What SEAGAL should do in order to get back on top

Disciple

come get some
Been thinking about this for a while, and after watching the disappointing Belly of the Beast, I've formulated a list of things that Seagal should do that would help him return to past cinematic glory. He used to be the top action star in the WORLD for crying out loud! So my suggestions are as follows:

1. Get down to proper fighting weight. That means losing at least another 30-40 lbs from his Belly of the Beast weight. It can be done, I have seen people older than him do it. In his prime he was about 6ft4 and 210, which should be his ideal target size if he wants to be taken seriously as the onscreen master that we all know he is.

2. He should film his fight scenes the old way, which worked so well for him in the first ten or so years of his movie career. People are sick and tired of these Matrix inspired fancy camera angles, unnecessary slow motion, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it edits during fight scenes. Seagal should fight like he did in the early days: filmed in a few takes, from a medium distance, NO slow motion. He should STOP using stunt doubles so much.

3. He should return to his traditional Japanese combat styles (i.e. Aikido, Karate, Kendo, etc), NOT try to include all these other esoteric Chinese styles that he's doing now. He should also do the really roughhouse style fighting like he used to do, so that you can REALLY see the impact of his blows and throws, because that's what fans want to see, and sadly this is not happening with his films right now. He should break more bones and snap more arms like the old days!

4. He needs to do more scenes like the bar scenes in Above the Law, and Out for Justice, where he goes in and destroys several bad guys in one go.

5. He should do his best to get better lead villain actors, someone memorable like Basil Wallace, Henry Silva, Bill Sadler, Bill Forsythe, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, Everett McGill and Eric Bogosian. The bad guys he has faced in his last 4 or 5 movies have been pathetic and forgettable.

and 6. If Seagal wants to reinvigorate his career, he REALLY needs to hook up with a decent director or two, such as Quentin Tarantino. Seagal needs a juicy role to bring him back into the limelight. He also should be more open minded about taking on bad guy roles, or even stuff like light comedy, or dramatic stuff that is very different from what he is traditionally known for. Every actor who is successful knows that they have to continuously reinvent themselves if they want to remain fresh and interesting to the general public. If you don't reinvent yourself, you are yesterday's news. I have full faith that Seagal can freshen up his image if he puts his mind to it. Like I say, he should seriously consider doing a well written bad guy role, or comedy, drama, whatever. SOMETHING DIFFERENT.
 

Matt

New Member
Agree 100%

* Put down some weight
* Coreoghraph fights like in the old days
* Get good cast / director
* Play other roles (Really love the bad guy idea!)
 

Lotussan

I Belong To Steven
Something different might bomb too, so I am sure he likes to stick with what he knows...
But I think he could do any role, and does have many talents...
I like the new fighting myself, I find it very interesting...
Asthetically, the newer movies are very pleasing to me...
I appreciate these things, but maybe not everyone does...
I do think the stars you mentioned are an asset, but I have always thought that asians did a good job at the physical dramatics like dying, LOL...Very realistic, and they probably work cheaper when they are less known...Isn't Seagal making these
movies using his own prod. company? Well, maybe not this one...But I am sure they have a budget to stick to...
Maybe he just like doing what floats his boat...Maybe he wants to do it the way he wants...
I support him 100% and I think he's simply wonderful, talented, and intelligent...
I hope he continues to do whatever makes him happiest, I will always be so proud of his work...I truly admire him more than I can say...:)
 

ORANGATUANG

Wildfire
Tell me iam dreaming guys, this takes the cake.. You are saying that Steven should play a bad guy huh?... I dont think so he has always played the good guy and i dont want that to change..And whats this b**-s*** about his weight he is 6 foot4 gosh wake and guys i for one love my men with meat on their bones and Steven is perfect
the way he is..I have seen photos of him skinny and i dont like..sorry i love you but i
always want you beefed up.So to all his critics here take Steven for who he is and what he does, because while Stevens here iam here..Like the other day i saw FIRE DOWN BELOW..and mumma did that heat me up.."yeowwww"steven you do to me what you do so well..Keep them coming big boy..Love Always Heather.....xx.......
 

Lotussan

I Belong To Steven
That's right, Heather!
I honestly prefer him meaty, hehehe...
And omg, he's so tall, with those looooonnnng manly legs, omg!
But it's all his call, I would still love him no matter what, because when you really love someone those silly things like weight changes shouldn't make a difference...
I am big myself...
So if you want to stay big Steven baby, then I say stay big! ;)
If you want to lose weight, then lose weight...
I just want you to be happy, darling...
Because you make me sooooo sooooo happy!
But we girls love you just like you are, right girls?
I think you are totally gorgeous, and I find you more attractive now than I ever have!
You are just awesome, darling, you are big and handsome, and beautiful and masculine, just like a real man should be, and I couldn't ask for more!
There is just more of you for me to love, and I do mean that I LOVE YOU, honey!
I wish I was there so you could hold me in those big lovin' arms, oh and I love those shirts that show those yummy arms, oh yessssss...;)
I adore you sooooo much, Steven!
You are everything I want!
 

