Under Siege

FACT 1 - All knives used on the set were donated by Bob Hoskins who at the time held shares in Sheffield cutlery industries.

FACT 2 - During the cake scene where the woman arises from the dessert, the actress demanded that the cake did not contain any sugar because of a childhood skin condition.

FACT 3 - Seagal was the directors 2nd choice after Van Damme refused due to filming Universal Soldier.

FACT 4 - Due to spiralling production costs several of the scenes are actually old archive footage.

FACT 5 - Seagal designed his own costume for the movie after several attempts by costume designers failed

FACT 6 - Conflict between Lee Jones and Seagal aroze due to Lee Jones' obsession with calling Seagal, Seagull or Mr Seagull whilst leaving fish around his dressing room.

FACT 7 - Seagal followed a strict diet of 9 medium raw eggs a day during filming as recommended to him by De Niro after filming Raging Bull

Seagal's fifth film with lots of violence, suspense, struggles and action-filled. This Steven Seagal's splendid film deals about a tough cook-marine , he's a SEAL and Aikido expert. Ryback teams up with a playboy girl (Erika Eleniak), forming a sympathetic duo. Casey takes on nuclear arms smugglers and undergoes a violent confrontation some corrupt terrorists ( two exaggerated villains as Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey) and their criminal hoodlums.

The picture packs unstopped action, thrills,fighting , shootouts, suspense and is quite entertaining.Violent and not particularly literary but worthy entry in action genre and realized in ¨Die hard¨ style. Wooden Seagal plays the violent Casey Ryback, he cleans up the battleship by means of punch, kicks, bounds and leaps, martial arts abound with fights certainly slick.The Aikido expert Seagal saves the day in this exciting movie which also co-produced .In the film appears many secondary roles played by prestigious players as Patrick O'Neal,Colm Meany, Damian Chapa, Raymond Cruz , Bernie Casey, Nick Mancuso and several others.

Elaborately produced action film with two-fisted Seagal is just another action film full of struggles ,thrills, noise and lots of violence. Ever-wooden Seagal as almost always, playing a stalwart and loner fighter, he delivers the goods in his own style full of usual violence and fights with snapping wrists and worth it just to see Steve in action. Atmospheric musical score by Gary Chang though composed by synthesizer and appropriate cinematography by Frank Tidy. The picture was made in the Seagal's best period when he played high budget movies such as ¨Hard to kill¨(1990 by Bruce Malmuth), this ¨Under siege¨ ( Seagal's best film to date, 92), and the sequel titled : ¨Dark territory¨ (1995, Geoff Murphy), ¨Executive decision¨ (96 by Stuart Baird), ¨Glimmer man¨ (96, John Gray), ¨Exit wounds¨(2001, Andre Bartkowiak), among others. Nowadays he does fairly low standards, lesser budget and direct to video , such as ¨Half past dead¨, ¨The foreigner¨ and its sequel, ¨Shadow man ¨, ¨Flight of fury¨, ¨Urban justice¨ and many others.

Director Andrew Davis who previously gave credibility to Chuck Norris in 'Code of silence' teams up with Aikido expert Seagal for this action-filled thriller.The picture contains enough action and violence for fans of the genre and the addicts will give this a passing grade because is professionally directed by Andrew Davis. He has shot most of his films in Chicago and he's an action movies expert(The guardian, Collateral damage, Chain reaction, The fugitive) and again directed to Seagal in this his best movie . This is a thrilling picture, ,exciting and tense at times with fine work ,as always, from director Andrew Davis. If you're a former Steven Seagal fan you'll like it because is a strong outing for action buffs. The result is a strong outing for action enthusiasts and Seagal is fun to watch.

This was a fast-moving Rambo-style action flick (good guys never get hit despite 10,000 rounds of ammunition fired at them) that was very popular. It spawned a very weak sequel, par for the course. Several reviewers here wrote that it is Steven Seagal's "best movie," and I wouldn't argue with that..

"Under Siege" probably was more popular than the normal Segal action flick because of several aspects: 1 - the interesting story featuring the "lowly cook" (as Seagal described himself in this film) beating a bunch of terrorists taking over a U.S. Navy vessel; 2 - the over-the-top villains portrayed by fun-to-watch actors Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey, and 3 - the fabulous looks and body of Erika Eleniak, who pops out of a cake topless in a sight that every guy who saw this film remembers.

Jones was just about hitting his acting career peak as he demonstrated the following year with his Oscar-winning performance in "The Fugitive." Busey was the opposite, nearing the end of his run after a starring role as singer "Buddy Holly" made him famous.

This film might be Segal's most successful, or at least in the top three. His star has faded since the new century. Eleniak never made it far past the cake. She played "Elly May" in "The Beverly Hillbillies" the following year and nothing but 'B' films after that.

The first part of this movie is far better than the second. It gets out-of-control by the end, as most of these action films do with the violence overdone and with little credibility. But watching the three leads, and ogling Eleniak, always make this film fun to watch for a little while, at least.

The fact that I'd give any Steven Segal movie a 7 is a shock to me. But, I must admit, it's a good film and he actually was very well cast in the movie!

When the story begins, the psychotic Executive Officer (Gary Busey) of the USS Missouri battleship (it's actually the USS Alabama in the movie) is planning on a party for the Commanding Officer. However, I did say he was psychotic and the man is actually in charge of bringing aboard some other psychotics so that they can take over the ship...a ship armed with nuclear and all sorts of other weapons! Fortunately, one of the few men not captured by the evil commandos is Ryback (Segal) and he apparently is more than a match for the hijackers!

There are two minor problems with the movie that kept me from giving it a higher score. First, the film is essentially DIE HARD but on a ship instead of in an office building. Second, Erika Eleniak's character is simply terrible and it seemed obvious that she was tacked onto the script at the last minute. She had little reason for being there and her character was simply awfully written...at first whiny and proclaiming "I hate guns" and "I won't kill anyone" even after the killing starts....and then later, this stripper character suddenly becomes a commando-type!!! This makes no sense nor did most of her dialog.

These problems not withstanding, it IS a very tense and entertaining film. Plus, Segal is perfectly cast as his aikido skills don't always make sense in his other films...but her in small confined spaces it worked well....and Segal also tended to mumble less than usual. Overall, a fun film....just turn off your brain and enjoy it, as such a story really could NOT happen but the filmmakers made it seem like it could.

This movie is definately Steven Seagal's best movie. This movie is definately worth a look. The supporing cast like Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey make very good villans. Jones did a great job as the half insane mercinary who's in on a plot of hijacking a U.S. Battleship. There are a lot of actors in this one who would appear in director Andrew Davis's next film "The Fugitive" The action in this movie is great. I think this movie also contains some good cinematography by Frank Tidy. This is not a movie you can take seriously. You have to use your imagination and know it's not real but pretend it is. *** out of ****