Today You Die - Reviews

[latinojazz]

The movie has many good things, the car chase scenes, his screen presence and litttle bit more.
The Robin Hood concept sucks, looks if Steven was another Saint Chuck Norris and I hat the stunts, THAT YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE and his wife is very good looking but his extra-sensorial senses looks stockfootage of Submerged and are out of the film and sometimes is laughable.
Anyway I saw the movie twice,I like more the second

I rate 5/10 because I´m a good guy.If I were a bad guy I´ll rate 2/10.
The movie is as bad or as good as his latest ¨works¨, but without overdubbing.
Not good, a little poor bad flick

Ciao

 

[suziwong]

From Movies Online

http://www.moviesonline.ca

"More Segal : Today You Die!
News Genre : Action Movie News
Oh happy day! My roommate, who you all know I love to torture and blame for things aren't even remotely his fault, opened up his Netflix package today, and low and behold, there it was: Today, You Die. Yet another Steven Seagal direct to video flick. Let me tell you something, the calendar says it's halloween, but for me, today is like Christmas!

(Some of you might remember my previous Seagal review "Submerged" which I did not like at all. You might also remember I'd beat him profusely with a sock full of pennies if he subjected me to torture like that again. Go to the end of the review to find out if I did indeed follow through with my plan).

So.... Today You Die. It's good to see Seagal returning to the famous "three word" titles of his previous successes, such as Above the Law, Hard to Kill, Out For Justice, etc. Sadly, it doesn't work when you add "Steven Seagal IS..." before the title. Steven Seagal IS Today You Die. Although that makes about as much sense as some of the dialog scenes in this film. Not gonna lie to you, this was a bad one. But it was a lot better than Submerged, and I will be a little nicer this go around.

So Seagal is a master thief named Harlan Banks. Oh wait, I forgot about the awesome credit sequence, which included a woman getting a tarot card reading. It includes a lot of needless freeze frames that look stupid, while focusing on the "death" card, meaning something bad is most likely going to happen. (Even though I believe that the "death" card doesn't necessarily mean bad things, but whatever). So the credits roll over these images, where we learn that the film had a LOT of producers. And executive producers. But I digress.

So the woman getting her tarot card reading is Jada (Mari Morrow) who has a nightmare, which you know is a nightmare because it includes a lot of quick cutting and random imagery. She wakes up next to Seag..excuse me, Harlan. Harlan, it should be noted is just sitting in bed staring. Not even reading, or meditating. Just sitting there ready to deliver his dialog and provide a comfortable hug. Jada feels something bad is going to happen. Naturally Harlan leaves her to go on a job. He is a thief after all, although it's alluded to that he's a noble thief, who robs from drug dealers and crime bosses and gives to the poor, while keeping some for himself. It's alluded to, but never actually shown, so it's quite possible I made it up. In fact, as I go through the recap of the plot, it might sound like I'm winging it. I bet I could make it up as I went along and STILL come up with a better movie. Again, I digress. Anyway, if he's robbing from drug dealers, that might explain why this master thief doesn't feel the need to wear gloves on a heist.

Harlan is robbing the guy who played the bus driver in Speed (remember that movie? That was a good movie) and naturally kills him. The bus driver, being a crime lord, has several highly trained body guards who attack harlan as he exits. They're patient enough to fight single file. And Harlan fights them, with his back to the camera the whole time. Astute fan of cinema might be able to ascertain the reasoning behind this choice. (Hint, Harlan looks a little thinner in this scene).

Ok, I've only described the first ten minutes of the movie. Harlan and Jada leave wherever they just were and head to Vegas for a fresh start. Because when fleeing a life of crime and sin, nothing says renewal like Vegas. Harlan gets a "legitimate" job driving an armored car. But it turns out to be a heist getaway driver. This leads to a (swear to God) genuinely cool chase scene through the streets of "Vegas". (the end credits and IMDB mention Vegas, and Bulgaria as the prime locations). Somehow, somewhere in the chase scene, Seagal manages to stash the $20 million he stole. Then he passes out and the cops nab him. Harlan is charged with murder, of whom I'm still not sure. I thought it was originally the police officers who died in the car chase, but then I'm told it's "Max", the shady figure who hired Seagal in the first place.