ORANGATUANG

Wildfire
Lotussan said:
That's right, Heather!
I honestly prefer him meaty, hehehe...
And omg, he's so tall, with those looooonnnng manly legs, omg!
But it's all his call, I would still love him no matter what, because when you really love someone those silly things like weight changes shouldn't make a difference...
I am big myself...
So if you want to stay big Steven baby, then I say stay big! ;)
If you want to lose weight, then lose weight...
I just want you to be happy, darling...
Because you make me sooooo sooooo happy!
But we girls love you just like you are, right girls?
I think you are totally gorgeous, and I find you more attractive now than I ever have!
You are just awesome, darling, you are big and handsome, and beautiful and masculine, just like a real man should be, and I couldn't ask for more!
There is just more of you for me to love, and I do mean that I LOVE YOU, honey!
I wish I was there so you could hold me in those big lovin' arms, oh and I love those shirts that show those yummy arms, oh yessssss...;)
I adore you sooooo much, Steven!
You are everything I want!

Here iam again some thing weird just happened...Like i said before my whole message dissapeared iam a big woman to so now i know why we get on so
well huh..And i was going to tell Steven that there is 2 big beautifil woman
here waiting for him..i myself can take him on the big beautifil beast that he is
Yikes, beast in a sexy way girls..Love Always Heather..xx...
 
Disciple said:
Been thinking about this for a while, and after watching the disappointing Belly of the Beast, I've formulated a list of things that Seagal should do that would help him return to past cinematic glory. He used to be the top action star in the WORLD for crying out loud! So my suggestions are as follows:

1. Get down to proper fighting weight. That means losing at least another 30-40 lbs from his Belly of the Beast weight. It can be done, I have seen people older than him do it. In his prime he was about 6ft4 and 210, which should be his ideal target size if he wants to be taken seriously as the onscreen master that we all know he is.

2. He should film his fight scenes the old way, which worked so well for him in the first ten or so years of his movie career. People are sick and tired of these Matrix inspired fancy camera angles, unnecessary slow motion, and blink-and-you'll-miss-it edits during fight scenes. Seagal should fight like he did in the early days: filmed in a few takes, from a medium distance, NO slow motion. He should STOP using stunt doubles so much.

3. He should return to his traditional Japanese combat styles (i.e. Aikido, Karate, Kendo, etc), NOT try to include all these other esoteric Chinese styles that he's doing now. He should also do the really roughhouse style fighting like he used to do, so that you can REALLY see the impact of his blows and throws, because that's what fans want to see, and sadly this is not happening with his films right now. He should break more bones and snap more arms like the old days!

4. He needs to do more scenes like the bar scenes in Above the Law, and Out for Justice, where he goes in and destroys several bad guys in one go.

5. He should do his best to get better lead villain actors, someone memorable like Basil Wallace, Henry Silva, Bill Sadler, Bill Forsythe, Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, Everett McGill and Eric Bogosian. The bad guys he has faced in his last 4 or 5 movies have been pathetic and forgettable.

and 6. If Seagal wants to reinvigorate his career, he REALLY needs to hook up with a decent director or two, such as Quentin Tarantino. Seagal needs a juicy role to bring him back into the limelight. He also should be more open minded about taking on bad guy roles, or even stuff like light comedy, or dramatic stuff that is very different from what he is traditionally known for. Every actor who is successful knows that they have to continuously reinvent themselves if they want to remain fresh and interesting to the general public. If you don't reinvent yourself, you are yesterday's news. I have full faith that Seagal can freshen up his image if he puts his mind to it. Like I say, he should seriously consider doing a well written bad guy role, or comedy, drama, whatever. SOMETHING DIFFERENT.



