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Gizmo_01
Reviews
Black Dawn (2005)
Decent Effort!
Steven Seagal used to be the most consistent action star working as far as quality was concerned. His movies were always great, but I will be the first to admit that they have definitely dipped in quality in the last few years. Now, the good ones are few and far between.
Black Dawn is a sequel to "The Foreigner," which is often considered by die-hard Seagal fans as his worst movie. Of course, that was compared to the movies he had been up to that point in time and since then he has made several worse efforts, like "Today You Die" or "Out for a Kill," and now it doesn't seem so bad in retrospect. Still, it seems an odd choice to make a sequel to it.
The first good news is that the awkward dubbing of Seagal's voice that has become a trend in his recent efforts is not present here. It seemed to be his own voice throughout the whole movie. Secondly, since it was getting rather ridiculous to watch painfully obvious stunt doubles trying to pass themselves off as Seagal, this movie just throws the fights scenes out the door. There is action, but it's mostly all gun battles. This movie is a lot more plot driven than the usual Seagal effort.
The plot focuses on Jonathan Cold who is an ex-CIA CIA undercover officer, (Got that!), who is trying to stop a group of rebellious teenagers from blowing up the city. The whole thing moves swiftly enough and has some good supporting performances. Seagal is also better than usual. He also appears to have cut his hair. When Seagal's hair gets longer it looks really frizzy and unhealthy and it's hard not to be distracted by it. Seriously, it looks like a bad wig sometimes. Also, he has lost a bit of weight since "Belly of the Beast" which is nice. I hope he's trying to get back into shape for the rumored "Under Siege" sequel that is supposed to be in the works. It would be awfully nice to see Casey "f**king" Ryback kicking butt again real soon. If there is one thing to be learned from "Crocodile Dunddee in Los Angelas," its that it is never to late to finish off a trilogy.
For now I guess I'll just be waiting patiently. His next movie, "Mercenary of Justice" looks promising enough and his second album comes out soon too. Go Seagal!