Once upon a time there was a badass action star that was very successful at playing the same type of character in 10 movies. Yes, the character names changed but the character remained the same as did the actor. That actor is Steven Seagal.
This week’s fbf goes to the most successful movie of his career, Under Siege.
Now, after the first Die Hard came out every studio went on to make Die Hard clones. There was a Die on a Plane (Passenger 57), Die Hard on a Bus (Speed) and Under Siege was Die Hard on a ship.
As everyone on the ship is enjoying the Captain’s birthday party, bad guys Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey kill the Captain and take over the ship. What these two assholes don’t expect is that “cook” Casey Ryback (cool name), who has a background of a badass Navy Seal who even the Captain says “If I had your ribbons, I’d wear them to bed,” is on board and is taking the death of the Captain very personally. Now one thing you don’t ever want to do is give a Steven Seagal character a reason to come after you. Even his glare would make you want to quit being a bad guy and cook food for the homeless or something nice like that.
Lots of bones get cracked and of course nothing stops Chef Ryback from saving the day. This movie was pretty different from a typical Seagal movie and one of the key differences was the villains. Most of the villains in his films aren’t bad at all; they have their own personalities but this movie had the one-two punch of Busey and Jones and Jones steals the show right from under everyone.
Made right before The Fugitive, which Andrew Davis also directed, Jones comes off as a crazy-ass lunatic who wants to see shit blow up because the government fucked him over when he was working for “them.” Jones, at one point throws on his jacket and air guitars the Star Spangled Banner after everything starts going wrong for him. He gets to “Nicolas Cage” it for a bit in this movie.
As far as the action goes, it’s actually not bad at all, there’s more gunfights than Aikido (usually its the reverse in most Seagal movies of that time). Seagal always looks comfortable playing military types and he acquits himself well in this movie and even shows us a thing or two on how to make explosives using household items. So if you’re in the mood for a good Seagal movie that’s not called Out for Justice (not lying, it’s the perfect “you killed my partner” movie) give this one a look and enjoy Tommy Lee Jones and Seagal in a knife fight.
Oh, and you also get to see Gary Busey in drag.
Catch Mando on Twitter at @manbat33 when he’s not co-hosting the @TalentedSlacker podcast!