It coincides with best picture nominee A Serious Man, but that made me ponder what if the Coen Brothers would direct a Steven Seagal action film. Those results would be interesting. This latest entry in Seagal’s filmography turns out to be not so bad but still more of the same.
Shane Daniels (Steven Seagal) has just been let out of prison for a crime he did not commit. He’s only been released because DNA evidence has shed some light that exonerates Daniels of murdering a punk that assaulted Daniels and his wife (Aidan Dee).
Due to his six year jail stay, Shane has lost his wife and his old life. On his release Shane heads to a liquor store, but some street punks outside cause him some slight annoyance but his ass-kicking skills serve him well. He takes off from the melee to stop at a roadside rest stop to drink his bourbon.
Sergey (Jesse Hutch) and his buddy also pull into the same rest stop driving a stolen car. A highway patrol officer also pulls into the same, but instead of being after either current occupants of the rest stop he is pulling over a speeding car. The car contains two Chinese guys, but they soon kill the police officer and go after the witnesses to the crime.
What they don’t count on is that Daniels is a killing machine and he soon makes short work of at least one of the perpetrators. Daniels finds that the fancy car contains a bag full of money and an unconscious girl. Daniels, Sergey, and the contents of the truck take off in Sergey’s stolen suburban.
The girl is named Tia (Marlaina Mah) and the money is from her dealings with the smuggler Chen (Terry Chen) and attempting to smuggle her uncle into the country. That didn’t go as planned and Tia ended up in the trunk as Chen has shadowy dealings with the mysterious Colonel (Byron Mann).
Sergey takes them to the nearest town which happens to be run by the crooked Sgt. Ritchie (Jerry Wasserman), an underling of Chen, and everyone is after Tia and the bag of money. Good thing Shane is around to give everyone an ass-whuppin.
A Dangerous Man is the second “A [Something] Man” picture released this week. I’ll give the advantage to the Coen Brothers this time around (you’ll note A Dangerous Man is not up for any Oscars) but even though the dangerous man is a pretty derivative Seagal action film it does best The Keeper by a hair.
They were made by basically the same personnel, but A Dangerous Man just seems more appealing. It seems the more crafted of the two. Again this is odd since the Keeper’s budget was 10 million and Man only got 6.5 million. I don’t know if Man was produced after the Keeper but all seem to have honed their skills slightly to give Man the edge.
A Dangerous Man was written by director Keoni Waxman (who helmed both pictures) and the Keeper was scribed by Seagal himself. Not that either party is not guilty of writing pretty poor dialogue. Waxman does add some odd directorial touches like slow-mo, focusing in on dead bodies, and repeating bits of some scenes, like when Seagal slams a baddie’s head into the wall.
That’s not saying that Man is a film that stands above Seagal’s early career hits; it’s just saying that I was more entertained by Man.
The plot of Man is a bit busier than the other with heroic “comrades” in the form of Russian mobsters and a major and a minor villain. Those villains do play against one another but maybe the major difference between the two films is that I found Man had a better, more memorable villain than Keeper did.
Byron Mann reminded me of an Asian James Coburn and he was steely cold in his portrayal of “The Colonel.” Seagal does his usual daring-do but it amused me to recall that in his reality show it doesn’t take much to have the big man break out in a sweat, but in his movie personal he barely breaks one. The magic of movies I suppose.
A Dangerous Man is presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) and is enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The only special feature is previews of other Paramount releases.
A Dangerous Man wins in the Steven Seagal faceoff, but only by a nose. It’s certainly a low-budget entry in his career but it does offer a passable entertainment for his fans.
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