Seagal goes to jail. He has that long walk down the "mile" where I kid you not, EVERY PRISON CLICHE is presented. If it were a drinking game, you'd be down before the end of the scene. It's ridonkulous. In prison, Seagal beats up some guys who know he has the money. He earns the respect and confidence of Ice Cool (Anthony "Treach" Criss, from Naughty By Nature. Jersey represent!). cool offers to help Seagal escape, in exchange for some of the money. Seagal agrees, and thus unfolds the lamest prison break I have ever seen captured on film.

Now comes the fun part. not to say it hasn't been interesting up until this point. So now, Seagal obviously wants revenge, and he's got Max's former business partners after him, as well as some possibly corrupt cops. But Segal doesn't care, as he proceeds to kill everyone. In between bouts of killing (including a scene of high amusement involving the Asian street gang from Vegas blowing things up for no reason) Seagal and "Ice Cool" proceed to drive around town exchanging witty banter. But it's not witty banter. It's like having a conversation with that white kid who works at the mall and only speaks in "hip hop" lingothat's been sanitized and over used to sell products. It's panful, and not to mention a little tragic. Even Treach seems pained to agree with Seagal in these scenes. One of these incoherent conversations is done completely off screen while a car drives. It's so unbelievably horrible.

Umm... so you might think since I'm needlessly trashing this movie, that I didn.... Oh wait! I forgot another ridiculous moment. So Jada keeps having these horribly MTV dreams, which convince her that Max (who might still be alive) is "supernatural." alright, this could work, it worked with ScrewFace in Marked For Death, why not bring it back to this one and give her a whirl. Except, he's not supernatural, he's just in hiding. There's nothing about the supernatural element at all. There's not even a reason for that scene to exist in this movie. But then again, there's a lot of things in this movie that shouldn't exist.

Yeah. It's pretty crappy. Never boring, however. Like a Uwe Boll film, you watch to see if it can get any more bad, and lo and behold, it does. However, it comes nowhere NEAR reaching the bar set by Submerged. For example, in this movie, Seagal actually uses his own voice. not dubbed over like the last one. And aside from that one horribly obvious scene in the beginning, Seagal seems to be there doing his fighting. That or CG has gotten REALLY good.

Also, this movie features quite possibly the greatest Seagal device on film: the multiple breaking bones. Remember Above the Law, when Nico broke that dude's arm, and shoved it through his back? That was cool. This movie features an obscene amount of bone breaking, but damn I watched every second of it.

Most of the co-stars are pretty bad, but Treach manages to come out alright. Even likable. And hey, you gotta love the guy that gets to say the title in the movie. Especially if he adds a curse word to the end of it!

This movie is a lot less hyper kinetic (or ADD) than Submerged, and I appreciated it. This movie is crap, make no mistake, but it's a lot easier to watch. In a literal sense of the word, anyway. There's a lot wrong with this movie, and a lot of things I could single out, but why bother? Fact is, this movie is so bad it's fun. One of Seagal's better in the direct to video category, this is definitely a movie you can pop on if you like yelling the television. (I'm a big fan of "Are you KIDDING me!?!"). Plus, there's a really cool stunt involving a dude getting thrown out of a window. That was pretty badass.

So my roommate is spared tonight. But I think I'm gonna beat him anyway. Just to keep him on his toes.
Posted By: The Dude / Source Got news? Dont hesitate to share your knowledge and send us your news, ramblings, Send it in to us scoops@moviesonline.ca "
----------------------------------------

Link is here:

http://www.moviesonline.ca/movienews_6175.html

suzi

 

[ORANGATUANG]

I have got the movie but STILL havent seen it yet....He has only disappointed me once in his movies...Ohhh Suzi i love your avatar...

 

[hofmae]

Its a good movie. Not "very good" but not bad too. It has some nice actionscenes, and Steven Seagal's Acting is cool. Im looking forward for Black Dawn now.

 

[Littledragon]

Its a good movie. Not "very good" but not bad too. It has some nice actionscenes, and Steven Seagal's Acting is cool. Im looking forward for Black Dawn now.

Our friend CubanFan got his hands on a copy of Black Dawn and said he saw it and said it was horrible. Hope it is not as bad as he said it was.

