Force of Execution

Seagal's best days are now far behind him, but he's made a niche for himself in the DTV market. FORCE OF EXECUTION, while not one of the better movies he's made, is at least watchable and has some good action to boot. This time around, Seagal is Alexander, a crime boss with a past in government special ops. He runs a southwestern town with an iron fist, to be sure, but backed up with a code of honor. Martial artist Bren Foster plays Hurst, Alexander's chief hit-man and a protégé of sorts. They are joined in the cast by Ving Rhames, an up-and-coming gangster and Danny Trejo as a bar owner with a few tricks up his sleeve. The event that sets the plot in motion is a hit that goes bad, resulting in Hurst's "retirement," and the severe injury of his hands. Meanwhile, Iceman (Rhames) maneuvers around Alexander in order to take control of his territory, climaxing in a showdown between the two gangs. First, the good parts. Seagal is playing a type of character that he doesn't usually play, an antihero of sorts in a movie populated solely with lowlifes. There is also some decent martial arts on display, but mostly from Bren Foster. Seagal is relegated to doing his usual chops and take-downs when he isn't just using firearms. Finally, Ving Rhames gives the best performance in the movie as Iceman, lending credibility to his role as a gangster and delivering some great improvised dialogue. The rest is mediocre at best. The basic plot is paper thin, and not enough time is spent developing the three main characters. Most of the dialogue scenes are corny discussions about honor and respect, tough talking without any purpose other than to make the characters seem tougher. As far as the technical aspects go, director Keoni Waxman opts for the currently in-vogue shaky-cam, and some of the editing choices obscure the action. While this was most likely to conceal stunt doubles in some shots, it makes the action hard to follow in places, especially with Seagal. Fortunately for Bren Foster, they pulled back the camera a little bit so you can see him work. Overall this should be enough to placate Seagal fans, but everyone else should just stay away.

This was definitely at the bottom of the barrel of Steven Seagal films Even the presence of Ving Rhames couldn't save this film. I think the worst part of this movie was this terrible accent that Seagal has developed that sounds something like a want to be black man. This is really awful, I mean just awful.

Review: This movie was exactly what I expected. Bad storyline, with some great action but bad acting. Steven Seagal was cool throughout the movie, like Ving Rhames who acts the same in all of his movies and the Colin Farrell lookalike who was playing the lead was a good fighter, but a dead actor. It's your usual fight for territory type movie with everyone fighting for power. Danny Trejo gets stuck in the middle of the war but he doesn't get involved in all of the violence. Personally, everyone looks a bit old in this movie, but Seagal can still kick butt which looks good on camera. I've always been a fan of his effortless way of fighting. Anyway, it's not bad for action and it's good to see the veterans on screen together, but don't expect anything out of the ordinary. Watchable!

Round-Up: No matter how big, in weight, or how old Seagal gets, the guy can fight. He has a way of making his opponent looking completely useless which I've always enjoying watching. As for the Colin Farrell lookalike, he just seems to be jumping off of walls, kicking like a mad man but it does look impressive. I'm sure that Ving Rhames is getting fed up with playing the same roles all of the time. You just know what to expect once you see his name in the cast, which is blamed on his role in Pulp Fiction. Anyway, the movie isn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it's not brilliant.

Budget: $10million Worldwide Gross: N/A

I recommend this movie to people who are into there gang war type of movies with loads of violence. 3/10

I am not a huge fan of Steven Seagal nor a detractor. As I pointed out in the reviews for the other movies I saw with him, there are times when he makes enjoyable films and times where his movies are quite awful (such as PISTOL WHIPPED). And this sadly falls in the second category despite I wanted to like it.

Crime lord John Alexander (Seagal) has a good life until his best man Roman Hurst fails in a heist that should have been easier for him. Alexander saves him but paralyses his hands; he'll need him again tho when he discovers that assassin Iceman (Ving Rhames) wants to kill him.

This film has all the ingredients for a bad Steven Seagal movie; zero coherent plot, bad action scenes as Seagal has become fat in recent years and it's very noticeable and performances and timing duller than dust! Towards the end I was tempted to turn it off, and when this happens to me it's a bad sign. And it's hard to believe that Ving Rhames did such a movie considering the fact that he still does some great movies like the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ones.

I won't recommend it to anyone, perhaps only to the die-hard fans of Steven Seagal who try to watch all his movies.

I've looked at a lot of reviews for 'Force of Execution' and they would have you believe that it's an absolute classic. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting Shakespeare. I knew I'd be letting myself in for a B-movie with stars from yesteryear, however, all I got was a pretty sub-standard affair.

The story is all over the place with one scene after the next depicting one gangland hit after the next. Steven Segal phones in his performance and Ving Rhames just grunts all the way through it (and don't get me started on his 'fighting abilities'!).

In short, this story is a mess. The settings chop and change from one location to another, never really linking together the overall tale, let alone leaving any space for the audience to care about any of the one-dimensional characters.

Yes, I know it's a B-movie, but I was hoping for it to be entertaining. Sadly, this one's better left off everyone concerned's C.V.

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