The Keeper

There was nothing of much interest on TV a couple of nights ago so I stumbled onto this one. I used to like Steven Seagal when he still made "real" movies so I thought, what the heck, let's watch it. I cannot say that my hopes were high though. After he started to spew out direct to DVD movies he have made some real crap ones.

I have to say that I was somewhat positively surprised. Sure it is not exactly Oscars material but it is a decent enough TV-movie and Seagal was pretty okay in playing the fairly silent but deadly ex-commando, or in this case ex-cop, that I personally want to see him as. Some people complain that he doesn't care and that he mumbles his dialog. I cannot say that I agree. He played his role as I would have expected. His silent manner, low voice and absence of emotions and outbreaks is what I hope for when I watch a Seagal movie. Also, the fighting in this movie was fairly okay compared to some of his movies where he seemed to be so out of shape that he just stood around and flapped his arms.

The story? Well pretty standard meh TV-quality bad guy tries to muscle in and extort the good guy. Good guy has daughter. Good guy's daughter gets kidnapped. The hero moves in and saves the day. Nothing really innovative and fantastic but good enough to serve as an excuse for some on-screen action and reasonably well implemented.

Not really a bad movie. Of course not really anything more than you would expect from a direct to DVD movie but not bad either and, as I said, way better than some of the crap Seagal have produced.

An American action thriller; A story about a policeman who is double-crossed by his partner and relieved from duty on medical grounds but is approached to protect the daughter of an old friend. Next stop Texas for the aikido master. Seagal looks of pensionable age so not so convincing as a cop, but as a personal bodyguard he is more convincing and carries the part with a modicum of charisma. Sound is a problem in parts, where audio levels are a bit low, but otherwise this is a film of adequate structure and sharp editing. All in all, a film that meanders in the first act and treads water in the second, rescued only by intermittence: Seagal being put to work his impressive martial arts.

I just saw the Keeper and I agree with may of the reviews here that this is one of Steve's better pictures of the last few years. Having said that, I must also observe that those who disparage the acting of Seagal and his co-stars would not know good acting if it walked up and bit them.......Granted he is not a great actor, maybe not even a good one, but he is a decent actor capable of displaying and selling humor when it is called for. THAT is a sign of an actor who knows what he is doing.....as the old actor said on his death bed "Dying is easy, it's comedy that's hard."....and truer words were never spoken. All of those in this picture who delivered lines did so on an acceptable level...Academy Award performances they are not, but if you think this is bad acting....you have not been around much.

"The Keeper" is better than most Steven Seagal Direct to Video films (but not as good as any of his theatrical films from back in the day, of course). I mean, anyone who says this is a downturn in quality obviously never saw "Kill Switch" or "Out for a Kill," "Today You Die," or any of the other Seagal DTVs that were so re-dubbed, re-edited, and filled with stock action sequences cut-and-pasted from other films that they were totally incomprehensible. At least "The Keeper" had a basic story you could follow and made sense overall. It's almost at the level of lower tier action flicks like Charles Bronson's "Evil Men Do," or Burt Reynold's "Malone" (and about at the level of Van Damme's "Border Patrol"). Serviceable vehicles for aging action stars. And the film has a tiny bit of Seagal-dubbing at the opening, a few lame supporting performances, and some minor continuity and plot hole problems--the usual for super low budget action flicks. But the leading lady is pretty good--delivers her lines well and is sexy in that gangly, puppet-ish Scarlette Johanssen way). And the guy that plays her dad is channeling Levon Helm, so that's OK. The film's opening, where cop Seagal is shot and then has to train his way back to fighting health, is pretty good, but seems to be from a different movie; none of the characters it introduces appear later on in the movie (in fact, the opening incident isn't even mentioned later on). I suspect that the best parts of two not-that-great screenplays were melded together.

But the really WEIRD error in this otherwise workmanlike flick is that Seagal's character's name, Rolland Sallinger, changes halfway through to Rolland BALLINGER! Just out of nowhere, one of the other actors start calling him "Ballinger" instead of "Sallinger"! This is both the kind of thing you'd expect in a Seagal DTV, given that they are often slapdash, but also exactly what you wouldn't expect! I mean, Seagal's DTVs are notorious for the re-dubbing of dialog and the makers of The Keeper opted not to re-dubb dialog in a case where it actually would have made sense to do so!

All in all, though, this is a passable 90 minutes entertainment for fans of the giant, middle-aged, whispering bada$$ we all secretly love.

As Steven Seagal is no longer in his prime, so is the character he portrays in The Keeper. Some things haven't changed of course, No matter what name he goes by, he is still the same butt kicking rogue he has always portrayed, with the facial expression of a Maori Head.

The plot seems kind of pointless, but then again that is the least of worries in a Seagal film. He is recruited from California to help a wealthy ex-cop and an old friend who lives in Texas, and is in need of a body guard for his daughter. She has been kidnapped by some business rivals. The first question we ask is why, turn to Seagal. Strangely enough, the character asks that very question in one scene. The answer he gets makes little sense.

So this is the first of a few things that needs to be fixed in The Keeper. There is also the matter of Seagal's acting, which was never very good to begin with, but now, at his present age of fifty something, is sounds like he is struggling to even get words out, let alone deliver lines. Unless you have a good speaker system, you may have to turn the volume way up to hear. the climax was okay, but the ending is terrible, almost non existent, another couple minutes would have been nice.

Quite frankly though, I don't care that much. The fact that Seagal can still hold my attention despite the fact that he's losing it, must count for something. I still have many to see, but from those I have, I'd say this is about average, maybe a little less.