SoTrumpBelieve Must See Movie...

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Pluskylang Great Film overall

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

classicsoncall Oh my, the first appearance of Steven Seagal on screen in this picture was so shocking I didn't want to believe it was him. The man has not aged well, and for an action movie star, that's not good. I had to wonder if he would even perform any martial arts moves in the story, but that question was answered fairly early. What actually amazed me while watching this was the fact that twice now in back to back viewings, I ran across a reference to 'Gwai-Lo' - the white ghost aspect of Seagal's character in the story, going by the name of Alexander. Just yesterday I watched an episode of the X-Files titled 'Hell Money', and the same term was used with a slight difference in spelling, although the term 'gui' in that show also referred to a ghost spirit. These types of serendipitous occasions seem to occur frequently enough to qualify as my own version of an X-File, but that's neither here nor there.So now, instead of taking on street thugs, drug pushers or crooked cops, a Seagal film enters the arena of jihadi terrorists and the Russian mob. It's actually not too bad a story after a somewhat clumsy start, with Alexander getting involved with Romanian siblings trapped in a nightmare of repaying their deceased father's debt to a Russian kingpin, who in turn is a lackey for a Chinese crime lord.There are the expected martial arts sequences one tunes in for in a Seagal flick, although quick cutaways during the fight scenes suggest Seagal himself isn't necessarily performing all of them. Victor Webster as Sasha handled himself pretty well in his action scenes, and the gore factor is probably enough to suit most fans of this type of stuff. It's only a very short limb though that I would crawl out on to actually recommend this one. With Seagal way past his prime, one might better relive his past glory as an action star in one of his earlier films.

robertasmith There is something very creepy about Mr Segal's character being attracted to the young lead actresses character and she with him. One is 64 and the other is 29. I know it can happen but it is just unbelievable as portrayed in this film, and once there is one daft strand, the rest of the film falls and fails. This could have been a half decent film but the dialogue is poor, the acting wooden and the action scenes poor. The goodies recover from violent beatings far too easily, and the baddies always lose quickly. Why are the baddies always such poor shots. I am a fan of Mr Seagal but this film lets him down, as a few others have and I just wish he would stop making them.

Uriah43 After an assignment to eliminate a high-value terrorist target goes badly, a government assassin named "Alexander" (Steven Seagal) decides to essentially retire in a quiet village in Eastern Europe. However, when the Russian mob moves in and begins to do business with a Chinese arms merchant who had eluded Alexander in the past, his interest in keeping a low-profile becomes less important. This becomes especially true when the Russian mob begins to make trouble for his next door neighbor named "Lena" (Iulia Verdes) and her young daughter, "Mya" (Sofia Nicolaescu). Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this turned out to be a fairly enjoyable movie by and large. I especially liked the hard-hitting action scenes involving Steven Seagal and to a lesser extent those featuring Victor Webster (as Lena's half-brother, "Sasha"). Admittedly, however, I didn't particularly care for the ending, Alexander's low-class vernacular or the overall low-budget feel of the movie as a whole. Still, it was good enough for a rainy day I suppose and for the previous reasons mentioned I rate this film as slightly above average.

brchthethird Steven Seagal returns to the screen in this story about a former black ops warrior who gets caught in between Russian and Chinese gangs in order to save the sister of his neighbor, whose brother is in debt to the Russian mob. Truth be told, while one could call this a Steven Seagal movie, his character occupies a position that simultaneously is and isn't the center of the story (much like his previous effort FORCE OF EXECUTION). However, unlike FORCE OF EXECUTION, the story is better, more thought out and has better action sequences. Even the acting is better this time around, which is a plus. Story-wise, Seagal plays a variation on the character he plays in almost every movie he makes: that of the reluctant hero. He puts himself into a self-imposed retirement after a terrorist hit goes wrong, and a young girl dies while one of the bad guys gets away. Cut to the present day, and he's living a quiet life in Eastern Europe. His neighbor (Iulia Verdes) works at a strip bar (but she's just a bartender) run by the Russian mob while her half-brother (Victor Webster) pays off a debt owed by his father. However, when some men are killed and money meant for the Chinese mob goes missing, the neighbor's little sister is kidnapped and Alexander (Seagal) goes back into action. I thought that the story, while nothing original at all, was at least executed rather well within the confines of what constitutes a Seagal movie. The performances were also decent for this type of movie, with Tzi Ma probably doing the best out of the cast. Also of note is the improved fight sequences, which aren't completely edited to hell this time. The camera-work still has a hand-held feel to it, but the action is more comprehensible than a lot of Seagal's recent DTV output and you can tell that it's him a lot more of the time. They also varied the types of fighting. Sure, they had the typical gunplay and close quarters hand-to-hand combat, but Seagal also got to use a short sword for several scenes which was a nice change of pace (and provided some gruesome kills). Still, as always it wasn't all great. This movie was filmed on the cheap in Romania and it shows in the bleak cinematography and sparse sets. There was also some digital augmentation in a few scenes that stuck out pretty badly, and a couple of obvious uses of stock footage that wasn't at the same quality as the movie itself. And while some might count this as a positive, there was a bunch of gratuitous nudity which was only in there because some scenes happened to take place in a bar. There's also an awkward "sex" scene with Steven Seagal and Iulia Verdes which could have been left out completely. When all is said and done, Seagal fans should be pleased, as this is a return to form of sorts, at least when limited to his DTV work. As always, though, everyone else should probably find something else to watch.