The last Steven Seagal film that I saw was "The Foreigner", which I can honestly say was the worst film I have seen for many years. It remains the only film I have reviewed for IMDb which I have awarded the minimum mark of 1/10.
I was, therefore, pleasantly surprised by "Under Siege". Certainly, it is not a particularly good film, but compared with "The Foreigner" it looks like "Citizen Kane". A group of terrorists take over an American warship, the USS Missouri, hoping to steal its nuclear-tipped missiles, but are thwarted by Casey Ryback, a former Navy SEAL now working as the ship's cook. At first Ryback's only ally is Jordan Tate, a Playboy centrefold ("Miss July 1989"), who has flown out to the ship for the Captain's birthday celebrations, but he later has the assistance of a group of sailors he manages to rescue.
The best acting performance comes from Tommy Lee Jones as the psychopathic leader of the terrorists, a former CIA agent turned rogue killer. Jones's contribution, however, is something of a mixed blessing. While it undoubtedly improves the overall quality of the film to have a gifted actor in a leading role, the contrast with Jones's abilities serves to underline by contrast the weakness of Seagal's performance. Seagal plays Ryback in his normal tight-lipped, laconic style, rarely allowing himself to show any emotions. His martial arts skills are much on display; his acting ones are more elusive. Erika Eleniak (who was herself Playboy's real Miss July 1989) confirms her hard-won rank of Bimbo, First Class, a rank gained during her years as one of the Baywatch girls. The transition from television star to genuine first-rate film star is often a difficult one; like most of her fellow Baywatch beauties Eleniak has an impressively long filmography, but few if any of the entries thereon have made much impression on the critics.
One hopes that in real life security on an US warship would be much tighter than shown here; I was surprised both by the ease with which the terrorists took over the ship and by the ease with which Ryback and his allies recaptured it. Jordan seems magically transformed from a frightened young girl to a one who shows a good deal more courage under fire and skill with a weapon than one would expect from a woman with her particular CV. The film, however, is more about entertainment than about realism, like most films in this goodies-against-baddies tough-guy action-adventure genre. Despite (or perhaps because of) its implausible plots, frequently wooden acting and extreme levels of violence, it was a genre that became very popular in the late eighties and nineties, and remains popular today. This was the a genre that helped to make stars not only of the likes of Seagal, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damm, but also of some rather more accomplished actors such as Mel Gibson.
A year later, director Andrew Davis was to go on to achieve a great success with "The Fugitive", one of the best crime thrillers of the nineties and a film which also starred Tommy Lee Jones (as well as several other actors from "Under Siege"). "Under Siege" is nowhere near the class of the later film, but it is one of the more entertaining tough-guy adventures. It is not the best of the genre, but it is far from being the worst. 5/10
I was, therefore, pleasantly surprised by "Under Siege". Certainly, it is not a particularly good film, but compared with "The Foreigner" it looks like "Citizen Kane". A group of terrorists take over an American warship, the USS Missouri, hoping to steal its nuclear-tipped missiles, but are thwarted by Casey Ryback, a former Navy SEAL now working as the ship's cook. At first Ryback's only ally is Jordan Tate, a Playboy centrefold ("Miss July 1989"), who has flown out to the ship for the Captain's birthday celebrations, but he later has the assistance of a group of sailors he manages to rescue.
The best acting performance comes from Tommy Lee Jones as the psychopathic leader of the terrorists, a former CIA agent turned rogue killer. Jones's contribution, however, is something of a mixed blessing. While it undoubtedly improves the overall quality of the film to have a gifted actor in a leading role, the contrast with Jones's abilities serves to underline by contrast the weakness of Seagal's performance. Seagal plays Ryback in his normal tight-lipped, laconic style, rarely allowing himself to show any emotions. His martial arts skills are much on display; his acting ones are more elusive. Erika Eleniak (who was herself Playboy's real Miss July 1989) confirms her hard-won rank of Bimbo, First Class, a rank gained during her years as one of the Baywatch girls. The transition from television star to genuine first-rate film star is often a difficult one; like most of her fellow Baywatch beauties Eleniak has an impressively long filmography, but few if any of the entries thereon have made much impression on the critics.
One hopes that in real life security on an US warship would be much tighter than shown here; I was surprised both by the ease with which the terrorists took over the ship and by the ease with which Ryback and his allies recaptured it. Jordan seems magically transformed from a frightened young girl to a one who shows a good deal more courage under fire and skill with a weapon than one would expect from a woman with her particular CV. The film, however, is more about entertainment than about realism, like most films in this goodies-against-baddies tough-guy action-adventure genre. Despite (or perhaps because of) its implausible plots, frequently wooden acting and extreme levels of violence, it was a genre that became very popular in the late eighties and nineties, and remains popular today. This was the a genre that helped to make stars not only of the likes of Seagal, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jean-Claude Van Damm, but also of some rather more accomplished actors such as Mel Gibson.
A year later, director Andrew Davis was to go on to achieve a great success with "The Fugitive", one of the best crime thrillers of the nineties and a film which also starred Tommy Lee Jones (as well as several other actors from "Under Siege"). "Under Siege" is nowhere near the class of the later film, but it is one of the more entertaining tough-guy adventures. It is not the best of the genre, but it is far from being the worst. 5/10