But I enjoyed Today You Die, it was not great, but good. A very good DTV film compared to all his other ones.

 

[Littledragon]

My Today You Die Review!!

Well after just finish watching this film again to refresh my memory in hopes to win Black Dawn I will have to say I changed my mind a little on the film and do not give it a higher rating as I gave it before. This will be my third time writing a full review for Today You Die and hopefully it won't get deleted again. Here is what I thought of the film:

Plot:
What can I say, this was no Academy Award winning script, nor a high Hollywood picture movie script as well. The plot to me was a little too cliche and make believe. The fact that all of a sudden Seagal AKA Harlan Banks gives up his dangerous job in the past that Maxim begs him to leave behind, he then finds a driving job out of the blue to delievery $20 Million in cash. Then he gets double crossed, set up, goes to jail, wants revenge, just was too laughable in my opinion. The plot did not do anything for the movie at all. This was not the best plot and I think this kind of script could have been written by a middle school kid, so I was not too impressed with the plot for this film. It transisted too face pace for me. First he is in Las Vegas delievering $20 Million, then he is in jail, then he is out and seeking revenge, just went too fast for me.

The movie starts off in the beginning almost as a cheesy suspensefull taro card, mystical black magic vibe which in my opinion I still can not see how those foreshadowing events had anything to do with the film. The dream Maxim was having was a symbolic foreshadowing but all the dreams just did not seem to really connect to anything in the movie besides the point there was trouble ahead.

Acting:
The person who surprised me alot in terms of acting in this obvious B movie flick was the rapper Treach. His acting impressed me and I thought he brought the energy and urban youngness to the film. In terms of Seagal's acting, I thought it was so cliche! Every word out of Seagal's mouth, he just sounded so cliche. I hate how he talks in a Southern hill billy accent, which I became very annoyed about that. I noticed he started talking like that in Into The Sun, I just don't like his new acting style talking like a Southern old man. There were some exceptions when he had his classic one liners that almost brought back memories of the old Seagal and almost brought back that raw bad ass character Seagal once was. The part when Seagal fought the guy that set him up in the jail storage room when he said, "I don't remember saying **** you!" that small phrase almost reminded me of the old Seagal days. He said it with such emotion and passion it was almost as if I was seeing Gino Felino in the movie. Another nice classic one liner that brought some of Seagal's trademark style was when in the same scene he said "I have a message for Max", and he broke the guy's arm. That kind of reminded me of a Nico moment where he would have a cocky one liner and then bang the guy up and walk away in an arrogant strut.
Overall I was not that pleased with Seagals mono toned Southern hill billy accent.

Action:
As we were accustomed to in the most recent DTV release films, Seagal has a couple short fight scenes and that is all. I was not pleased with the fight scenes in this film. Seagal now has had these short a couple second fight scenes and that is it. I probably counted 3-4 very short hand to hand combat fight scenes in this film. The beginning fight scene in the film when he was at the guy's manchine, that wasn't even Seagal doing the fighting, we could all tell by the wig. The jail yard fight scene was short and sweet, almost happened to fast for me to see what was going on. The short fight scene in the jail storage room where he breaks his arm was something we all have seen before so that was no surprise to me. And the last major fight scene in the ware house was almost as if Seagal was the fill in for the double. That whole fight scene was the double doing the fighting and Seagal filling in for the face shots which was dissapointing. So the fight scenes were short and sweet, just one street lethal fight scene was in the jail yard but that was way too short. I wanted to see much more fight scenes especially when you had these huge prisioners, there could have been alot more. In addition all the talented Martial Artists and fighters in this film, it was a shame they couldn't have come together to come up with a nice fight scene to watch. You had one of the UFC'S best Light Heavyweight fighter: Randy Coture in the film, he is the guard at the door at Max's informants house and makes short work of him. You also had the asian gang leader, Jame's Lew and Jerry Trimble who are both incredible Martial Artists, and I even spotted this which was a surprise, top UFC fighter welterweight, Karo Paryissian was one of the gun men in the white gang when they had the gun fight against the asians.

The car chase was quite good, not as good as the Submerged car chase scene, but I believe the car chase was just to add in as an effect of excitement for the film. There was too many unnecessary explotions just to add flavor to the film. But none the less they were unnecessary.

