Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Nicolas F. Costoglou I'm a fan of Schwarzenegger-movies (Total Recall, Terminator, True Lies), Van Damme-movies (Kickboxer, Time Cop, JCVD) and Stallone- movies (First Blood, Demolition Man, Cliffhanger). All three (nearly) always give 100% and try to entertain us on every level, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.Now we talk about a Seagal-movie...well, this is most certain the only good one i know, and that's not just because of his tongue-in- cheek performance, but more because of Andrew Davis direction.I'm also a fan of the Ford-movie "The Fugitive", which Andrew Davis made a year later (also starring Tommy Lee Jones, and a few other actors from this film), also because of the direction and creative action-sequences, but most of all because it's a suspenseful and emotional Thriller with great performances.Under Siege on the other hand is more of an Die Hard-clone (they even reenact the famous "Jump from an explosion with a rope attached"- scene) with fun action, comedy and over-the-top villains.And it works pretty well as such, but it's never as good as it's "predecessor", or the movies i mentioned above, still entertaining and well made, but not as memorable.All in all i liked all the performances fine, was engaged for the most part, and found the setting to be very interesting and well used, the perfect entertainment for a rainy afternoon...

Leofwine_draca One of the many films to use DIE HARD as inspiration, UNDER SIEGE is so good that it's nearly on par with DIE HARD and its sequel. While DIE HARD was confined to a tower block, UNDER SIEGE's setting is a battleship, containing hundreds of corridors and different locations. It's a good setting too, and totally realistic, you always believe that the action is really taking place on the moving ship. Even in the enjoyably bad SPEED 2, a ship was put to good use as the setting for the action, I don't know why. Perhaps because of the fragility of the ship, perhaps because of the isolated setting. It's a winner though and I'm sure in future we'll see more films like these set on ships (and what happened to turn up after I'd written this review? Two films called DEEP RISING and VIRUS. I rest my case.) Secondly, the direction is pretty good. Andrew Davis is an excellent director and it shows in this film. There are never any boring moments, and the action is kept moving constantly. The film starts off slowly, gets fast quickly, and moves into hyper-drive for the finale. The actual action scenes are filmed with relish, shootouts occur and are quickly over in cramped locations, bullets fly and things explode realistically. These adrenaline-pumping moments are countered nicely by cuts to either the goodies or the baddies going about their business, delivering choice dialogue.Which leads me on to the acting. Surprisingly, the principal players are all good in their roles, although some of the supporting cast appear never to have seen a camera in their life. It's left up to Seagal, Eleniak, Jones, Busey, and Meaney to have endless fun in their clear cut, well-defined roles, stereotypical perhaps but very enjoyable. Seagal in particular has matured from being just another wooden cop in NICO: ABOVE THE LAW to his smart, funny, kind yet lethal cook in this film. He's at his most likable here, delivering punchlines and wisecracks all the time, which instantly endear him to the audience. He's a father figure, a protector, someone who'll never let you down, well except when he gets badly wounded by a grappling hook in a rare moment where we feel sorry for his character. Erika Eleniak stars in an obviously out of place role as the stripper who joins in with the shooting, she's not a good actress but then the role doesn't require her to be one - just the opposite in fact. Eleniak and Seagal enjoy some punchy dialogue when they team up, in much the same way Busey and Jones do.Tommy Lee Jones gives an outrageously over the top performance. Dressed as an ageing rocker, he soon provides himself to be the brains behind the plan, and delivers many witty remarks. He's not much of a fighter though, as will be glaringly obvious when you see a stuntman doubling for Jones in the final fight between him and Seagal. Gary Busey gives an amusingly wild performance as the sadistic, traitorous officer, "outstanding" in every way, he even dresses in drag in a comedy highlight. Colm Meaney isn't given much to do except look mean, but there's the novelty value of hearing him use lots of unsavoury language you wouldn't find in STAR TREK.And then, there are the acclaimed fight scenes we normally associate with Seagal films. Arms are broken, legs are broken, necks are hit so hard they break, people are punched out and shot in the head, torso, everywhere. As well as these expected deaths, Seagal uses his sneaky knife throwing trick to get an opponent in the neck, makes a microwave bomb which peppers another guy's face with shrapnel, kicks someone into a bandsaw, drops an iron girder that impales another baddie, and in the excellent finale, goes one on one with Jones in a knife fight. As you may guess, UNDER SIEGE is one of my fun favourites when it comes to action films. It's the film which led me to seek out the rest of Seagal's work, a successful hit. Not original, but enjoyable in every other way.

bowmanblue Okay, so that's not saying much. Seagal has hardly had a glittering career as far as 'critically acclaimed' movies go. Let's face it... he's a B-movie actor at best (and not always a very good one!). His films normally involve him beating up baddies, as he can throw a pretty decent punch and a kick, although, recently, that's come into question as he's got older! However, 'Under Siege' is one of those movies that is so simple that everything just works. It's impossible to talk about it without mentioning 'Die Hard,' largely because it's basically the same film, but set on a boat. There were even rumours going around in the mid nineties that Under Siege stopped production on Die Hard 3 because the third instalment of the Die Hard franchise was also going to be set on a boat and they didn't think they could outdo Under Siege.Terrorists overtake a US Navy ship. Steven Seagal fights back. That's all you need to know. It's a simple action movie that anyone can understand. It doesn't try to be anything different. There are countless others like it, but few that actually stand the test of time. This one does. Although there isn't really anything I can tell you which really differentiates it from the masses, apart from the fact that it works. If you're in the mood for an action film, watch it. It'll do the job. Yes, there are also pretty decent performances from some of the other cast (mainly Tommy Lee Jones as the – cartoon-obsessed – baddie), but it's the whole package that makes this one stand out from the other.Naturally, after Under Siege's success at the Box Office, a sequel was green-lit. Sadly, lightning didn't strike twice and it was pretty poor and fell into the category of all the other forgettable action B-movies. Just stick to the original. It doesn't try to be anything other than a fun action flick. And, in that, it succeeds totally.

utgard14 Rogue CIA operative William Strannix (Tommy Lee Jones) and his gang of mercenaries take over the battleship USS Missouri with inside help from batshit crazy Navy officer Krill (Gary Busey). At first things are going pretty smoothly for them but it turns out they forgot one little thing: the ship's cook, former Navy SEAL Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal). Watch Ryback Die Hard it up and take out the bad guys one by one, leading to the inevitable final fight with Strannix for the fate of the world...or something like that.Awesome actioner with a wonderful cast. Steven Seagal's best and most polished movie. When you have Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey as villains, the script pretty much writes itself. Both are terrific with colorful performances like you might expect. Seagal does his usual stuff, which is probably hit or miss with most people. I actually like his early movies so I can't complain. Special mention to beautiful Erika Eleniak, who has probably her best film role in this. She's a comedic sidekick character and is quite good at it. She also has a brief topless scene, which hurt absolutely nothing. It's a fun movie. One of the few Seagal movies that can be enjoyed on its merits without the slightest hint of irony.