Runtime: 99 minutes
Directed by: Andrew Davis
Starring: Steven Seagal, Pam Grier, Ron Dean, Daniel Faraldo, Henry Silva (RIP)
From: Warner Bros.
RIP Henry Silva
While his death was announced Friday afternoon, somehow I did not hear the sad news until hours later. Through the years I’ve seen him in a variety of different movies, from old Westerns to B-movie pictures in America—a number of different poliziotteschi efforts to schlock like Megaforce & Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold. The reason why this was selected: I had up a far too brief review so I felt like rectifying that. For certain it was NOT because I support the incredibly unsavory human being known as Steven Seagal-to make it clear, I don’t support Seagal whatsoever-or think that this is a cogent plot told in an incredibly clear manner.
As typical, Silva played a villain-the villain in this case, a man with the incredibly improbable yet dope name of KURT ZAGON. Seagal is Nico, an Italian immigrant, Aikido expert, and ex-CIA turned Chicago police officer; for all I know Ol’ Steven probably pretended he was ex-CIA or somehow involved w/ another branch of the American government. Anyhow, he is a loose cannon cop who has Pam Grier (hell yeah) as a partner and stumbles into a scandal involving drugs, shipment of military equipment, Central American immigrants & a branch of the government. Not for nothing but in the United States there was the Iran-Contra Affair, a similar scandal that happened in real life. Thankfully we could NEVER have that happen again in the United States… <looks around sheepishly>.
It does blow my mind that Seagal was a martial arts coordinator on a few early 80’s movies, got to know Michael Ovitz and out of nowhere had a career where he immediately starred in his own pictures. For people around my age, many watched and enjoyed those silly films… and many of our parents probably felt the same way. Presumably Silva relished the role of Zagon, as that character was a pretty evil and awful human being; there are many familiar faces in the cast, mostly “that guy” actors I know although there are some bit parts played by John C. Reilly, Mark Boone Junior & Michael Rooker; in addition, Sharon Stone played Seagal’s wife and there’s one actor you’ll likely recognize due to his distinctive voice-he has one scene.
Sometime later in the year I should watch something involving Henry Silva which is new to me, a film where he has a larger role than the one he had here. For all the movie’s faults at least it’s an amusing good time directed by someone who would have success in the 90’s (Andrew Davis) and was a nice nostalgic trip.
No comments:
Post a Comment