The Asian Connection

If you want to see this because like me you saw Seagal on the poster larger than life, I got to tell you, Steven Seagal is not much of a fixture.

Seagal plays the antagonist, a crime lord that has taken over the Cambodian underground. A nobody named Jack robs a bank in order to give his hot girlfriend a fairy tale lifestyle, but discovers some of the money he stole belongs to the crime lord when his henchman comes to get it back, but the henchman has his own agenda when he blackmails Jack to rob banks that he selected. Than the story get complex.

It's a crime drama and a love story, similar to True Romance, filled with guns and crime.

If you've seen True Romance, Seagal's part in Asian Connection is similar too Christopher Walken's part in that, and it's an excellent place for the aging action hero.

Although from the look of the poster, I was expecting more action. Not just from Seagal but in general. Seagal does a few moves but nothing fancy, just enough to justify his pay check, The worse part however, is the spectacular Micheal Jai White makes an appearance in the movie that's nothing more than a glorified cameo, that makes people like me think it's gonna go down, but nothing that epic happens.

Don't let that discourage you from seeing the movie. Once I got over the disappointment of the b-action Star power being used to put this in limited release at my theater, I got an excellent crime filled love story that makes up for it.

The Asian Connection (2016)

1/2 (out of 4)

Jack (John Edward Lee) and his buddy are in Asia where they rob a bank. Jack plans to use the money on his girlfriend (Pim Bubear) who he loves very much. However, what he doesn't know is that he is actually robbing from Asian crime lord Sirankiri (Steven Seagal). Soon Jack is forced into robbing even more banks and now the police are after him as well as Sirankiri.

This is the first Seagal movie I've seen since his 1997 film FIRE DOWN BELOW. I knew that the actor had gone into the direct-to-video craze but I honestly just wasn't big enough of a fan to check out all of these movies. THE Asian CONNECTION grabbed my attention because I read some really negative reviews on it so I decided to check it out myself.

There's no question that the awful reviews were right on the mark because this is a pretty darn bad movie no matter how you look at it. Obviously it was done on a very low-budget but the problem is that it's so poorly made that you just get bored by all of it. The direction by Daniel Zirilli is certainly a major issue because the action scenes all look horrible and there's not a single moment where the film contains any energy or excitement.

Another problem is that you certainly don't care about any of the main characters. The love story subplot between Jack and his girlfriend is laughable at times and even everything with Seagal is pretty bland and boring. John Edward Lee's performance is also quite bad and it appears Seagal is just picking up a paycheck as he does very little with his role.

THE Asian CONNECTION is a really bad movie that doesn't have a thing going for it.

Steven Seagal has done some good, or at least watchable, films. Particularly 'Under Siege'. He has also done a lot of mediocre and less films, indicative of laziness and that Seagal was well past his sell by date, and a good deal of them are even very bad.

'The Asian Connection' for me is down there with Seagal's worst. Did not expect much, but watched it because Seagal has shown signs that he can be halfway decent and as said not all his films are bad. Also do appreciate the action genre and there are good films out there in the genre, classics even. 'The Asian Connection' is far from that, more closer to a waste of time that shows little signs of trying.

Seagal, in a role smaller than the advertising lets on, himself gives another lazy and wooden performance that shows that he was not interested and wanted to be somewhere else. His reading-from-an-autocue-like and robotic line delivery in particular betrays that. The rest of the cast are just as poor though in all fairness have little to work with and over-compensate.

The characters are ones we know very little about and don't care what happens to happen, so unengaging and one-dimensional they are. The dialogue is risible, with a lot of cheesiness, awkwardness and far too much talk delivered with little emotion or momentum and bordering on the near-incomprehensible.

Its excessively talky nature affects severely the pacing, which never comes to life. There is no urgency, let alone tension, intrigue or suspense. The action doesn't feature enough in comparison and suffer from pedestrian choreography and laughably bad editing. The story is by-the-numbers, dull and not always easy to follow.

Direction is flat and ill-at ease, while the sound/soundtrack are one-note and obvious as well as poorly recorded and the whole film looks cheap. And it's not just the editing, the slapdash effects and drab photography also. The only okay asset here is the backdrop sadly wasted by the rest of the production values being awful.

Overall, a mess. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Not so much a review, but a warning to not waste your time! I watch so many movies and TV shows-very addicted-who has time to review them as well? But I have to warn you, fellow 'basers'! I honestly thought "Against the Dark" was the bottom of his 'barrel'. But the man has ?bravely? kept on going. Cameos are one thing and I realize that these movies are going straight to DVD, but where is your pride? Stay in the business producing, directing, whatever, but Steven, please, for we, your loyal fans, get thee behind the camera! You'll be eligible for Social Security next year! From a 56 year old lady who has watched all your films since "Above the Law" in 1988-but I couldn't even wait til Michael Jai White hit the screen in this one!

An American action thriller; A story about two expatriates living in Thailand who go to Cambodia to steal a drug lord's money. The best thing about the film is the glowering nature of Steven Seagal who looks like an illegitimate son of "Dr No". The indeterminate nefariousness of his crime lord outfit is beguiling. Alas, the film has a very poor script and the characters are too feintly sketched for the viewer to get behind any of them. Nevertheless it does have a throughline of pure action and a good plot. It just has a look and feel of tackiness.