I agree with most of what you have to say Disciple. I think getting down to and staying around the same weight he was in Exit Wounds would be good enough.
He definately needs to get better directors on his future projects(dont see it happening though-still cant believe this Annakin Skywalker is gonna direct Ghenghis Khan: you gotta be kiddin me). It would be ideal to see Tony Scott or Michael Mann(Heat) direct a big action film for him or even F. Gary Gray(The Italian Job, A Man Apart) but its never gonna happen anymore(too bad indeed).
I'd like to see more of his Aikido and Jujitsu and sword play in the rest of his films with, like you say, more of the roughhousing style and bone breaking moves that he is famous for. The kung fu crap is gotta go..It definately dont suit Seagal and dont look very good on film..That was my biggest problem with his fight scenes in BOTB when, in his fights he(his double) was doing these spinning back kicks. Its definately not what we have come to get used to with Seagal and he should'nt be doing martial arts that he is not as familiar with..Aikido and Jujitsu can be so devastating on film and he is one of the best practitioners of both of these arts, so he should incorporate them more in his fight sequences and leave the kung fu and wire fu to Chan and Li..I prefer to see face to face realism(on the ground).
 

Disciple

come get some
Exactly, Mike. The point is, there are plenty of wu shu/wire fu practitioners out there, why force Seagal to do something that isn't his main area of expertise?

Seagal's core competency is onscreen brutality via (improvised) Aikido, and to a lesser extent the other Japanese arts.
 
Disciple said:
Exactly, Mike. The point is, there are plenty of wu shu/wire fu practitioners out there, why force Seagal to do something that isn't his main area of expertise?

Seagal's core competency is onscreen brutality via (improvised) Aikido, and to a lesser extent the other Japanese arts.


I have to agree with you on this..I just love that onscreen brutality and his "Out for Justice" style cocky attitude..More fight scenes like in the bar scenes in OFJ when he offered his badge as a trophy to anyone who wanted to come and get it..Damm, those were the days...
 

Disciple

come get some
Yeah, I remember the scene well.

"You're nothing without that badge and that gun!"

(Sensei, placing his badge and gun on the table) "Ok, fair game now!"
 
Disciple said:
and 6. If Seagal wants to reinvigorate his career, he REALLY needs to hook up with a decent director or two, such as Quentin Tarantino. Seagal needs a juicy role to bring him back into the limelight. He also should be more open minded about taking on bad guy roles, or even stuff like light comedy, or dramatic stuff that is very different from what he is traditionally known for. Every actor who is successful knows that they have to continuously reinvent themselves if they want to remain fresh and interesting to the general public. If you don't reinvent yourself, you are yesterday's news. I have full faith that Seagal can freshen up his image if he puts his mind to it. Like I say, he should seriously consider doing a well written bad guy role, or comedy, drama, whatever. SOMETHING DIFFERENT.

Hell he could have been Bill in Kill Bill!
 

Amos Stevens

New Member
I would say first to take care of his health

2nd. to get involved with more well known actors & movie companies

3rd. If possible to be more involved in the actual movie filming & not have so many doubles
 

Lotussan

I Belong To Steven
ORANGATUANG said:
Here iam again some thing weird just happened...Like i said before my whole message dissapeared iam a big woman to so now i know why we get on so
well huh..And i was going to tell Steven that there is 2 big beautifil woman
here waiting for him..i myself can take him on the big beautifil beast that he is
Yikes, beast in a sexy way girls..Love Always Heather..xx...

Heather, you're right he's a sexy beast, hehehe...

Sorry if that comment ever offends our Steven but he is awesome!


Dear Sensei,
I want you to know how much I respect and admire you, my love!
No disrespect intended...
I only want to let you know how I feel, that is all...
I find you totally and utterly attractive my darling...
I simply adore your big, and powerful body!
Just looking at you and seeing you move is honestly one of my greatest pleasures...
I find you so very desireable, my love!
You are just perfect to me, like a real man should be!
Big, tall, and majestic!
You are my most beautiful fantasy!

I love you, Steven!
1011-008-59-1040.gif




Truly...​
[/I]
 

TDWoj

Administrator
Staff member
This tired old topic, again... sorry, but this is such an old whinge, its beard is about fifty metres long now. At least this time, though, there's a new twist: "We want Steven to be exactly the same as he was, doing exactly the same thing as he was doing before, in exactly the same way, but we also want him to reinvent himself."

!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree that he could look after his health better; clearly, he isn't doing that, what with so many people "doing" for him, he's gotten too lazy now even to take care of himself properly. However, his weight is not an issue when it comes to his abilities as a fighter, as he has ably demonstrated on more than one occasion.

While I haven't seen BOTB yet (it'll be a few weeks before I get it, and none of the video stores around here have it for me to watch before then), I get the impression he is, in fact, trying something new. I imagine he must be tired of doing the same old, same old, and trying a different martial arts style might actually have been fun for him. Perhaps he has reinvented himself already; but there's no satisfying some people, because they want to put time and Steven in a bottle, and keep him doing exactly the same thing he's always done, in exactly the same way. (I said that already, didn't I. Oh, well.)

