Under Siege (1992)

I'm not the biggest fan of Steven Seagal - he's made too many rubbish films and his physical changes haven't helped. However, he found a winner with "Under Siege." The film packs a lot into its 98 minute running time and it rushes by. The plot is fairly standard and includes all kinds of "superhero" type heroics. What makes it work, is the direction from Andrew Davis, the action scenes, the photography and production values but also the performance of Tommy Lee Jones. All you have to do, is to compare his acting with the feeble attempts of Steven Seagal for it to be painfully obvious who the actor is! Most of Steven Seagal's martial arts movies are pretty low budget and have never been given a huge release. "Under Siege" is an exception. Thanks to the films various credentials, the box office takings were bound to be better than usual. Gary Busey does well as an unbalanced villain (they had become his stock in trade long before).

Stupid albeit entertaining military film about a collection of traitors whom attempt to procure an American naval vessel.Steve Seagal is not too bad as an ex-navy Seal who now holds the position of a cook on board the ship in question. When the gun-play erupts, not one of the many bad guys swarming around the deck and innards of the ship walks through the door at the right time to shoot Seagal in the back -- they only appear after Seagal has wasted somebody uninterrupted so he can turn around just in time for the next pigeon to enter the room and blow him away as well (just like Rambo and all those other cardboard action movie characters).For all its ineptitude, this movie remains a solid action flick. Actually, one of Seagal's best films (my personal favorite Seagal film, for what that's worth.... I'm not a die-hard Seagal fan).Don't forget to see Steve in 'On Deadly Ground' where he plays a peaceful ecology activist who has the audacity (and hypocrisy) to punch the crap out of a guy in a bar to the point where the guy is ready to drop dead, as well as Seagal, 'our hero', wearing animal skins and littering the Alaskan tundra with his cigarette butts.

I don't like Steve Seagal. I honestly don't thing anybody really likes Steve Seagal. Most of his movies are pretty terrible and go direct-to-video. But to every rule there is an exception, and that exception is the 1992 action-thriller, Under Siege (aka Die Hard on a Battleship). Our story follows Casey Ryback (Seagal in one of his better performances) a cook on-board the soon-to-be-retired USS Missouri and ex-Navy SEAL (aren't they all?). Ryback remains a constant pain for the disliked Commander Krill (Gary Busey in full- on Busey mode), who in fact intends to hijack the ship alongside Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones, the best actor in the film) during the Captain's birthday party. Freeing himself from a meat locker (don't ask), Ryback and Miss July 1989 (Erika Eleniak) fight to free the ship from its captors. From the plot description I just gave, this probably sounds like a parody of action movies you would find on The Simpsons. And in many respects, it is. But the rather generic plot is handled well, fast-paced and with enough action to keep audiences satisfied. Director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive, Holes) handles the many shootouts well, with smooth tracking shots through the ship's narrow corridors giving the action a sense of energy while remaining comprehensible. Busey and Jones' banter is a constant source of (mostly intentional) laughs, and Basil Poledouris' work on the score is excellent as always. One of the better Die Hard-knockoffs, I think its worth a rental.

Gee, I don't know - Seagal takes on thirty terrorists all by himself and comes out on top? I don't think so, but action fans love this kind of stuff and I'm a little partial to Seagal myself. Personally I prefer him when he's beating up on your standard bunch of saloon thugs or billiard room bullies where it's more up close and personal. At least you had Tommy Lee Jones and Miss July Gary Busey on hand here to add a maniacal touch to the festivities. Man, didn't Busey just creep you out in that dress and makeup? Probably the most unbelievable part of the story had Erika Eleniak go from a sniveling crybaby to an elite killer assassin in the space of an hour or so. Anyone could buy that, right? Well stuff like this is made for diversion and it's not the worst hour and a half you can spend. I'd have preferred a little more in the way of martial arts instead of the big guns but there are other Seagal films so you take what you get. Sure would like to have a birthday cake like that though.