Sous haute protection

I just saw the Keeper and I agree with may of the reviews here that this is one of Steve's better pictures of the last few years. Having said that, I must also observe that those who disparage the acting of Seagal and his co-stars would not know good acting if it walked up and bit them.......Granted he is not a great actor, maybe not even a good one, but he is a decent actor capable of displaying and selling humor when it is called for. THAT is a sign of an actor who knows what he is doing.....as the old actor said on his death bed "Dying is easy, it's comedy that's hard."....and truer words were never spoken. All of those in this picture who delivered lines did so on an acceptable level...Academy Award performances they are not, but if you think this is bad acting....you have not been around much.

I think that even if there are still fans of Steven Seagal out there, they will agree that he doesn't seem to care anymore about how he appears in his movies, or the quality of the other parts of his movies. Oh, I admit "A Dangerous Man" was decent, but that was despite him, not because of him. In "The Keeper", he returns to the kind of movies he's been churning out ever since he moved to direct-to-video movies. He seems half asleep as he speaks his (limited) dialogue, and his puffy face and baggy clothing show he's in great need of going on a diet. But he's not the only one to blame for this movie's downfall. There is very little action in the first hour of this movie, and when the movie does get around to showing some action, it's often directed and edited in such a frenzy that it's impossible to figure out what's going on. While I'm speaking of an actor who doesn't care, I'd like to state that I don't care to see another Steven Seagal movie anytime in the future.

And so Steven Seagal continues his prolific career in straight-to-video product with THE KEEPER, another film completely indistinguishable from the dozens he's made since evacuating our cinema screens back in the 1990s. It's a completely serviceable movie that plays out as a string of action sequences well executed but completely unmemorable; there are scenes of Seagal fighting in hand-to-hand combat with bad guys, disarming bad guys and engaging in shoot-outs with bad guys. The plot is weak and the script limited; essentially, this is one of those action-star-as-bodyguard movies featuring our hero risking his life to save a young woman from the clutches of kidnappers.

The good things? The film is ably directed and the fight sequences short, snappy and well-handled. Seagal is pretty poor, it has to be said, and there's still far too much distraction from his copious use of doubles (not content with a mere body double in the fight sequences, he now employs a hair double for back-of-the-head shots). Thankfully his voice is only dubbed in the opening scene, which is something. The unfamiliar supporting cast is very bland with the notable exception of Liezl Carstens, who I found quite smouldering as the sultry young damsel-in-distress; if ever an actress could pull off the unconvincing romantic scenes involving her and Seagal's character, it would be her.

The Keeper: Seagal's delivers another film. The regularity of his releases brings a sense of excitement (well, to Seagal's fans anyway) but also trepidation. Will it have dubbing? Will it have doubling? Will it just plain old suck? On the most part, Seagal's DTV release normally tick a yes to all those questions. In recent years, Pistol Whipped and Renegade Justice were watchable exceptions. Pistol Whipped in particular was almost worthy of Seagal films of old. His last two have been pretty poor. Kill Switch was abysmal, while Driven To Kill was mediocre, suffering from lacklustre direction, poor cast, an all too whispery Seagal, and terrible editing. So does the Keeper deliver? On the whole…yes! Okay, this film isn't great by any stretch. But it's serviceable, and it kicks ass as well. Seagal actually has a bit of character in this, and shows off a bit more of the charisma that made him a star. As well as that, the co-stars are better than in his last few films, while the previous company he worked with, for Kill Switch, and Driven To Kill, has a reputation for half-assing. At least for The Keeper, there's a greater sense of effort to make something that delivers for the fans.

The Keeper opens with a worrying start. Dubbing! Oh dear lord! Not dubbing. However it's just in the beginning few lines, and in truth it's a couple of lines that are really needlessly added in. There was only one other moment later in the film I noticed any, but again, it was pointlessly added in. Mr Stand in still gets some screen time of course, but not that much. I'm also pretty sure, Seagal's double was given a supporting role in the film as another character, because one of the cast looks like he could double for Seagal for behind shots.

But anyway, The Keeper is a Seagal film, and first and foremost, it needs to kick ass. And it does. The action has a bit of punch to it. The gun fights are quick and punchy, while the fights are bone-breaking and violent. Sometimes in Seagal films, they stretch the action scenes out, and make them dull, when short and snappy would be better, particularly in hiding the budget. Generally here, the action is short and to the point. The only problem is, that the film could have done with more action, as the pace drags at times. There aren't many fights, but they are tightly edited, and Seagal beats the hell out of the bad guys. There's not quite some of the ingenuity to the fights that we saw in Pistol Whipped, which is a shame.

Keoni Waxman does a service-able job in direction. He's got more of an eye for direction than Seagal's previous director, Jeff King (who's first name is actually Wan). Truthfully he never does anything beyond okay, but in DTV land, that can be a blessing. And in fairness to him, he never does anything that's too lame. Seagal himself seems more interested in what he's doing here. He's back to his badass self, and showing some charisma again too. He won't be winning any Oscars, but at least there is some sort of character for him, and the film manages to throw in some moments of humour too. His last couple of films were slightly wretched to be honest. Elsewhere, the music is not too bad, and the film is his best looking one for a while (the main disappointment on Pistol Whipped was that it was shot on Super 16).

Overall though, this is a decent DTV film. It delivers what you'd expect. Some action, and some badassedness. The plot is simple, and again, for Seagal, that is better. No CIA intrigue sub plots to drag the film down. It also avoids the usual Seagal, revenge line, that's become a little tiresome for him. Early on in the film there's a few moments in the plotting that are just really, really (and I mean really) dumb, but they don't really drag the film down too much. At least The Keeper delivers the minimum you'd want and expect from Seagal. As for Seagals next two DTV specials, he'll be back with director, Keoni Waxman, which is a good sign. On The Run looks more action packed, so hopefully won't suffer the pacing issues of this film. It might lack some of the character of this one though. ***

There was nothing of much interest on TV a couple of nights ago so I stumbled onto this one. I used to like Steven Seagal when he still made "real" movies so I thought, what the heck, let's watch it. I cannot say that my hopes were high though. After he started to spew out direct to DVD movies he have made some real crap ones.

I have to say that I was somewhat positively surprised. Sure it is not exactly Oscars material but it is a decent enough TV-movie and Seagal was pretty okay in playing the fairly silent but deadly ex-commando, or in this case ex-cop, that I personally want to see him as. Some people complain that he doesn't care and that he mumbles his dialog. I cannot say that I agree. He played his role as I would have expected. His silent manner, low voice and absence of emotions and outbreaks is what I hope for when I watch a Seagal movie. Also, the fighting in this movie was fairly okay compared to some of his movies where he seemed to be so out of shape that he just stood around and flapped his arms.

The story? Well pretty standard meh TV-quality bad guy tries to muscle in and extort the good guy. Good guy has daughter. Good guy's daughter gets kidnapped. The hero moves in and saves the day. Nothing really innovative and fantastic but good enough to serve as an excuse for some on-screen action and reasonably well implemented.

Not really a bad movie. Of course not really anything more than you would expect from a direct to DVD movie but not bad either and, as I said, way better than some of the crap Seagal have produced.