First off, don't be fooled: This isn't really a Steven Seagal movie; it's a Bren Foster movie where Steven Seagal gets top billing. Although Seagal plays a central character (crime kingpin) in the film, the story is much, MUCH more centered around Foster's character (Roman Hurst), a protegé of Seagal's character (Mr. Alexander) who - due to a double-cross - mistakenly terminates the wrong person and, according to some twisted "sense of honor" by Mr. Alexander - has to pay the price. The entire film is focused almost completely on Foster, with Steven Seagal and Ving Rhames shoring up the storyline with their own little backstory. But again, don't get fooled: The film opens with Seagal doing his Aikido thing and showing off some skills, but almost immediately after, it slows to a snail's pace and gets boring, VERY predictable, and (again) focused almost entirely on the Roman Hurst character. Danny Trejo makes an appearance, oddly as a greasy-spoon-chef-turned-tough-guy, but like the others, his character is used only to shore up the Roman Hurst character. While Seagal and Rhames are interesting additions to the movie, the acting (much like Seagal, very much UNLIKE Rhames) is lifeless and wooden. The gunfights are incredibly ludicrous: what kind of "I've done this for many many years" druglord goes into a war with a rival poorly armed with, what?...maybe two clips for his automatic weapon? Along with idiotic pieces like that, the entire scorpion/adrenaline/bone-breaking portion was ... well, I would say "laughable" but it was too utterly stupid to even be laughable. Although this isn't his worst, it's a far far FAR cry from the glory days of a strutting, sinewy, ponytail-sporting Italian "Nico Toscani" (Above the Law) or "Gino" (Out for Justice). Like so many of Seagal's later direct-to-video movies, this one had a TON of ingredients that could have been put together to make a VERY GOOD action flick; unfortunately, it seems (per usual) that those involved didn't know what to do with all these ingredients, so the whole was far far LESS than the sum of its parts. And again, this film - even though it sports Seagal's name across the top - is very much a Bren Foster movie. But hey, if Steven Seagal produces it, he gets to put his own name where he wants it, right?
