Black Dawn - Tempesta di fuoco

Black Dawn (2005), The Great one is back in this recent effort(kind of an ironically bad word to use) which follows Johnathan Cold once again as this time he springs a terrorist from prison and appears to be helping in an upcoming attack. It was smart to try to make us guess whether or not he was on the bad side, but come on, we all KNOW he wasn't. I think that if he was, the movie would have been nine times better. The car chase, some decent gunfights and the presence of character actor Timothy Carhart elevate this above a one, but it is still very, very poor. People complain about Foreigner and Out for a Kill, but they both look like Oscar winners compared to this wretched piece of excrement. Steven Seagal is about in HALF of it and even that's a stretch. The fight scenes are NOT him leading me to believe we should give up on seeing the big guy fighting again. His screen presence is a draw, but not when he ain't on the freaking screen. At least he looked like he enjoyed Today You Die and did some fights himself. People, as a Steven SEagal fan, I know you want to see this. But trust me, he may return with a good movie like Belly of the Beast or Into the Sun, but this isn't it. I know you want to see it, but please trust a fellow fan and don't. You'll feel more secure in you're seagal liking if you don't.

The film focuses to Jonathan Cold an ex-Cia agent,now he helps to break out from prison at a dangerous mobster(John Pyper Ferguson).He gather together with his brother(Julian Stone),another vicious murderer.They contact with a group of the habitual Eastern Europen terrorist with the aim of obtaining a nuclear weapon into a case for the blowing up of Los Angeles.Meanwhile Cia agents(an attractive Tamara Davis and Don Franklin)are surveying them but another traitors agents(Eddie Velez)uncover them.

The movie turns out to be the following from ¨The foreigner¨ where Seagal returns with same personage and seems too similar to his previous films.In fact his last movies are of little budget as ¨Submerged,Belly of beast,Into the sun or Ticker¨, time has passed from average and high budget films as ¨ Under siege I and II,Executive decision,Glimmer man,or Fire down below¨. The picture packs lots of action,shoot out,violence and is quite entertained.The film contains the usual explosions,cars and trucks with impressive velocities pursuits and gets a nice look at those action sequences.Agreeable chemistry between Seagal and an enjoyable Tamara Davis is one of the worthwhile items in this sometimes stodgy rehash from anterior Seagal films.The motion picture is regularly directed by Alexander Gruszynsky(an usual and prestigious cameraman). Pointlessly energetic and occasionally entertained but only for the Steven Seagal devotee.

It's been a busy year for Steven Seagal, with almost innumerable films added to his CV. Many films, but a generally bog standard of movies, with Today You Die, rivalling last years atrocious Out Of Reach in the crappola stakes. Thankfully Black Dawn marks a vast improvement in thrills for a Seagal film and his best film since his big comeback, Exit Wound's a far, far away now, 4 years ago. This is also far better than the Foreigner, the film for which this is essentially a sequel to.

The film is very much in the style of the Bourne movies with the formula agency spooks and espionage stuff. It's very formulaic however the film is done with more intelligence than many of these kind of DTV nuclear/political conspiracy films, which albeit still doesn't mean it's all that intelligent. What I can say about this film, that sadly I haven't been able to say about recent Seagal flicks, is that there is a level of competence to the film and also Seagal himself doesn't stink up the movie as he did with the otherwise okay Submerged. The film is well shot and looks decent and although the editing is a little to flashy at times it generally is slick and gives the film a polished look. The cinematography goes for a naturalistic look like the Bourne films did. The score also ranges from decent, when it is ripping off John Powell's Bourne scores, to a bit lazy and average during action scenes and less important scenes.

As for the action: This is also a mixed bag with gun fights ranging from competent to lazily and quickly constructed. While the fight sequences, which are extremely few and brief, are poor. The poorness of the fights however are due to the fact that Seagal isn't present in any of them, even though his character is involved. They are poor because Seagal is hardly even used for inserts and his double is constantly being used so the director is attempting to hide this fact. As a result the fights are incredibly disorientating leaving you unsure if Seagal's character is even fighting. However there is a great car chase and the film also includes some impressive stunts. Stunt-Co-ordinator Dicky Beer certainly gives the film some excitement in periods and does a good job.

