growing list of B-actioners set in that part of the world in order to cut costs. Not one of these films, also starring the likes of Jean-Claude Van Damme and Olivier Gruner, have benefited from their settings when it comes down to entertaining the audience. It apparently hasn't crossed the minds of Seagal and his peers that a lean, character-driven script with high-impact screen fighting set in a simple location is worth more than all the other nonsense they continue to throw into their films. Chang Cheh knew best; keep the plots simple, the pace of action continuous, and make sure the stars always look they're best. If a filmmaker can't meet those standards, then they're selling their audience short and ought to find another line of work. -
- Mark Pollard
************************************************
For Your Information !!
suzi
