Out of Reach

Steven Seagal picks good topics and he takes good positions on them, but this film is like most of his others in failing on the level of craft. I don't know why this keeps happening to someone whose martial arts experience obviously taught him about the importance of precise execution and continuous refinement, but in any case this film is sloppy. Sometimes it's as simple as parallel action whose locations aren't clear, or too-familiar action scenes, or very slow staging of the obvious, like the initial seizure of the children. More importantly, it's careless or shallow thinking about the characters and their relationship to each other: the villains are pure psychopaths, the kids are pure innocence, the trafficking is simple kidnapping from a crooked orphanage - nothing beyond the matinée B-movie level of white/black hats is made concrete. There's something stubborn and unnecessary about Seagal staying on this mediocre level.

The second piece of Seagal action to come out this year, the second dire straight to video offering from him as well. While Belly Of The Beast had some enjoyment laughing at the over the top action this film is so painfully bad that it is almost upsetting. Now I have never been the biggest Seagal fan. Having said that I have enjoyed watching his earlier films. They were pure dumb and ultra violent films with an enjoyably pretentious moralistic attitude. Seagal had that kind of Italian American, Brooklyn tough guy thing going on, his kind of De Niro and Brando impersonation. Since Under Siege though, he has become the eco-Zen- Warrior with absolutely no personality. He was in decent shape as well, never the ripped muscle man like Arnie, Sly and Van Damme but a real man kind of size and he was very quick. The action scenes in those films were brutal and slick and we would see in full glory the aikido from Seagal. Nowadays Seagal, after one two many pies, is looking very withered and old and overweight. In modern Seagal fights the are film extremely tightly with the odd wide shot featuring his stunt double and is edited in such a way to hide the fact that he is just not quick enough anymore. Seagal looks tragically bloated and sweaty and almost repugnant. I cannot see how even the most ardent Seagal fan could be anything but devastated seeing him do films like this and looking the way he does. Somehow he still sells a movie but at this rate it won't be for long.

Out Of Reach is the worst Seagal film ever, and considering Ticker, Foreigner and Out For A Kill, that takes some doing. This is a film that even z grade action men like Lorenzo Lamas and Don Wilson would want scratched off their CV. The plot has Seagal as a former government agent who runs a animal shelter (oh my god, when will he realize he's not captain planet.). He then finds out that a young girl who he is pen pals with (isn't that a horrible picture, an old sweaty git having correspondence with a little girl) is kidnapped and sold as a slave, Seagal has to come out of retirement and stop the bad guys who are lead by Matt Schulze. The film despite being a reasonable 20 million dollar budget looks painfully cheap. The film is so lazily put to together and Seagal is so bad it beggars belief. There are so many signs that he can't be bothered and is past it, form constant doubling, lazy use of a stand in and several moments when he is clearly dubbed, probably because he whispers through the while film and you can't hear him. The only times you hear what Seagal is saying is when he is being dubbed. He really doesn't want to be their and being the big name of such a crappy little picture no-one would have told him to pull his finger out. Someone needs to slap him and tell him that for the money he his paid and that they plough into his movies his fans expect a lot more. He is currently the top earner and audience grabber of the straight to video action market but if he continues like this he will be overtaken by Van Damme and Lundgren and others below them. There are rumours his next film, Into The Sun is to be distributed to theaters by his beloved Warner Brothers but I really don't see it. It is tragic and says a lot about the industry that they could make the biggest pile of poo known to man and sell it simply by plastering his ugly mug on the front.

I watched this simply out of curiosity and merely because it was a Seagal film, these DTV stars release these films and although they are generally bad there has to be a certain minimal standard of enjoyment. Van Damme, Lundgren are keeping this up with their recent efforts, but Seagal who has the highest expectations must up his game or retire. He certainly is not convincing as a tough guy any more. *

Out of Reach (2004)

This is a bit of a disappointment. It's another Taken style action movie, without much action. There is a gun fight and as shown in the trailer a sword fight, but even that is pretty bland and uninteresting.

Seagal is William "Billy Ray" Lansing an ex-military, ex-government agent who now wanders around the woods of Alaska and writing to a 13 year old girl. Which is a tad disturbing, what he talks to her about in the letters is also a bit worrying too.

Seagal's hair in this movie is just silly. It's a jet black, strange-looking mullet. A lot of his dialogue is overdubbed by someone who is clearly not Seagal and there are many scenes that are clearly not Seagal in front of the camera as well, even something simple like walking around in the woods is a double.

This was a Franchise Pictures release... remember them??

The plot is ridiculous, we don't know why the feds want him dead after he refuses to rejoin them, he has no real reason to go to Poland, no panic written letter by the girl, he is just psychic. For the second movie in a row (after years of no love interest) Seagal's female partner is unrealistically attracted to him, and the scene where he operates on her to remove a bullet is laughable.

That said, I was never bored, even if I was laughing at the absurdity of the obvious double, the voice over or what was happening on screen.

All In all, Out Of Reach is a pretty entertaining entry in the filmography or Seagal. There's enough out-and-out silliness to keep you engaged.

The plot is like the movie: pretty neutral and not above standard, like almost every Seagal movie.

Clean settings - the white building is beautiful as a setting, a little highlight.

For the Seagal-fans, there is a bit of fighting in here, I think not enough for you guys. Seagal acts like always, somewhat 'unpersonal'.

All kinda standard things we'll see: typical bad-guy, in Poland everybody drinks :-( and there are a few one-liners (like "wrong answer").

Because I have a bit weakness for Seagal (he was like a small hero over ten years ago in his old movies).

So for that, I'll rate the movie ** out of ****

An American action thriller; Next stop Poland for Steven Seagal. The premise of the film is quite good - a martial arts master and former covert agent turned survivalist in America has lost touch with a young girl/pen pal from an orphanage in Poland. It transpires she has become a missing person. Seagal decides to investigate and track a human trafficking ring into which the young girl has unknowingly entered. "Out of Reach" bears some similarity to the film, "Taken", but it is a low budget production - badly dubbed, poorly edited. poor acting in parts. The story is directed in a style that resembles a fable rather than a feature film. As an action film, tension is at a low ebb and so the detective work becomes the main interest for the viewer. There is a memorable sword fight-off scene at the end: prey vs predator, protagonist vs antagonist, which is set in a white palace and this symbolising of purity as irony is impressive. This sequence is well directed and choreographed. For all its faults, and there are many in the storytelling, there is a heart to the film and an important subject.