Appearence:
I noticed they put alot of concealer and make up on Seagal's face to make him look tan and hide his aging features on his face. In addition I noticed the frizzled hair which I did not like to see. Lets face it Seagal is over 50 years old now and he looks a little bloated.

Dubbing:
There was little to no dubbing in the film which was a plus. The only time I spotted dubbing was in the first line when Seagal was talking to Maxim on the phone in the jail. And that is it.

Doubles:
Because there were so few fight scenes in this film, the doubles were not as noticable as they were in most Seagal DTV films, but still very noticable when present. The beginning figh scene in the movie was all the double and again Seagal filling in for the face shot. The warehouse scene you could really tell it was a double which was just pathetic and dissapointing again.

Conclusion:
Today You Die was probably my most anticipated DTV Seagal film. I was so excited for the film and expcected so so much more from this film. It had great potential but again was wasted away. I believe they spent a little more time and effort as they did with the big explosiions in the film, this movie could have been pleasing to watch. Too little fight scenes, obvious doubles, corny dialouge tone from Seagal, and a boring and cliche plot. This movie was simply average, not great, yet not bad. I believe this film was better then Submerged in my opinion as well as Out Of Reach but Into The Sun is much better then this film. I would watch this film again if I was bored on a snow day but other then that this is not a film I would run to watch.

Overall my rating for this film is a strong 3 out of 5 stars.

 

[ad_adrian]

after buying the movie today: i was a little dissapointed with the movie, i knew about the hype, then heard everyone saying how bad it was but still i think submerged was slightly better
it was good to see that aikido move in it though, and it was ok
the story line kind of was jagged and not making sense the whole way through lots of missing information,
but it was ok i liked it of course cause i was a seagal fan
6/10

 

[Littledragon]

after buying the movie today: i was a little dissapointed with the movie, i knew about the hype, then heard everyone saying how bad it was but still i think submerged was slightly better
it was good to see that aikido move in it though, and it was ok
the story line kind of was jagged and not making sense the whole way through lots of missing information,
but it was ok i liked it of course cause i was a seagal fan
6/10

I was expecting so much more for this film. I remember how excited and great I thought this film would be, but yes I was dissapointed in the end.

Into The Sun still remains supreme for me out of all his DTV's so far.

 

[latinojazz]

I am always excited for his upcoming movies and after seeing it I´m always disspointed.

I don´t know how many DTV Steven movies I´ll can support.TYD is 0 of 5stars comparing with Into The Sun, for example, and ITS is 3 of 5, not more, and comparing with a really good movie is 1 star of 5.Then, imagine what ranking had the others.

I think the Seagal movies can´t be ranked.Are for fans, not for cinema lovers.
I´m very dissapointed with TYD.More than other DTV.

 

[ad_adrian]

some parts i was even getting bored in it, its probably the only seagal movie i hav only seen once, might watch it again though

 

[latinojazz]

I have seen twice, and it´s a bad movie and not beliavable at all.Steven at 54as a B-thief trying to change as driver deliver?I prefer his typical ex-CIA, FBI, Detroit Policeman characters.

 

[slawek_wozniak]

Well, I have finally got my part of Today You Die. I'm very pleased with this. I liked the movie very much. It's better than Submerged. I loved the fight scenes that he makes by Him self and no stunt (I have read that insurance company sometime wont let the actor even drive a car if that could couse any accident, so now I know that actors don't have much to talk, unless they are Tom Cruise . The story was simple but good. Action scenes where good edited and played. I loved the thing that makes Seagal like a bad guy. Beating hard and shoot people that framed him with not even a blink. The stock footage didn't bothered me. The music was great, just like in Into The Sun. I give this title rate 8/10. Well I know that Black Down was very poor after this great picture. I hope that I will like Mercenary for Justice. greets to all

 

[Oldsexyblackman]

Plot wise this movie was super confusing, but the movie was never boring and that is the most important thing.

Building and cars were blown up for no reason ( always a plus)

 

[MrSnuggly]

Today You Die review

God this was poor, even by Steve's recent standards. Particular favourite was watching Steve throw a guy through a window and seeing a different guy (wearing different clothes) fall to his death!
Full review here

 

[cwxstorm]

I agree it wasnt good....