Things have changed a lot in the film industry since he made Above the Law. For one thing, studio executives and their marketing mavens have determined the viewing public won't come to a film that has "realistic" fight scenes, without wires, because that style of fighting is passé, not to mention too brutal for our delicate sensibilities, and it's got no "flash". Not to mention the fact that Steven is over the hill as far as the target market audience is concerned, which is the 15 to 22 year olds. And as for the action films that are being made, roles that would suit Steven best are being given to The Rock, and Vin Diesel and other suchlike brawny dudes, because, in some cases, they come with a potentially large cross-over audience.

Not to mention that Steven is poison in Hollywood, and that only a major studio has the money to make Steven-style films, and they won't touch him with a bargepole, unless they team him up with someone they know will draw in the audience, like DMX, for example. Steven simply doesn't have the box-office draw that he used to, and the kinds of movies he made are not as popular these days, either. (I tested a cross section of my large circle of acquaintances and in response to my mentioning "Steven Seagal movies", at least half of them said, "who?", and they are my age or older. I won't tell you what the other half said, but it weren't kind. A small sample, to be sure. But I thought the response was interesting.)

He is known for misbehaving on the set and being difficult to work with, and that makes it all the more unlikely a good director will want to work with him, despite the fact that, yes, I agree, a good director would be able to do wonders for his performance. The good scripts, also, do not come his way, and the no-name actors he's working with these days are probably the only ones who will work with him - probably because they need the work.

It's all very well to wish for things to be just the way they were; but they are not, and will never be. As for Steven reinventing himself, well, we all know he will never accept a role as a villain, so there's no use wishing for that. And, for all we know, he may have already "reinvented" himself, and what we are getting is the new and improved (at least to himself) Steven.

I'd like to see him in a supporting role, where the pressure is off and he's not the one carrying the film. He was far more relaxed and had an opportunity to step outside the box he's usually in, in Executive Decision and Ticker. If he really wanted to reinvent himself and get himself back on the big screen, I think that would be the way to go.

-TD, grateful that Steven is still making films, as execrable as some of the latest ones have been
 
Damm TD, how old are you again..All of my friends know who Seagal is and most of the population of the Bahamas knows him and either they love him or they hate him(something like George Bush)..
People who dont like him always come up with the lame excuse that he cant act..I never preferred to see an action star act when he is so good at kicking ass instead..If you want to see martial artists that can also act you may not live that long..Brandon Lee might have had a chance to be that but we were never able to find out..Bruce Lee was one of the worst actors of all time but do you think his fans really care..He was the best at what he did and that is what we wanted to see..Personally, I dont want to see Seagal in a musical or see Deniro doing martial arts for that matter..In the nineties Seagal was the best at the type of movies that he did and was one of the biggest movie stars around in popularity. Nobody stays on top forever and there are a lot of actors that would love to still be in Seagal's shoes.
 

TDWoj

Administrator
Staff member
I'm not sure what exactly you are responding to in my post, NassM. I never said Steven couldn't act, I just said he does better in certain circumstances, and I'd like to see more of those circumstances. I think he's more than just a one-trick pony.

I'm five or six years younger than Steven (depending on which year you choose for his birthdate, but definitely not the one suggested in OFAK, which would make me two years older, I don't think so). Those folks of my acquaintance are generally my age or older. Two are even film critics (they were part of the group that had heard of him but had the rolleye response to his name). At least half had never heard of him. Fame is fleeting and fickle, indeed.

-TD, tired and testy
 
TDWoj said:
I'm not sure what exactly you are responding to in my post, NassM. I never said Steven couldn't act, I just said he does better in certain circumstances, and I'd like to see more of those circumstances. I think he's more than just a one-trick pony.

I'm five or six years younger than Steven (depending on which year you choose for his birthdate, but definitely not the one suggested in OFAK, which would make me two years older, I don't think so). Those folks of my acquaintance are generally my age or older. Two are even film critics (they were part of the group that had heard of him but had the rolleye response to his name). At least half had never heard of him. Fame is fleeting and fickle, indeed.

-TD, tired and testy


I was mostly responding to you saying that a lot of your friends/acquaintances had never heard of Seagal. If I ever come across anyone who dont know who Seagal is I wonder where they have been for the last 2 decades.
My mother even knows who Seagal is but to her amazement she has met some friends that dont know who Elvis was or who Saddam was..
If someone tells me that they dont know who Seagal is I find that hard to believe or I'll understand that they just dont watch tv and know whats going on in the world..Do your friends/acquaintances know who Elvis was or Saddam(Just joking-I hope)...
 
Top