Hey Guys, thought i'd drop in
It's been awhile since I posted on this forum. Frankly, the reason was because I was starting to get disappointed with the amount of effort Seagal was putting into his movies. I completely lost interest in Seagal for a couple of months, and still do not consider myself the superfan I once was. Nevertheless, I decided to pick up "Into the Sun" to see how he would do with a supposedly much bigger (35 million dollar) budget. What I found was quite surprising. Here is my review, which will also be avaiable on IMDB shortly.
Into the Sun:
It's been a rough for years for Seagal. Hell, it's been a rough few years for action stars in general. Guys like Vin Diesel and The Rock just don't deliver, and the quality of movies Van Damme and Seagal have choosen to do really aren't even worth mentioning. But much to my surprise, Seagal pulled a complete 360 with "Into the Sun", his latest action vehicle. While it isn't anywhere near as good as the classics, it does bring us a more entertaining Seagal, one we haven't seen since "On Deadly Ground" ( or at the very least, Exit Wounds"
While everyone by now knows the story (not in spite of the fact it is the same story for the majority of his movies), it was still quite a fun little movie. Seagal did lose a little bit of weight, and his fighting scenes are a little more believeable. One in particular was the hand-to-hand scene where he punches the heck out of a guy at the casino, while taking on a bunch of his henchmen and throwing him out the window. The sword fight was a nice change in its brutality, but personally Seagal's hand-to-hand is a lot more satisfying to watch. The actors were competent, and Seagal managed to steer clear of voice overs while showing his mature yet subtle tough guy side. The special effects were quite cool, as was the cinematography showing Tokyo.
There were some problems, that's to be expected. Some of the scenes were sped up so fast, it was almost a challenge to try and see who was fighting who. The storyline was full of holes, particulary the opening scene (what is Seagal and Eddie George doing except shooting up a village?) and the action, although overall well done, was not mixed up enough, and took a little long to get started. There was also that whole thing up spraying the blue stuff all over the place, but I digress.
Overall, Seagal surprised me and made me realize why I was once a diehard fan. While I can't say I will ever respect him as much as I did before "Out for a Kill", it's nice to see he is capable of doing a decent film. At the same time, it's disappointing to see that the only time we'll here Seagal's own voice and not have to play "spot the stunt double" is when he is getting a higher paycheck. Should it have gone to theatres? Probably not. It wouldn't have done well, that's just a fact. But I for one don't care if they go to theatres, I can watch them at home. The quality just better be there, and when it is, it makes you want to smile. Because then, you can respect the man for what he truly is. A hero, and one that can still kick ass even after 20+ years in the game.