Into the Sun

I've watched many Seagal movies and his latest ones in the past 4 years or so have really been downers. Although they were fun to watch because you could always get your kicks out of the cheap acting, unrealistic gun battles and pathetic plot. I rented this movies looking forward to laughing more than paying attention. However, I must say, I was quite surprised because this movie is definitely much better than the other ones he's released lately. It's not near a 10/10 because it's simply put a low budget film and the whole 22 year old girl and Seagal getting engaged was a bit disturbing. But yeah, other than that it was a much better movie this time around.

Steven Seagal once again return to straight-to-video hokum as a high-level American operative who is lent out to Japan to investigate a Yakuza hit on a top Japanese government official. Is the new generation of Yakuza out for world domination since they seem to no longer be content with just the drug trade? Will Seagal be able to defeat them all on his own and most importantly will you care or bother to continue watching?

Sadly Seagal's career is pretty much DOA. I really enjoyed many of his older films (Above the Law, my personal favorite Hard to Kill, Marked for Death and Under Siege). But sadly his films of late (The Foreigner, Belly of the Beast and now Into the Sun) just don't cut the grade. Never the most energetic and kinetic action stars, Seagal of late seems to have slowed down further and at times appears to be way out of shape. The scripts represent the dartboard method of writing with tired combos that fall flat.

weren't the late 80's and first half of the 90's great people? We have this guy who can't act but sure as hell kick a punch in movies with mostly no plot at all except for him kicking ass for 90 minutes long. OK, so they did have a little plot but the movies were all about Steven kicking the butts of bad guys. Steven would hit, kick, run, jump etc etc and people would get there bones broken in the nastiest ways. Who can forget the guy with the meat cleaver in "Out for Justice"? The way that was handled: pure testosterone filled ballet! Now it's the new millennium and the only decent thing our aikido hero has released was Exit Wounds (with lots of help from wire-fu, funny script, good co-stars, a good director, Steven who went to the gym etc etc). OK so Belly of the beast was decent, but not when you consider Steven had a body-double in tons of scenes.

So here is Into the sun, the latest fight fest from Steven and what does it contains:

-An openings scene which has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It works for James Bond but not here

• Steven doing pinkypink with his soon-to-be-wife (lame!) About one aikido fighting the first hour of the movie (against a couple of street kids)

• The rest is sword fights to the end

• Unimaginative baddies (I miss those guys from Under Siege 1 & 2, Hard to kill etc)

• Too much uninteresting plot too little fighting.

All Steven needs is a simple plot for him to go on a one-man-rampage across a lot of different locations fighting lots of men to get to his goal... Nothing more, nothing less. That never happens in Into the Sun. Steven just goes from friendly contact to friendly contact to get some info and that's basically it. Only in the last half hour the flick turns into a revenge-story and we get to see a toned down version of Hard to kill. What was the use of getting all that info in the first hour when the baddies get taken down by Steven out for a revenge motive? Next time someone writes a script for Seagal, just kill someone he loves in the beginning or drop some terrorists in the same location he is. Then get him "a shotgun and a patrol car" and he'll do the rest.

And make sure he went to the gym before the filming starts... those really close up aikido fights are not very exciting...

Action: Steven Seagal looks in the best shape he's been in since Exit Wounds. The action fight sequences unfortunately were few and far between. There was a fight at the mall that was superb, in my opinion this was great, but it was over too soon. This was really the only time where he truly showed off his hard to hand combat moves as well as his Aikido throws. The other fights later on were mainly sword based although there were a few punches. No care chases at all. The movie was certainly more plot based than we are used to for a Steven Seagal movie.

Characters: Steven Seagal get's a partner in this movie, but he is pretty much under-used. There's a few funny moments between them. The other characters are pretty poor too. William Atherton as the boss doesn't seem to interested in his role and the other Chinese and Japanese stars don't improve the movie much either. I sure miss the days when Steven Seagal made movies with a decent support cast.

Soundtrack: The radio stations and restaurants in Tokyo must all be tuned in to Steven Seagal FM, everywhere he went his music was playing - i heard a few of his tunes from 'Songs From The Crystal Cave' playing through the film. Overall i counted at least three of his songs including the credits song. The soundtrack was good though.

Direction: The movie begins with an action sequence in the jungle, which is not very well done. The opening credits begin and then some graphic work happens to show the movie is in Tokyo. When i saw this is reminded me other Michael Oblowitz's work in 'Out For A Kill' and i thought the worst, but after that panic it was certainly well directed. Good job mink.

Overall: Pretty disappointing, i was expecting much more for a budget of $35 million, i don't know where all this money was used as it seems rather excessive considering not much was blown up. It is certainly a better movie than 'Out For A Kill' and 'The Foreigner', but it is not better than 'Belly Of The Beast' and nowhere near as good as his earlier work. For a direct to video effort it is certainly above average though. I must admit i pretty much agree with the review form 'Ain't It Cool'.

Rating: 2 / 5

If you've been disappointed with some of Seagal's film of late, don't let that stop you from seeing this one. Some people just think Seagal's a joke and hate everything the guy does. But this movie is never boring, it's very violent (like his films back "in the day" were), and the direction by "mink" (huh?) keeps the film moving at a brisk pace. The authentic Asian locations help a lot too.

While far from perfect, this movie rocks: it pours on the blood, the fights, the moments of zen "calm" -- all the things one expects from a Seagal film. And this one delivers!

Seagal wrote and performs some of the music for the film too. It's great stuff: he's a decent singer and a fine guitarist.

Keep crankin' 'em out, Steve!