Despite my and everyone else’s current opinion of Steven Seagal, this is a movie that was viewed in part to give it more than a few sentence review on Letterboxd that I originally wrote 12 years (!) ago. Out for Justice also needs a better review but for the sake of those that think Seagal is a irredeemable human being and would rather not think of him at all… it’ll probably be awhile.
As unsavory as he is, I’m able to separate the art from the artist and enjoy most of his theatrical movies; almost all the DTV pictures are varying degrees of useless yet except for the Under Siege pictures and Executive Decision, they were for the most part enjoyable B-movies that had fun action scenes featuring Dudes Getting Wrecked ™ and plenty of Aura Farming for the unstoppable lead. His acting never really got better yet I usually wasn’t offended by its quality.
No one knows why 20th Century Fox had two major 1990 releases featuring Jamaican drug gangs as villains, but they did between this and Predator 2. Seagal is John Hatcher, a DEA who retires from the ranks because he’s (arguably right) about the War on Drugs being an unwinnable war. He returns to his Illinois town to visit family, along w/ ex-Army pal Keith David. Wouldn’t you know it, he and David run afoul of a Jamaican drug gang led by an OOT bad guy only known as SCREWFACE. They messed w/ his family—the expected retort occurs. Also expected: the patois heard from the villains, including curses that probably shouldn’t be repeated by me, a dumb white guy.
The movie naturally could be nitpicked to death, whether legitimately or in an insufferable fashion. This won’t be done by me; instead, the trashy fan that this was will be praised. The expected broken limbs occur, along w/ shootouts, brawls, and even a car chase. The circumstances as to why aren’t known but Seagal wanted Dwight H. Little as director; perhaps he liked the 4th Halloween film… in any case he did a fine job as director.
As others have noted (whether w/ this or speaking generally) the way that older films are scored and/or shot in terms of cinematography can go a long way in making the experience at least a tolerable one. Veteran cinematographer Ric Waite made the film look better than many modern films & I enjoyed the appropriate score from James Newton Howard; in addition, the eclectic soundtrack featured rap, R&B, and naturally reggae. Jimmy Cliff (who appears as himself singing a song… a song that has Seagal w/ a singing part!) is among the reggae artists present.
The cast has many familiar faces, even if they were typically small parts: Danielle Harris, Earl Boen, Joanna Pacula, Al Isreal, Danny Trejo, Peter Jason… this plus David’s large role, Basil Wallace’s OOT turn as Screwface & filming several scenes on the lovely island of Jamaica were further assets in my satisfaction w/ a B-movie that still entertains many genre fans 3 ½ decades later despite the star both on and off the screen.
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