jeps57

Having seen most of the Seagal's disappointing non-theatreical releases, this was pleasant surprise. Maybe there were stunts substituting Steven in the fights so if you're expecting his aikido glory from 90's you might be disappointed. Nevertheless, it has many good gun toting action scenes, and the hand-to-hand (or sword) are fun too. Clearly not a big budget release, it still lacks some of the amateurish features of film making from the other direct to videos.

Plot is about Seagal's daughter being kidnapped in Thailand by islamistic extremists. Of course it leads into a quest for a rescue, and during that time Seagal needs to confront everything from random punks to a evil voodoo priest, while being aided by his Thai companion Sunti and buddhist monks.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes action, especially those who want to see a good Steven Seagal film for a change.

On a side note though, it does not feature a flying car like half of the cover art implies and it has to be the most misleading cover I've seen for ages.

Despite the reputation and harsh reviews on Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation, I decided to give it a go. I didn't expect a mind blower like the first was, so my expectations weren't sky high. What did SST2 deliver then? Well, an OK B-movie.

The plot is about Mobile Infantry platoon escaping an overwhelming bug horde into an abandoned outpost. The bugs out there is not their worst problem after they run into a small group of other survivors. The problem is an Aliens/Stargate SG-1 ripoff and gets a bit lame at some points and very different from a bug onslaught. I liked more the first half of the film when they just fought the Warrior bugs and got stranded in the outpost. I wish it was like that all the way.

The film had a much smaller budget than the original, but you could probably guess that since this was a straight to video movie. The weapons of the troopers don't fire real bullets and only have some sort of blue CGI muzzle flash and a bit dull sound. Bug hordes are hidden behind night and sandstorms so there's not many visible at a time even though there's supposed to be many of them.

You can give this a try if you don't expect a spectacle like the first was. Even if this is a OK B-movie, you might be disappointed since the original was a top-notch class A.

First of all Paycheck is a mystery thriller, not an action movie. If you expect John Woo style slow motion gun acrobatics, this is not the movie you're looking for. In fact, it only contains one mediocre shoot-out in the end and one chase sequence and thats it. Apart a flying dove and two Mexican stand-off's you wouldn't recognize the director.

Story sets a few years into the future, not much since there's not much any future visions of technology or so. Main character is Jennings (Affleck), reverse-engineering specialists who steals others' ideas and then gets his memory erased by the contractor so he doesn't know anything what he has stolen and to whom. Then he gets his paycheck and leaves, never to return. But after an unusually long three year job, he finds out that he has given up his 92 million paycheck for a pile of seemingly useless items and has FBI after him. Those items help him to solve the mystery.

Even though it was little disappointment when I expected a genuine Woo film, it wasn't so bad after all. Story was interesting and fast paced and the film should fit along the other Philip K. Dick film adaptations.