Espions dans l'ombre

Steven Seagal made some good movies earlier back in his career such as UNDER SIEGE (1992) ABOVE THE LAW (1988) & MARKED FOR DEATH (1990) but that was a very long time ago.

Since his last Theatrical Flop, The Rapper's in Alcatraz nonsense that was HALF PAST DEAD (2002) - Seagal's career as been in the Straight- to-DVD doldrums and has starred in 19 Movies in 8 years to date, but it's a case of quantity rather than quality I'm afraid.

SHADOW MAN has Seagal playing an Intelligence Operative whose Daughter gets kidnapped and spends the rest of the movie trying to get her back, that's pretty much it, but SHADOW MAN has a needlessly confusing and overly complicated screenplay - There's far too many different sets of baddies (Cops,Americans,Romanian Mafia) and too many pointless scenes by half which add nothing to the story, it does become quite a chore to sit through.

The Film is poorly directed by Michael Keusch - who went on to direct another couple of Seagal starred stinkers in FLIGHT OF FURY & ATTACK FORCE.It's very disjointed,The Screenplay is woeful - Seagal co-wrote and co-produced it himself so has to take a lot of the blame here.

There's plenty of action, none of it very interesting and most of it poorly edited.

The Acting is pretty awful, but I've come to expect that in a Seagal Flick - What Oscar Nominated British Actress Imelda Staunton in doing appearing in such mindless trash I really don't know.

Filmed in Romania on the cheap - Not the worst Film I've ever seen,but Seagal DTV releases have become interchangeable, none are better or worse than the one before, but ALL are pretty dire - there hasn't been a really decent one since UNDER SIEGE 2, 15 years and 30 odd Films ago.

I used to be a sucker for his Flicks, buying every release, but this is the last one I paid my hard earned money to buy - Make of that what you will.

I was surprised to notice the Film is only 95 Minutes long, because it felt far far longer.

The photography appeared to be foreign made and of poor quality. In many scenes Segal appeared passive and bored and just along for the ride. Overall it lacked the crispness of most of his prior films.

It appears that the shirt that Segal is wearing upon arrival at the taxi driver's apartment is not the one he was wearing in the taxi while on the way there.

The plot was difficult to follow and I found myself relying on the action scenes to maintain interest. There is an excellent body count if that is your bag, although some innocent people needlessly died at Segal's hands. He is usually for the underdog, but in this film he does not appear to care who he terminates.

The former CIA agent Jack Foster (Steven Seagal) travels to Bucharest with his daughter Amanda (Skye Bennett) and his father-in-law George (Michael Elwyn) to spend vacations in Romania. In the airport of Bucharest, Jack sees his daughter being kidnapped by the taxi driver Anya (Eva Pope) and the limousine of George exploding. He chases the taxi with the CIA agent Harry (Vincent Riotta) and he finds that different groups believe George gave him the research of a lethal virus. While trying to rescue his daughter, Jack is entwined in a network of traitors and criminals that are disputing the powerful biological weapon and he has to fight to survive.

"Shadow Man" is another messy and noisy movie of Steven Seagal. The screenplay is terrible with an awful development of the characters and the situation, and along the first fifteen, twenty minutes, the viewer does not know what is happening. The cast is above average, highlighting the awarded Imelda Staunton and Eva Pope, but unfortunately the story is not good. I found funny to see the character of Steven Seagal with a girlfriend (with a wonderful body) and having a romance with Anya, since it is unusual in his movies this type of situation. The locations in Bucharest are very beautiful and with a better screenplay, this film could have worked. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "O Homem Sombra" ("The Shadow Man")

Before I start I would like to say that I already know Seagal isn't known for his acting but for his fight scenes. Exit Wounds was a fun thriller where Seagal actually put effort in his acting. Into the Sun wasn't that bad of a film either which had a decent plot. This film just had nothing.

What can I say, Steven Seagal keeps throwing films at us. They are completely rushed. Segal plays Jack where his daughter gets kidnapped and all he does is watch and with no emotion as his daughter is taken away from her. Throughout the movie Jack never does show anytime of emotion. I know that Seagal plays a tough guy throughout his movies but this was so over the top.

The directing and the editing also credits for this mess as plot holes developed quickly. Such examples included that Seagal would trust people to quickly than all the sudden he would become best friends.

If you are a Seagal fan than this movie wouldn't bother you. It doesn't compare to Exit Wounds but I can say, this film was better than his previous three (Submerged, Today You Die, and Black Dawn). That really isn't saying much. I will admit I enjoy watching Seagal films even though I usually disappointed.

Overall this film gets a 2 for directing, 2 for editing, 2 for acting, 2 for plot, and 6 for the stunts.

Steven Seagal's straight-to-DVD releases really can't be judged by the usual standards, because then you'd have to give them all a zero and that would be depressing. They have their own set of standards, so here goes. How many obvious doubles do we get this time? Surprisingly few, but then again, this movie barely contains any martial arts. All Seagal has to do is pull the trigger a bajillion times. Still, it's refreshing to see him do action scenes where he doesn't mysteriously lose or gain 80 pounds with every new shot. Which people who used to be in actual movies embarrass themselves alongside Seagal? There's Imelda Staunton in a very minor role, but for the most part these are complete unknowns we don't have to feel bad for. How moronic does the plot get? Not very, it's just pretty confusing. Do we really need twenty-five different sets of bad guys when you know Seagal is just going to kill them all in the end? Just have one really big crime organisation chase him, same result but way less filler. Overall "Shadow Man" isn't nearly the worst I've seen of him though, this is one of those recent ones that are actually sorta entertaining. And you even understand what Seagal is saying in this one, even if doesn't matter much. If it's in the bargain bin, there are worse ways to spend a dollar.