By Geno McGahee
Steven Seagal is Jack Taggart an EPA agent sent into hillbilly territory to take down the evil Orin Danner (Kris Kristofferson), a big business man that is dumping toxic waste into a small Kentucky town. Not only is Taggart there to kick ass and save the town, but this is personal. Taggart’s great friend was taken out when he stumbled upon something that he wasn’t supposed to see and now it is on. It is so on.
Taggart goes to town under the cover of a handyman, fixing porches and roofs for the townspeople, but considering his slicked back hair and long leather jacket, it’s hard to imagine that he’s a handyman. He goes through the motions and flirts with the women of the town that all seem to want him as all the guys in the town want to kick his ass. The entire town is sitting on a secret and Taggart is going to uncover it.
Sarah (Marg Helgenberger) starts to have a thing for Taggart and the two begin dating, but Sarah’s dickhead brother, Earl (Stephen Lang), is not happy about it, and he is also tied up in the town conspiracy and is on Danner’s payroll.
I recently watched UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY and thought that Seagal’s heart wasn’t in it. I’m beginning to think that maybe Seagal isn’t the great actor that I once thought he was. He does OK in this one, but he still seems really out of place here and out of his league at times. The hillbilly expressions that he uses throughout are really forced and unbelievable and he has an accent at times and not at other times. Maybe the accent was part of the fix-it guy persona, but it was so unbelievable that it takes you out of the movie.
Seagal is amusing at times and a likable character, but much of his delivery isn’t very good. When he tells his buddy that his friendship means a lot to him, they show a quick shot of his friend just looking at him…like the actor is saying: “What the fuck Seagal? That’s it? I just gave this heartfelt delivery and I get that in return. If I could kick your fat ass, I would!” A lot of the film is like that.
The film moves along at a brisk pace, but amazingly, it drags on in the third act. It’s odd. Usually, Seagal’s films really step it up at the end, but this one is different. There was action, but there was a lot of repetition and meaningless scenes. I was really into it, but the last 30 minutes went on forever.
FIRE DOWN BELOW is a mixed bag. It’s a good story but they lost their focus in it and much of it is really unbelievable. I recommend it, but the payoff at the end isn’t that good.
Rating: 6/10
Steven Seagal could never really act, but his martial arts scenes, at least in the Warner Brother movies, were fantastic. One thing I can say about Seagal, or maybe it was the studio, but he surrounded himself with high quality actors in each of the Warner Brother’s films that he made before his contract ended. A lot of actors went on to become well-known in their own right.
Absolutely. Seagal was more of a force than an actor…he did OK in some of the roles…HARD TO KILL and OUT FOR JUSTICE, i thought he held his own, but at best, he’s a mediocre actor, but very charismatic and that has pushed his career.