Half Past Dead (2002)

Certainly the prison-set action movie is one of the most popular genres out there, and also one of the most overcrowded. 2003 saw the release of two such movies from former high-profile stars Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Van Damme's flick, IN HELL, was a stylistic if disturbing minor masterpiece which played with the audience's expectations, whilst the former's effort is HALF PAST DEAD, a film at the opposite end of the spectrum: cheap, boringly directed, with cheesy special effects and pretty appalling acting. Thankfully the film is made bearable by the presence of so many so-bad-they're-good elements, the biggest (in both senses of the word) being the considerable presence of Mr. Seagal himself. More good-natured than usual (he smiles a lot here), Seagal delights the viewer with his acting capabilities, even if, it has to be said, his martial arts isn't what it used to be – in fact for almost all the fights or stunts, he's doubled, and obviously at that.The film takes place in a futuristic-looking prison nicknamed the New Alcatraz, and the inmates are a disparate group of old TV actors and unknown black guys. Certainly there are two rappers in the cast, one of whom, Ja Rule, shares a leading role with Seagal. Sadly, it is well known that rappers can't act, so Mr. Rule's performance is somewhat disappointing. The sleazy bad guy is played by Morris Chestnut, whom some (but probably not many) may remember as Seagal's buddy in UNDER SIEGE II: DARK TERRITORY. He's grown up a lot since then, and is now a hulking, ruthless nemesis, but nothing Seagal can't handle of course. The female lead belongs to a lacklustre Claudia Christian, who has an annoying habit of squeezing her eyes tight shut every time she fires a gun, so her authenticity as a chief FBI agent is somewhat comprised.Real kudos should go to 40-something but surprisingly hot Nia Peeples as a female assassin, a martial arts mistress who kicks butt throughout the film; she's the only one who inserts any drive or enthusiasm into this piece, and it's a shame she isn't on the screen for longer. As for the action, well it is cheesy and uses wire work when necessary, and the trappings rip-off the likes of DIE HARD all the while. There are some CGI effects, the bane of low budget films, which are of course ludicrous, although the interplay between the main characters (principally the death row inmate, the prison warden, and the bad guys) isn't half bad. This is definitely a film which moves fast and doesn't give you time to reach for the remote; it may be bad and it may be clichéd, but damn if it isn't cheesy and entertaining in equal measure. Far from Seagal's best, but also far from his worst (that'd be THE PATRIOT).

This terminally silly Steven Seagal vehicle casts the martial artist / "actor" as Sasha Petrosevitch (!), a "criminal" shot by the FBI, revived, and sent to "New Alcatraz", a modern version of the legendary island prison. Naturally, he is just about the only one who can save the day when a team of operatives bust INTO the place, all in the name of making condemned man Lester McKenna (Bruce Weitz) spill his guts about where he stashed a fortune in gold bars.Yeah, there's a lot of action in this flick, but so what? It still suffers from a particularly lame script by the director, a former actor named Don Michael Paul. Paul had previously established his credentials by writing the equally macho "Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man". Decent production values and a not-bad supporting cast can't do much to counteract the inanity of this whole thing. It's short on sense and long on nonsense. Now, if the potential viewer / action fan is looking for something pretty mindless, they might find this passable.One problem is that the villains lack any real personality. The usually engaging Morris Chestnut (who'd previously played sidekick to Seagal in the second "Under Siege" picture) gets a chance to play a heavy, and, to put it quite frankly, the role just isn't that entertaining. Super sexy Nia Peeples seems to be enjoying herself as Chestnuts' slinky partner in crime.Among the cast are rappers Ja Rule (as Sashas' buddy Nick) and Kurupt (as the comic relief guy Twitch), the excellent Tony Plana as a prison official, Claudia Christian as a tough Federal agent, and Linda Thorson as an imperiled Supreme Court justice. What's nice is seeing 'Hill Street Blues' actor Weitz do a good job in the only good role in the movie. TV icon Stephen J. Cannell has a small role, and Mo'Nique appears during the closing credits as Twitch's girlfriend.Some interesting touches and moments here and there, but the ending is ridiculous beyond belief. Overall, this is a mess, and indicative of the eventual decline in whatever quality there was in Seagal cinema.Four out of 10.

So there's Steven Seagal, and there's a bunch of people that want to kill him because well, just because. There have been so many movies with that exact premise I wonder why I still bother to watch them. I guess it's just that the pure, innocent simplicity to a Seagal movie is very endearing to me. With that said, this movie still kinda blows. I'm okay with the dumb plot about criminals trying to locate 200 million dollars worth of gold (which apparently is just around twenty bars), but I expected some more real action from our main character. All Seagal does is slap some people, and even that is usually done by an obvious double. His acting is also even worse than usual (is that possible?) and his co-stars don't exactly carry the movie either. Maybe because most of them aren't even real actors. Whose idea was it to put Seagal and Ja Rule in an emotional climax? Whoever it was, he's cleaning up aisle three right now. Occasionally there's a good gunfight thrown in the mix, so the movie's not boring all the way through, but it is in fact pretty disappointing.

I saw Half Past Dead back in 2003 and I forgot about it.I've been getting into Seagal again recently and I watched this film a few weeks ago.Most of Seagal's films were Rated R.This is his only PG-13-rated film to date(though "Fire Down Below" was a very tame R, could have easily been PG-13).I was surprised at the low score.Sure this film is no "Above The Law", "Under Siege" or any of Seagal's earlier works, but it is a fairly entertaining action film.It was better than "Fire Down Below", "On Deadly Ground" and the majority of his straight to video fare.The film is about an FBI agent who goes undercover in a new Alcatraz-like prison.A man who buried a large amount of money years ago is to be executed.However some terrorists break into the prison and force the man to tell them where the money is.Part of the film involves the terrorists(led by Morris Chestnut who previously was in Under Siege 2 and plays a fairly good role) playing mind games with the police officers and the hostages, one of whom is a supreme court judge.The other part involves Seagal, Ja Rule and the other prisoners trying to save everybody.Half Past Dead is a fairly underrated and decent enough Seagal film.Too bad that after this, he was reduced to crappy straight to video fare.