Soleil Rouge

weren't the late 80's and first half of the 90's great people? We have this guy who can't act but sure as hell kick a punch in movies with mostly no plot at all except for him kicking ass for 90 minutes long. OK, so they did have a little plot but the movies were all about Steven kicking the butts of bad guys. Steven would hit, kick, run, jump etc etc and people would get there bones broken in the nastiest ways. Who can forget the guy with the meat cleaver in "Out for Justice"? The way that was handled: pure testosterone filled ballet! Now it's the new millennium and the only decent thing our aikido hero has released was Exit Wounds (with lots of help from wire-fu, funny script, good co-stars, a good director, Steven who went to the gym etc etc). OK so Belly of the beast was decent, but not when you consider Steven had a body-double in tons of scenes.

So here is Into the sun, the latest fight fest from Steven and what does it contains:

-An openings scene which has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the movie. It works for James Bond but not here

• Steven doing pinkypink with his soon-to-be-wife (lame!) About one aikido fighting the first hour of the movie (against a couple of street kids)

• The rest is sword fights to the end

• Unimaginative baddies (I miss those guys from Under Siege 1 & 2, Hard to kill etc)

• Too much uninteresting plot too little fighting.

All Steven needs is a simple plot for him to go on a one-man-rampage across a lot of different locations fighting lots of men to get to his goal... Nothing more, nothing less. That never happens in Into the Sun. Steven just goes from friendly contact to friendly contact to get some info and that's basically it. Only in the last half hour the flick turns into a revenge-story and we get to see a toned down version of Hard to kill. What was the use of getting all that info in the first hour when the baddies get taken down by Steven out for a revenge motive? Next time someone writes a script for Seagal, just kill someone he loves in the beginning or drop some terrorists in the same location he is. Then get him "a shotgun and a patrol car" and he'll do the rest.

And make sure he went to the gym before the filming starts... those really close up aikido fights are not very exciting...

Mr. Seagal is getting a little old for the job. He's put on a little weight too I think. So what does Into the Sun offer us that hasn't been done before. Well we get to see Seagal wield a Katina and go apes**t on a bunch of Japanese criminals, and we get to see him act in a different language, but his fluency in Japanesse has little effect on the overall quality of his performance. It's just different is all. No folks, Seagal is pretty much the same guy he was ten fifteen years earlier, only he'd getting tiresome.

With that in mind, If I am gonna recommend one film from the latter Seagal, this might be it. despite It feels a bit more epic than anything he has done in that decade, It has some nice shots, and even features a couple of Seagal's songs. He ain't too bad.

The script could do with a few less clichéd lines, and a few more one liners. Steven Seagal looks pretty bored on screen, and the signs of age are certainly taking their toll, but he ain't dead yet.

Action: Steven Seagal looks in the best shape he's been in since Exit Wounds. The action fight sequences unfortunately were few and far between. There was a fight at the mall that was superb, in my opinion this was great, but it was over too soon. This was really the only time where he truly showed off his hard to hand combat moves as well as his Aikido throws. The other fights later on were mainly sword based although there were a few punches. No care chases at all. The movie was certainly more plot based than we are used to for a Steven Seagal movie.

Characters: Steven Seagal get's a partner in this movie, but he is pretty much under-used. There's a few funny moments between them. The other characters are pretty poor too. William Atherton as the boss doesn't seem to interested in his role and the other Chinese and Japanese stars don't improve the movie much either. I sure miss the days when Steven Seagal made movies with a decent support cast.

Soundtrack: The radio stations and restaurants in Tokyo must all be tuned in to Steven Seagal FM, everywhere he went his music was playing - i heard a few of his tunes from 'Songs From The Crystal Cave' playing through the film. Overall i counted at least three of his songs including the credits song. The soundtrack was good though.

Direction: The movie begins with an action sequence in the jungle, which is not very well done. The opening credits begin and then some graphic work happens to show the movie is in Tokyo. When i saw this is reminded me other Michael Oblowitz's work in 'Out For A Kill' and i thought the worst, but after that panic it was certainly well directed. Good job mink.

Overall: Pretty disappointing, i was expecting much more for a budget of $35 million, i don't know where all this money was used as it seems rather excessive considering not much was blown up. It is certainly a better movie than 'Out For A Kill' and 'The Foreigner', but it is not better than 'Belly Of The Beast' and nowhere near as good as his earlier work. For a direct to video effort it is certainly above average though. I must admit i pretty much agree with the review form 'Ain't It Cool'.

Rating: 2 / 5

Steven Seagel returns as Travis Hunter, a former CIA agent who's brought out of his retirement as a sword-smith in Tokyo to help with an investigation involving a pact between The Yakuza and The Triad.

Soon Travis is under threat and he must use his deadly skills in the martial arts and the blade in order to take down the Yakuza and the Triads who are both out to end his life.

This movie really surprised me, I'm not a huge fan of Seagel's recent efforts but I was so impressed with Belly Of The Beast that I decided to give this a try.

First off, Seagel actually looks like he wants to be in the movie, going as for as to give some effort in the acting. Te story isn't all that great and there are some very cliché moments but overall it was enough to keep my interest through out.

The action was well paced and nicely choreographed, Seagel's fight with Ken Lo being a highlight but it was good to see they didn't hold back when it came to the sword fighting as he cuts his way through various sword wielding thugs in order to get to the final showdown, there's lots of blood on offer there.

I was nice to see Seagel being backed up by a strong supporting cast, even going as far as the let the Asian actors speak their native languages instead of making them speaking very bad English, I have to say as well Seagel's Japanese was way better the his Thai in Belly Of The Beast.

To finish off I have to say I'd like to see Seagel make more movies like this in the future, it seems mink* new what he was doing when he directed this as he gave the movie a nice level of flashiness without making it look like an MTV music video.

So if Seasgel decided to make more hack and slash type movies, I'd definitely be interested.

When the governor of Tokyo is killed in his campaign for election, the former CIA agent Travis Hunter (Steven Seagal) is assigned to find the responsible working together with the rookie FBI agent Sean (Matthew Davis). Travis was raised in Japan, has great connections with the underworld of the streets and is a master in sword and martial arts, trained by a former member of Yakuza. Travis discloses that there is a war between the old and traditional members of Yakuza and the new generation leaded by the deranged and sick Kuroda (Takao Osawa), who has associated to the Chinese Tong mobster Chen (Ken Low) in a powerful drug dealing business. When his fiancée Nayako (Kanako Yamaguchi) is brutally and cowardly murdered by one of Kuroda's men, the mission of Travis becomes a personal issue and he seeks revenge.

"Into the Sun" is the best of the recent works of Steven Seagal. The story is flawed, full of clichés, but also very entertaining. Steven Seagal does not have the same agility of his first movies, but the plot is well supported by magnificent landscapes, wonderful soundtrack and a great cast. I really have not understood why he alternates speaking in English or Japanese; there are some dialogs that the Japanese characters speak in Japanese and Travis speaks in English, in a complete mess. But in the end, I liked this film. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Operação Sol Nascente" ("Operation Rising Sun")