Absolution

"John Alexander" (Steven Seagal) is an assassin who has been very successful with what he does for a living. So capable in fact, that he now believes that he needs to atone for the many bad things he has done over the course of his life. He gets this opportunity following a successful contract hit in Ukraine when he finds himself caught up in the middle of a situation involving a prostitute named "Nadia" (Adina Stetcu) and a murderous, sexual pervert with enormous influence who goes by the title of "the Boss" (Vinnie Jones). However, what he doesn't fully appreciate is just how influential "the Boss" actually is and because of that he becomes a target himself. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie actually started off pretty good. Unfortunately, it proceeded to get more and more unrealistic as the film progressed with several scenes involving both John Alexander and his friend "Chi" (Byron Mann) willingly throwing down their firearms in order to defeat their fully-armed opponents using only their martial arts skills. Naturally, I could understand this scenario if they were caught off-guard or if they had exhausted all of their ammunition while exchanging gunfire. But professionals don't go to a gunfight armed with just a knife or their bare knuckles. It just doesn't happen. That said, those who enjoy martial arts action for its own sake might really like this movie. But those who want a semblance of reality might be a bit disappointed. In any case, while it wasn't necessarily a bad film, it could have been better and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.

John Alexander (Seagal) & Chi (Byron Mann) are hired professional killers who are on a mission to execute a terrorists in Romania & they do it perfectly but then they meet a girl who just escaped from a sinister syndicate that torture & traffic girls. Alexander decides to help this girl & kill the syndicate. That's the nice & easy simplicity of this damn good Action B-movie & one of Seagal best in ages. With Low-budget B-movies & Seagal films you know exactly what your getting & that's violent action & no nonsense. The main reason we always checkout Seagal's films, even though their often cheap flicks, is because he delivers easy watching action & we love action. Seagal's cheap B-movies gives us escapism, we get to see evil bad guys of the world get what they deserve. In real life to often the scum escape real justice but in Seagal's movie world they get it brutally & i love it. I had alot of fun with "Absolution" & it gave me exactly what i wanted & abit more (with a very good Seagal) & some damn good bloody shootouts, fights & stabbings all filmed well.

First off the film looks really good & not cheap. It has a slick look & looked no different from the likes of Cinema released Neeson Action films. A decent score & decent performances all round. Hard thug actor Vinnie Jones adds real grit to film by playing a psycho & sadistic crime boss that films himself torturing beautiful girls & of course trafficks them. Byron Mann is very good as Alexander's partner in Action & is a loyal sidekick & a martial arts master who has Starred with Seagal before in A Dangerous Man & Belly of the Beast (both good one's) & the ageing Master himself Seagal is the best he's been in a long time. Here Seagal is definitely into the movie & his character. Seagal puts in a decent performance (best in ages) Seagal is a big tough brutal force here as Mercenary Alexander (a character he's played before in the crappy "A Good Man") & it's so nice to see the big guy actually into his role for a change. Seagal is brutal & enjoyable on screen & who doesn't love a killing machine like Seagal taking out the world's evil trash?

I've noticed in Seagal Direct-to-dvd B-flicks that he's always killing off bad guys in European underbelly places & his films have a harshness to them & are nearly always filmed in sleazy clubs with lots of beautiful ladies & full of tough thugs & i love it.

Seagal became a Charles Bronson type as he got older.

Simply a damn good action-packed Thriller with a decent Seagal & made on a small budget but it delivered. I do genuinely enjoy most of Seagal's B-movies but "Absolution" is definitely one of the best made (cinematography, music, Seagal, action) & is as good as most big budget movies.

I don't get how this got to theaters.

Last year, Jean-Claude Van Damme had two movies in theaters, Welcome to the Jungle and Enemies Closer, which were pretty decent, mostly because the muscles from Brussels stepped (slightly) out of his element to give us something different than his signature kicks and it worked to make a good movie.

I was expecting the same thing from this Seagal movie (after all, when was the last time this guy had something that did not premiere on Netflix?), but as soon as the movie open with a stupid narration about Seagal being a bad man who does bad things and he's looking to redeem himself with one good deed, I knew this was not that movie.

If any of you are aware of the old fat Seagal era on DVD, than you have herd Steve do this speech in every straight-to-video flick he's ever made. This movie could not be more formulated to the old fat saga, (takes place in Eastern Europe, he plays blues guitar, etc…). The only exception was that the strippers in the film were not naked. Maybe this is how the movie got into theaters?

Don't get me wrong, it's a fine action movie, especially if you at least like Seagal, but I was hoping since this was the first Seagal movie I've seen in years in a movie house, that he would do something different or that it was a return to Seagal back when he was thinner and ran like a girl, but it was neither.

Apart from his superhuman (untouchable) nature in most movies (even against the best of opponents), I like Segal's movies and this is not an exception. If anything, this is better than many of his past movies and I could not believe the low rating on here.

For the benefit of those that are not that picky and just want some reasonable action, read my brief review below.

FOR:

I am giving it 8/10 because of:

• The suspense (was good enough) - The action (not the best choreography but enjoyable)

AGAINST:

The main thing I have against this movie is the bad acting of some of the actors/actresses especially the non-Americans.

This starts with a man called John Alexander undergoing contemplative brooding introspection:

"I've been a bad man my whole life . If I can do only one good thing in life then that would give me absolution"

Considering John is played by Steven Seagal a more honest appraisal might be:

"I've been an abysmally bad actor my entire life . If I could only make one half decent movie then that would be absolution for the audience"

Unfortunately ABSOLUTION is not that film and seeing the physical appearance of Seagal tells us that it's never going to happen either . It's something of a shock the way Seagal looks nowadays . Try and imagine Marlon Brando in APOCALYPSE NOW with too much artificial hair and that gives you a vague idea of what happens if you're an action movie star who doesn't visit the gym very often . You do wonder how SS is going to kick some ass in his present condition . This is easily explained - he shoots bad guys and leaves any jumping and kicking to his cohort , or failing that a stunt double with his back to camera . It's not absolution that is required but lots of salad and exercise

The film starts with SS being given a mission to eliminate "This Afghan national working for the Iranians and with ties to Pakistan" It's at this very early point alarm bells start ringing that the geo-politics here might be wrong since the Persians and Pakistanis have never really been allies . That said this Afghan national isn't really the main villain , it's a character played by Vinnie Jones and when you're watching a film where Jones gives the most impressive performance that might explain why ABSOLUTION has gone straight to DVD