Attrition

Holy smokes. Could this movie be any worse? That was rhetorical, not needing an answer. I'm a long time Stephen Seagal fan from way back. I keep watching everything he does because of it. I guess so I can always say in a Stephen Seagal conversion, "yup, seen that one too". As time has gone on, I keep getting more and more amazed just how bad this dude has become. It's comical actually but he keeps turning out these atrocious flicks, keeps raking in the bucks from people who will continue to watch no matter how bad it gets. Hell, he even got a couple of 10s on this movie in here! That's just like, "woah". The more movies he makes, the more disjointed they become. He probably does one of these flicks like in a day, then walks off with a boat load of cash, flipping everyone off as he walks into the sunset. His fans will always love this dude. Hell, I still love this dude, but I sure don't know why.

Weird movie, but this is actually one of the least crappy Steven Seagal movies for years.

The fighting is much better than usual. And no - it's not Aikido this time. It's primarily Wing Chun and some traditional kung fu. And Steven Seagal does a decent job in his fight scenes.

The story is not really easy to understand, and the dialogue is sometimes pure nonsense.

But - it's a nice movie for those of us who used to be fans of Steven Seagal just because of the choreography.

Continuing my plan to watch every Steven Seagal movie in order, I just watched Attriton (2018)

WOW this one went quick!! With Seagal writing this one, I knew that this wasn't going to be a 20 minute cameo or him sitting or standing in the shadows, while younger actors did all the work, and with the exception of a few stunt doubles during hand to hand combat, he is doing all his own work!! No ADR dubbing, no stand ins, no walking doubles, its all him!!

Seagal is front and center of this one, he is mostly slapping people around, peace preaching before a machine gun shooting spree and a sword fight in which he dispatches the bad guy without so much as breaking a sweat, let alone anyone landing a successful punch on him, before it all ends with an On Deadly Ground style speach!!

We also get lots Seagal hand signals that really just show how awesome he is!! My son laughed every time he did it!! Obviously he gets his obligatory love scene with an asain chick, sort of!! He starts having wet dreams about the kidnapped girl (so she is topless in front of or on top of him in bed) there was some awful awful CGI blood too!!

Seagal's effort to recruit the bad guy's right hand man to his side that ended up with Seagal insulting the guy and then beating the crap out of him with ease is laughable!!

Speaking of laughable, Seagal sings one of his own songs (sat down) in a nightclub while the cast and extras are (probably) forced to Pretend to enjoy it as the closing credits roll is bizarre!! I couldn't actually make out whether he was in character or was just being himself, but then I realised, I can never figure that out during his movies anyway!!

Overall, it's much better than what Seagal has been doing the last decade or so. I'd rate it above the better movies of his goatee era, like A Good Man and Maximum Conviction and its more enjoyable than A Dangerous Man and The Keeper!! So I'd say it's his best since Half Past Dead back in 2002, 16 long years; and a whopping 36 movies ago!! It's not a good movie by any means, but (like with the recent Charlie's Angels) I didn't hate it!! I was entertained for one reason or another for 90 mins, and that's all I ask from a DTV Seagal flick.

On more to go, and my nightmare is over.

An American action thriller. Next stop Southeast Asia for Steven Seagal. This is a martial arts action film with a moral message, and a heart, about people trafficking. The main theme: one who aims to live a spiritual life will eventually be tested by a quandry, that by not facing and acting against an evil deed by another, one's spiritual integrity is undermined. "Attrition" is slickly produced with higher production values and better direction than any of Seagal's films since "Exit Wounds". I especially enjoyed the set design and the atmosphere it succeeded in creating. With a good supporting cast of impressive martial arts practitioners the film moves along smoothly though some of the dialogue is facile if not overly philosophical. All in all, it's a film that falls short because of its ending - a very short third act of predictable slaughter with very little resistance from the foes. Nevertheless, it is moderately enjoyable up to and including the finale.

I'll always remember Steven seagal in his best acting days when he was slimmer and was actually doing the fighting scenes. Nowadays I just watch his movies because I really hope that he's slimmed down and doing the fighting scenes without the stunt double that is so visibly seen fighting for him. It's so bad. At this point I think he just needs to stop acting and maybe just watch himself in his movies from back in the day and maybe teach the theory of martial arts.