A Dangerous Man

Nothing out of the ordinary here. If you have past Seagal work, then you know exactly what to expect. I liked it for what it is. Lots of action. Lots of blood. Lots of forearm-breaking (you Seagal fans know exactly what I mean here)

As per usual, some of the lines were extremely lame. Get this one: one of the bad guys said

'we have to get him, he threatened my balls...no one threatens my balls'...lol.

How lame can you get. But like I said, I knew what to expect. It was exactly what I expected, and I liked it. Seagal is really showing his age. The big long action sequence at the end of the movie was really dark. It was very difficult to follow what was going on at times.

If you have any idea of the kind of movies Seagal has been churning out since his last theatrically released movie (2002's "Half Past Dead"), you probably will know why I had sworn off watching any new Seagal movies some time ago, at least if I had to pay to see them. I rented "A Dangerous Man", because I read a positive report on it at another web site.

To my surprise, I found the movie to be a decent way to spend an hour and a half. Oh sure, the movie is filled with flaws. Seagal is still using an obvious double for his fight scenes (and in one shot of a sex scene), the movie doesn't manage to disguise the British Columbia shooting locations as American, there are long chunks of the movie where Seagal is nowhere to be seen, and the climax goes on too long. But I was still entertained. The action sequences (and there are quite a few of them) are pretty brutal and bloody at times, and you do get to see less of Seagal's double in the fight scenes than in other recent films of his. The plot goes by at a fairly brisk pace, and the various villain schemes and actions by the other characters actually kept me interested in what would happen next. The movie's no classic, but it does provide an acceptable amount of entertainment.

I don't think Seagal fan's will be disappointed with this one. Bearing in mind it's DTV it would be unfair to compare it to the likes of Under Siege and Exit Wounds but its definitely one his better efforts from the last ten or so years. Lots of action in this one and well done to for the quality of the gun fights. Seagal packs in quite a few brutal fist fights too. The story although perhaps a little bit more complicated than it needed to be moves along at a good pace. Byron Mann who teamed up with Seagal previously in Belly of the Beast and also appeared in Sniper 3 with Tom Berenger makes a good bad guy but he is perhaps a little underused. Recommended for Seagal fans.

The movie can't be rated yet. I would give it four stars for Steve's hand fighting, at most.

A total war, Americans fought Chinese, Chinese fought Chinese, Russians fought Americans, Russians also fought Chinese. I was totally lost at the last scene. No idea who was fighting whom any more. One basic idea is, Shane is, like he said, the good guy.

A lot of bullets. But if you look closer, those bullets couldn't make bullet holes. Even if they hit, because the girls screamed several times and died, they don't create visible wounds on human bodies. Are they Made in China, too?

Shane is the good guy, lots of fast hand and gun fights, he never got touched. Skilled, lucky and bulletproof.

My suggestion, omit the plot, watch the hand fights.

Steven Seagal stars as a wrongfully imprisoned akidio expert who defends a girl from Chinese mobsters (led by Byron Mann) and who joins forces with Russian mobsters to defend the girl in question. Steven Seagal movies tend to be really lame these days. In fact I don't think i've enjoyed a Seagal movie in a long time, mainly because the movies are terrible in the worst kind of way, mainly stunt doubles, the same plot about Seagal being some type of secret agent who goes rogue when his employers double-cross him (ad nauseam) Still this movie worked in such a way that I actually bought the film for 5 bucks and didn't feel too bad about such. A Dangerous Man works because it is so fast paced, certainly Seagal seems to care more than usual and it would appear he wasn't dubbed and his fight sequences have less stunt doubles. Indeed Seagal appears trimmer than usual. Still there are still some flaws mainly the story is routine and clichéd but the action element is there, Mann makes for an enjoyable villain and the chick in question is hot. Indeed you can do a lot worse in terms of Seagal movies. Indeed I must admit I only rented this (after swearing Seagal off after Against The Dark) because of his part in Machete. Although if Seagal can manage such level of quality, one won't dread renting the latest Seagal flick.

* * out of 4-(Fair)