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.
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.