Soleil Rouge

So it's well known that the movie takes place in the actual neighborhood where Seagal grew up and studied martial arts, and also that he speaks fluent Japanese, but why have Japanese terrorists that are always speaking English? Isn't it just a little off-putting that the American hero is constantly speaking Japanese but the Japanese and Chinese guys all speak broken English to each other? Of course Seagal would want to show off his Japanese, since he almost never gets a chance to do it in his movies, but if they're going to go for that authenticity, they should at least include it where it really belongs as well…

As far as a Seagal film, it's about average as far as the films he has been releasing for the last ten years or so, none of which have really been all that impressive. But I still get a great kick out of his movies, even when they're not good. If nothing else, I can even enjoy the cheesy acting and paper-thin plots, and if even those fail at least Steve is always good for smacking around some bad guys.

But in Into the Sun, other than a brief skirmish near the beginning, it's a good hour into the movie before anything happens. Before then, we get a tirelessly developing but uninteresting plot about the Chinese and Japanese versions of the Mafia and how they are developing a massive drug corporation, with Seagal entering the mix investigating the murder of a government official.

Worst of all, however, is that the movie spends so much time developing the totally unnecessary and unconvincing romantic story, in which 54-year-old Steve in his floor- length leather trench-coat falls deeply and madly in love with a tiny, dainty Japanese girl who can't be more than 22.

Needless to say, my favorite part was when he sheepishly explains to her, "You know, I've never had the best luck with women. In fact, you could probably say I haven't had any luck at all…"

What's that, he's a virgin? Is he asking her to go easy on him in the sack?

But stay tuned, at the end of the movie this impressive team of filmmakers utilize an unbelievably complex and difficult bit of cinematic trickery to make the wife disappear from Steve's grasp. I noticed this particular bit of movie magic because I did the exact same thing in a six-minute movie I made with a $250 video camera when I was taking an Intro to Film class at Fresno City College in 1998. They really spared no expense with this movie!

The other problem is the bad guys themselves. They are such tired clichés that it's impossible from frame one to take any of them seriously, particularly the leader of the Yakuza (the Japanese Mafia). He's your typical, b-movie villain – slicked back hair, fishnet t- shirt, arm always slung over the chair he's slouched in and a lot of guys standing around him that jump to attention and do things for him when he snaps his fingers. Yawn.

The guy is so unimaginative and so unimpressive that he makes the movie seem longer because I'm just waiting to see him get killed at the end. Evidently, however, they knew when they were making the movie that some serious ingredients were missing, so they tried to cover up the gaps with things like the sound effects that make it sound like whenever someone gets cut with a sword they spray out a fountain of blood all over the place. Nice.

In the movie's defense, it's true that Steve does look good for his age, although he has certainly lost the hardened appeal that he had in his earliest movies like Hard to Kill and Out For Justice. At least he looks a lot better than he looked in Urban Justice, but unfortunately that's not saying a lot.

The movie is a bit of a curiosity piece because Seagal wrote and performed a lot of the music on the soundtrack, and he actually sings the song during the closing credits. It's a little disturbing to listen to, but I recommend you wait and check it out because it's not disturbing because it's so bad, it's disturbing because it's actually pretty good. Too bad the rest of the movie isn't quite as pleasantly disappointing

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

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...

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.

Mr. Seagal is getting a little old for the job. He's put on a little weight too I think. So what does Into the Sun offer us that hasn't been done before. Well we get to see Seagal wield a Katina and go apes**t on a bunch of Japanese criminals, and we get to see him act in a different language, but his fluency in Japanesse has little effect on the overall quality of his performance. It's just different is all. No folks, Seagal is pretty much the same guy he was ten fifteen years earlier, only he'd getting tiresome.

With that in mind, If I am gonna recommend one film from the latter Seagal, this might be it. despite It feels a bit more epic than anything he has done in that decade, It has some nice shots, and even features a couple of Seagal's songs. He ain't too bad.

The script could do with a few less clichéd lines, and a few more one liners. Steven Seagal looks pretty bored on screen, and the signs of age are certainly taking their toll, but he ain't dead yet.