I thought the scene where he was in bed with his wife/gf was awful, she was half naked and he was fully clothed.

Thing is i think he can still do a really good film. He was never known for his high kicks, or aerial moves, so why dont he just tone his fight scenes to arm to arm contact which even despite his age he should comfortably do?

Instead he does silly moves like in Belly of the Beast (which i actually enjoyed apart from when he chopped the arrow in half which was plain ridiculous).

If anything i think he could concentrate on roles such as a mentor to a younger character like in karate kid for example? Then he could still throw in the odd fight scene and yet not have the complete focus on him and making himself look poor by having doubles for 90% of his fight scenes.

If he'd just keep it simple and work hard in the gym for a bit, i think he would be far less critisized

 

[ORANGATUANG]

Ummm that would be Black Dawn actually ..I havent seen Today You Die yet but its on my to see list..as for Mercenary For Justice you wont be disapointed...iam looking forward to Shadowman..and as for nude scenes its not all that...

 

[ninj]

'Today You Die'

Hi all

Look first off, I’ve been a loyal fan ever since I saw Seagal on the back of ‘Film Review’ way back in 1989, previewing ‘Nico’. That was even before I’d seen the film, I saw the trailer and have been a fan ever since.

Now we all know the downward spiral the movies are taking, but the other night, I think it reached reached rock bottom. I had seen the trailer on tv for ‘Today You Die’ and thought “Wow” - It looks set in America with American actors, could this be a return to form?

I watched it last week (admittedly it was quite late and I’d had a few beers) but what a pile of tosh! The morning after I couldn’t remember a single thing about it (And NO I wasn’t drunk!). I put it on again on fast forward the following morning to refresh my memory and watched it all in about 5 minutes. There was probably only one very minor fight scene.

I hope this gets better, please for all our sakes.

Have a good weekend all.

Best wishes

Ninj

 

[marky96]

I recently had the 'pleasure' of watching this film for the first time. Part of me was optimistic, with it being Seagal's first film in the US for some four years. However after Into the Sun (2005), I had been disappointed by Submerged (also 2005). The latter film had, by no means been perfect, however it was no where near as bad as Today You Die (2005).

From start to finish this film verges on being laughable and I am sad to say that a lot of the blame must rest with Seagal himself. Throughout the film he seems bored and uninterested. He speaks in a bearly audible whisper for most of the film except when he is talking to his partner, a rapper, when Seagal then adopts the voice of a black man himself. His weight has balloned again, even since Submerged and his costumes do him no favours. Unsurprisingly the fight scenes featuring Seagal are few and far between. Most of them, notably the first one, rely heavily on the use of stunt doubles and are shot in near darkness and poorly edited together. However there is one fight that does feature Seagal exclusively and this is the highlight of the film. It is not a Seagal fight of old was we would know it. It has been staged in a way that is far more appropriate for somone of Seagal's age and condition. It does not involve any wire work or trick photography and the martial arts is limited. However it is brutal and realistic, something that I think has been sorely lacking from Seagal's recent efforts. I hope that this will be the first of many such fights.

Aside from the fight scenes, Seagal wonders through the film looking bored, uninterested and like he really doesn't want to be there. Given that Nu-Image are suing him because he repeatedly wandered off set and he and his enterage disrupted the making of this film, I can see why. This disruption as led to an incoherent mess of a film that doesn't really know what it wants to be. I think the film makers finally settled on some sort of Exit Wounds (2001) rip-off but have failed miserably. Treach, as 'Ice Cool' os woefully mis-cast lacking the style or attitude of DMX or even Ja Rule. The rest of the cast look bored and no one stands out as being anything more than a TV or DTV regular.

Overall the film feels very forced and disjointed. The large amount of stock footage does the film no favours, making it feel very much like a TV movie, something that Seagal really doesn't need.

 

[ORANGATUANG]

Just saw Today You Die and i liked it alot of action and of course the crooks get what that deserve and thats an good as-whoopin from the man...8/10..

 

[Jalu]

Well...change is the only constant.

God this was poor, even by Steve's recent standards. Particular favourite was watching Steve throw a guy through a window and seeing a different guy (wearing different clothes) fall to his death!
Full review here