As for the big guy himself? Well Seagal it must be said is far more interested this time around. He at least performs all his own dialogue, as far as I was aware. However what is still evident is that clearly he isn't really enjoying himself too much. He also has that expected, but still annoying tendency to lazily and breathily whisper all his dialogue, with a "I hate this crap dialogue!" look on his face. There is still also the fact that Seagal regularly uses a stand in, as well as overworking his stunt double again. The film has a strange feeling to it in another respect and that is the sheer fact that overall Seagal doesn't have a lot of screen time considering he is the main lead. This means there is more focus, perhaps too much on the bad guys. Seagal disappears on occasion for up to 5 minutes. I would guess that Seagal was probably only involved in about 70% of the shooting schedule. Whether this fact is due to laziness, contract stipulation or other filming commitments (after all he does do 4 movies a year now!) I don't know, it just feels strange for the lead to go awol so often for so long.

The film is also blessed with a good supporting cast compared to other Seagal flicks. The bad guys aren't too clichéd while John Pyper Ferguson is a welcome casting, even though he seems to be putting on a bizarre accent (his character is British). Tamara Davies is hot and all round decent as Seagal's sidekick while Seagal's character is also slightly more interesting than usual cause Jonathan Cold I feel isn't a cut and dried good guy. This guy has his bad side unlike Seagal's usual goody two-shoes image.

Overall this is a marked improvement for Seagal. The first and last 20 minutes are pretty good and even though the middle section drags quite a bit the film still never had that feeling of being terrible like Today You Die. The film has it's own action too, not borrowing from other films and the car chase is excellent. Seagal fans will be pleased with this and I was surprised by my enjoyment levels for this especially after the diabolically bad trailer the movie had. Still though, Stevo has some work to do. Shadows Of The Past sounds like it has promise though. **

Seagal returns in a sequel to possibly his worst movie!! Seriously!! Who thought this was a good idea??

I'm a bit confused, this movie has Jonathan Cold (Seagal) going undercover to stop a group of terrorists before they bomb Los Angeles. Was it ever disclosed in the first movie, he is ex CIA?? I do not think it was,but they all sort of blend together after Glimmer Man.

This was Seagal's 4th movie of 2005. Considering in his prime he pretty much released one movie a year (you can stretch it to 11 movies in 10 years if you go from 1988 to 1998) This was his 9th movie in 2 years.

And they are getting worse. This was a real slog to get through, I didn't enjoy the first one, but this is worse!! Ludicrous beyond words, badly acted (Tamara Davies is an exception) awful effects and just a waste of everyone's time, I can't even be bothered to write this review.

The blame can not fall at the directors feet, as the film is apparently infamous for Seagal not being involved in any of the fight scenes due to his leaving the film 18 days into a 30-day shoot. The director shot fights with stunt doubles and scenes that were to involve Seagal were replaced by his co-star in the film. That explains why Tamara Davies appeared to be the lead in this movie.

I do not think that is 100% accurate as some of it is clearly Seagal. It least there was no voice dubbing this time.

Don't waste your time. This is simple-minded hackwork not worth noticing, unless you're a fan of necrophilia and thus enjoy the sight of Seagal, the walking corpse. He IS a sad spectacle, so there may be some twisted entertainment in watching his bloated, tired carcass wander through another cheapjack thriller that he's paid to plug himself into for what's left of his foreign market film sales value. Strange to see a former aikido master become such a lethargic hulk, so physically immobile from personal dissipation that he can't (or won't) engage in even the slightest fight scene on camera.

Otherwise, the film is just the usual Eastern European terrorist nuke stuff with lots of slimy operators playing each other off and brandishing an endless supply of guns for fire fights that somehow never involve Seagal even being grazed. His slow-moving Zeppelin-like bulk is somehow coated in God'sOwnMiracle Armor that wards off all contact with lead, knives or fists.... or acting ability.