Le protecteur

An American action thriller; Next stop Poland for Steven Seagal. The premise of the film is quite good - a martial arts master and former covert agent turned survivalist in America has lost touch with a young girl/pen pal from an orphanage in Poland. It transpires she has become a missing person. Seagal decides to investigate and track a human trafficking ring into which the young girl has unknowingly entered. "Out of Reach" bears some similarity to the film, "Taken", but it is a low budget production - badly dubbed, poorly edited. poor acting in parts. The story is directed in a style that resembles a fable rather than a feature film. As an action film, tension is at a low ebb and so the detective work becomes the main interest for the viewer. There is a memorable sword fight-off scene at the end: prey vs predator, protagonist vs antagonist, which is set in a white palace and this symbolising of purity as irony is impressive. This sequence is well directed and choreographed. For all its faults, and there are many in the storytelling, there is a heart to the film and an important subject.

This film begins with a retired CSA agent by the name of "William Lansing" (Steven Seagal) enjoying some peace and quiet in a wildlife refuge area with few outside distractions. However, when a young Polish orphan that he was sponsoring by the name of "Irena Morawska" (Ida Nowakowska) mysteriously stops writing to him, he becomes concerned and decides to travel to Poland to investigate the situation. To his dismay, he soon discovers that Irena has been kidnapped by a sophisticated network of human traffickers who know how to use their connections to remain hidden from the law. Additionally, it's also at this time that some former colleagues appear on the scene with a serious grudge to settle with him which then complicates things even further. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather strange crime-drama which suffered from an uneven plot and poor direction. To that extent, while I typically like Stevan Seagal films, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed with this particular one and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

The plot is like the movie: pretty neutral and not above standard, like almost every Seagal movie.

Clean settings - the white building is beautiful as a setting, a little highlight.

For the Seagal-fans, there is a bit of fighting in here, I think not enough for you guys. Seagal acts like always, somewhat 'unpersonal'.

All kinda standard things we'll see: typical bad-guy, in Poland everybody drinks :-( and there are a few one-liners (like "wrong answer").

Because I have a bit weakness for Seagal (he was like a small hero over ten years ago in his old movies).

So for that, I'll rate the movie ** out of ****

Out of Reach (2004)

This is a bit of a disappointment. It's another Taken style action movie, without much action. There is a gun fight and as shown in the trailer a sword fight, but even that is pretty bland and uninteresting.

Seagal is William "Billy Ray" Lansing an ex-military, ex-government agent who now wanders around the woods of Alaska and writing to a 13 year old girl. Which is a tad disturbing, what he talks to her about in the letters is also a bit worrying too.

Seagal's hair in this movie is just silly. It's a jet black, strange-looking mullet. A lot of his dialogue is overdubbed by someone who is clearly not Seagal and there are many scenes that are clearly not Seagal in front of the camera as well, even something simple like walking around in the woods is a double.

This was a Franchise Pictures release... remember them??

The plot is ridiculous, we don't know why the feds want him dead after he refuses to rejoin them, he has no real reason to go to Poland, no panic written letter by the girl, he is just psychic. For the second movie in a row (after years of no love interest) Seagal's female partner is unrealistically attracted to him, and the scene where he operates on her to remove a bullet is laughable.

That said, I was never bored, even if I was laughing at the absurdity of the obvious double, the voice over or what was happening on screen.

All In all, Out Of Reach is a pretty entertaining entry in the filmography or Seagal. There's enough out-and-out silliness to keep you engaged.

Well, I have to say I am very disappointed. Again. I'd like to start this commentary by saying that I'm myself a fan of Mr. Seagal and have followed his career in motion pictures since I first saw the superb "Above The Law" back in 1989. This information is just to clarify, that I'm not here to bash Seagal just because it seems to be the "hip" thing to do.

It's fair to say that Seagal's cv hasn't looked very impressive since "Under Siege" over ten years ago. It's been a slow downhill with a few exceptions like fairly enjoyable "US 2" and dumb but entertaining "Exit Wounds". With his Hong Kong influenced "Belly Of The Beast" outing I dared to expect something of a comeback for our beloved thespian, but "Out Of Reach" sends him right back where he was with the dreadful "The Foreigner" and even more horrible "Out For A Kill". You could sum this commentary with one sentence: no more polish action films. The production values of "OOR" are minimal, script has holes for trucks to go through and the acting. Oh lord, the acting. Through out the entire film it is just plain torture to watch. Let's face it - Seagal has never been exactly Oscar material, but he has had his moments. Not in this one. I just don't get why on earth they have to dub his voice with these totally moranic voice overs? And this time it happens a lot, even in the middle of the scene in where he has spoke with his own voice in the beginning.

Seagal has dropped some weight, but it is still a stretch to buy him as an action hero. His moves are slow (still the show them most of time in slow motion!!) and he uses stunt doubles a lot. Action in "OOR" is quite minimal and fairly up to basic standards even for a movie this scale. The brothel shoot out is OK, but the final duel between Seagal and Matt Schulze is a major let down. And while speaking of Mr. Schulze it should be noted that Seagal's acting really isn't the worse in "OOR". Schulze, who delivered good performances in "Blade 2" and "The Transporter" is totally lost with the role of Faisal The Ultimate Bad Guy. His pseudo sophisticated character is probably one of the most lame villains ever supplied with incredibly stale dialogue.

Like noted, the acting in whole is pure crap and it seems that many of the polish actors don't even know English - they just repeat what the director or who ever tells them to say. There really are no good performances in "OOR" except the small cameo of Nick Brimble and momentarily the girl who plays Seagal's pen pal. There are numerous just idiotic scenes like the one where the little girl is held captive in the basement of a castle where villains are having a big party. She is guarded by one of the villains and asks him something like "Why are you not invited to the party?" The bad guy totally loses it and screams: "Stop trying to get inside my head!" Whoa. Then there are the goofy scenes where Seagal wanderers in the forest "looking for injured animals". It is of course a beautiful concept, but the guy looks like a lost-in-the-woods member of a motorcycle gang. And the final still picture before the end credits start to roll. What the heck were they thinking in the editing room? "Wow, NOW this movie works like it should!"

I did my best to come up with even one positive thing about "OOR", but it just seems impossible. How can talented(?) people mess up this bad and what in heaven's name did Seagal see in this project that made him want to get into it? Is he proud of his Poland era of film making?

If you are a fan of Seagal you have to ask yourself a question: did you like him as the arrogant ass kicker from his Warner Brothers days or do you prefer this independent (no big studio wants to touch him with a ten foot pole?) filmmaker -version of him? If your heart beats for his neat ponytail wearing, black leather jacket and jeans -period then do your self a favor and leave "OOR" alone. As sad as it might seem.

This was a stink bomb. Please, let "Into The Sun" be better.