Maximum Conviction

Two ex-black op soldiers, Manning & Cross (Steve Austin and Steven Seagal respectively) are assigned to a decommissioned maximum security military jail for 'people of interest' when all hell brakes loose somehow tied to the newest two prisons that Cross & Manning recently brought in.

Director Waxman knows how to shoot the best sides of Stone Cold and Steven Seagal, as well he should based on the films he's done with each in the past (albiet separately as this marks the first team-up of the two) and the action scenes are pretty good which makes up for a fairly generic, heavily cliché riddled script. Die Hard in a prison with two John McClains, if you will.

I would have given this one also a 7 1/2 rating as well. It is good to see Seagal getting back into action in a decent B-action movie. Especially after all the crap he's been making over the last couple of years. But it is hard not to see that the years of good living, eating and drinking have taken their toll on Seagal, he really looks old and out of shape, and no matter what they try to do with long and wide clothes, it is pretty clear the guy is fat.

None the less this movie is exactly delivering what you're expecting, action, funny one-liners and huge amount of martial arts scenes, and some decent hand to hand combat scenes from Austin, and even a new upcoming guy is allowed to show off his kicks and punches. Bren Foster actually reminded me of the protégé of Van Damme , named Scott Adkins, and I hope we will get some movies off this guy coming out soon.

So if you like this kind of movie, you wanna see some decent action sequences and you don't mind the gaps in the script, then is a must see for you, otherwise, stay away from it.

I had even expectations for this film. On one hand, this was not only one of the rare filmic team-ups between Steven Seagal and a fellow action hero of similar caliber, but it was also the longest time the former had taken to make a movie in almost ten years - something I hoped was the result of more effort being made in the production. On the other hand, it was directed by Keoni Waxman, the filmmaker who's now officially worked with Steven Seagal more times than any other but whose vehicles are among my least favorite of Seagal's filmography. Then again, I liked Waxman's outing with Steve Austin well enough, so I considered that perhaps MAXIMUM CONVICTION here could achieve some kind of acceptable balance. I was right: the movie is acceptable, but far from great. It doesn't make all it could have of the collaboration between Seagal and Austin, but is still an okay-enough DTV action outing.

The story: two private security contractors (Seagal and Austin) are caught up in a deadly situation when the two prisoners they had delivered to a secret prison are targeted by a lethal team of mercenaries led by an ex-CIA mastermind (Michael Pare).

It needs to be said: however good they may look on paper, Steven Seagal and Steve Austin do not make very exciting partners. Of course, one factor is the limited screen time they share, but even when they're both in the same scene, they seem relatively apathetic to each other and don't display any discernible chemistry. On their own, they do alright, with Austin as definitely the more charismatic of the two but Seagal getting more fight scenes. They have equal amounts of screen time. The co-stars do fine but are sort of wasted: B-movie staple performer Michael Pare clomps his way through a boring role, and even though Steph Song - one of the aforementioned prisoners - has a good deal of award nominations to her name, she's given no strong acting scenes and her role could've been played by most anybody. The script by TRUE JUSTICE-regular Richard Beattie is pretty passive, highlighted only by a couple particularly mean-spirited deaths and the occasional funny line by Austin.

The action is predominantly composed of shootouts, but there's nothing special to these. Seagal's stunt doubles are hidden relatively well, but at the expense of the editing, which is once again pretty choppy during his fight scenes - not as much as it has been in the past, but it's still pretty annoying. With that said, Seagal still gets the occasional cool move in, and the final brawl - though painfully one-sided - is fun to watch in a guilty way. Steve Austin only has one real fight, but prior to this he gets entertainingly innovative in the prison kitchen, turning a gas tank into a missile and attacking a mercenary with a pot of boiling water. The best fight in the movie doesn't belong to either of them, though: despite being stifled by the same editing present in Seagal's fights, Bren Foster brings an energy to his single brawl that the other encounters were sorely lacking. Overall, I deem the action content on the low side of passable.

That also counts as my synopsis for the movie in general. Amateurish post-production inserts can be found here and there but are otherwise restrained, and Steven Seagal is doing his own voiceovers again, but these plus points are deflated a bit by the lackluster story and ho-hum pacing of the film. While it's a good deal better than the previous BORN TO RAISE HELL and therefore a general step up for Seagal (I'm not as well-versed in Austin's output, so I can't speak for him), it's not nearly all I was hoping for during the year-and-a-half spent waiting for it. Consider it a rental.

"If you listen to me and do what I say I'll kill them before they kill you." Former black-ops agents Tom Steele (Segal) and Manning (Austin) are assigned to decommission an old prison, as well as deal with the arrival of two new female prisoners. When a team of mercenaries decides to crash the party and the identities of the women come out it becomes much bigger of a job then expected. This is pretty much what you would expect from a movie like this. Steven Segal and Steve Austin in the same movie. There is a lot of action, but Segal is a little older now so the fighting scenes aren't as exciting as they could be, but the gun fighting scenes are still worth watching. Steve Austin is pretty decent but he isn't in this as much as Segal is (in case your wondering). To be fair this isn't really my kind of movie. I know a ton of people will be all over this but I just have never really been a fan of Steven Segal so read this review with that in your head. I will admit this is one of his better movies though. Overall, if you are a fan of Segal and Austin this you will love this movie. I am not. I give it a C-.

Steven Seagal & Steve Austin - Together = Bad-Ass Entertainment! 'Maximum Conviction' is hard-core, fast-paced entertainment!

The Plot is simple: The Bad-Guys mess up, our Heroes come to clean up.

The Screenplay is fast-paced. Direction Wise, fair. The Action-Sequences are fantastic. Cinematography, Editing & Art Design, are proper.

Seagal & Austin are in top-form. Seagal is the eternal Bad-Ass & Austin is just getting there. I truly enjoyed watching them both kicking-butt & delivering with such energy.

On the whole, 'Maximum Conviction' worked for me. I Enjoyed!