The_Film_Cricket
Woe is the martial arts star who can't keep on good standings with critics and for Steven Segal, 'On Deadly Ground', his directorial debut doesn't do him any favors.I'm not saying that I watched 'On Deadly Ground', thinking that it was a vanity project but after the script had allowed him to be called 'The Spirit Warrior' and 'patron saint of the impossible' I did have my doubts. I was just waiting for someone to call him 'The Chosen One' and lo and behold someone did.I always say that a little vanity thrust upon your own character is not a bad thing but the Jesus-like stature of Seagal's character in this movie is going a bit overboard – even in the end when he gets to deliver his sermon on the mount. His name in the film is Forrest Taft (yes, Forrest Taft) and he's one of those martial arts environmentalists who fights against racism and the protection of the environment even if it means he has to blow up half of Alaska to do it.His kick-buttyness may be local legend to the Inuit people but he is a thorn in the side to oil bearing billionaires like Michael Jennings (Michael Caine) who owns a huge oil company and is ready to start a Super-oil rig before the rights to the land reverts back to the pesky Inuit people who don't worship the almighty dollar as much as they worship the almighty Forrest Taft.How bad is Jennings? He's one of those villains provided for this kind of movie that isn't just bad but exudes his villainy oozing from every pore. So bad is he that he dispenses with his secretary in one of the most unnecessary death scenes I can remember.No movie like this could be complete without an admiring woman at the hero's side and for this little slush ball of a movie it provides Masu (Joan Chen), an environmental activist whose protests extend to squirting oil on Jenning's suit. That's actually her big scene because other then schmoozing over what a great legend Forrest is she spends most of the movie tagging along behind him and dodging bullets.And if by the movie's third act you think you've seen it all you haven't heard the worst of it. After a movie in which Seagal has blown up half of Alaska he then stands at a podium to deliver a long lecture about the dangers of big oil companies ruining the environment and pleading for an alternative source of energy. I'm not sure I got the whole message but I have a feeling that what he is saying is that we should have sails on our cars. Warner Brothers initially made him cut the speech back because it was running just over 15 minutes. Strange that no one seemed to have had any complaints about the two hours that where left in.
blazesnakes9
Most action stars can be pretty physically appealing for their roles. Not only physically appealing, but also smart. Take an action star like Steven Seagal. Seagal had appear in 5 movies over the last 5 years. His first movie was Above the Law, made in 1988. In that movie, he did a pretty good job, playing the leading role. In 1990, he returned to the big screen for two more action pictures. Hard to Kill and Marked For Death. I enjoyed Hard to Kill, marginally. But, Marked For Death was awful. The following year, he made the movie, Out for Justice, which was kind of silly and predictable. Then in 1992, he teamed up with Andrew Davis, the same director who made Above the Law, Seagal signature film. Under Siege was a good action film, loaded with evil villains and a routine plot that we've seen before. But in 1994, Seagal was given the chance to direct and star in the movie, On Deadly Ground. In this movie, Seagal plays an specialist of oil handling. He is also, as it seems to be an CIA agent. When an evil oil tycoon wants to dominate Alaska's frontier with his fresh supply of oil, he must reason with the locals and persuade the Native Americans that their territory is going to damaged by the oil-drilling. Michael Caine plays the bad guy in this movie, and he hires an group of murderous henchmen to kill Seagal and his colleague, played by Joan Chen. Meanwhile, Seagal eludes Caine's goons by planting explosives and setting up all kinds of booby traps to disable them, even cutting them off on their trail. There are so many explosions in this movie, so many of them, that it got up to a point when I couldn't keep up with the explosions. Also, there are other problems that get in the movie's way as well. Stereotyping of Native Americans in this movie are very unnecessary, and even walking on the same story of when the bad guys disturbs the Native Americans' land. We've seen that a hundred, if not, thousand times in the movies, starting way back into the early days of the westerns. And, the biggest one of them all is the ending of this movie. At the end of this movie, when Seagal finally kill all of the bad guys in the movie,(even Michael Caine), and blows up an entire oil refinery, owned by Caine, he gives an environmental speech about how cars will run on water, garbage, other liquids. I'm not sure if this is correct and if its even possible, but that speech comes way out of left field. Steven Seagal can be a good action star. He even proves that in his other movies like Above the Law or Under Siege. But, in On Deadly Ground, that kind of star power is blown away. (Did I say blown away? I really mean that statement.) What surprises me is that Seagal directed this movie, and he shows nothing exciting or artistic in this movie. He probably thought that the only way to direct an action movie is by putting in a lot of bad guys, gunfire and a whole lot of fiery explosions. Maybe he should've learn from Andrew Davis, the man who directed him in his two other movies. On Deadly Ground certainly does live up to its title, but it didn't live up to Steven Seagal. ★ 1 star.
SnoopyStyle
Michael Jennings (Michael Caine) is the callous CEO of Aegis Oil. They are desperate to finish the latest job or else the drilling rights revert back to the "Eskimos". He cut corners and use defective parts. Forrest Taft (Steven Seagal) is the safety officer who must fight for what's right.Steven Seagal is a weak director. He lacks the vision or the skills. This plays more as a TV movie with an oversized budget. It could still have been watchable but Seagal keeps strutting around like a douchie peacock. This is a terrible vanity project. He wants to be an environmental native superhero. It's all too much.Even Michael Caine is annoyingly 2 dimensional. He sleeks back his hair and act like a super criminal. There isn't much nuance. This is standoff between two giant peacocks as the movie starts with a giant explosion, and the two men standing upright posing while everybody else cowers. It sets the sour tone right from the beginning.
