Half Past Dead (2002)

This movie tells the story of a man who goes undercover in a hi-tech prison to find out information to help prosecute those who killed his wife. While there he stumbles onto a plot involving a death-row inmate and his $200 million stash of gold.

Director:

Don Michael Paul

Writer:

Don Michael Paul

Stars:

Steven Seagal, Morris Chestnut, Ja Rule

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Steven Seagal	...	Sasha Petrosevitch
Morris Chestnut	...	49er One / Donald Robert Johnson
Ja Rule	...	Nicolas 'Nick' Frazier
Nia Peeples	...	49er Six
Tony Plana	...	Warden El Fuego
Kurupt	...	Twitch
Michael Taliferro	...	Little Joe (as Michael 'Bear' Taliferro)
Claudia Christian	...	Special Agent Ellen Williams
Linda Thorson	...	Judge Jane McPherson
Bruce Weitz	...	Lester McKenna
Michael McGrady	...	Guard Damon J. Kestner
Richard Bremmer	...	Sonny Eckvall
Hannes Jaenicke	...	Agent Hartmann
Matt Battaglia	...	49er Three
Wiliam T. Bowers	...	Alcatraz Guard

Storyline

A criminal mastermind has set in motion a plan to infiltrate a high tech prison in order to persuade a death row inmate to reveal the whereabouts of $200 million worth of gold. It's up to an undercover FBI agent to stop him before it's too late.

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Plot Keywords:

prison | gold | fbi | undercover | alcatraz | 

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Taglines:

Fully armed. Totally outnumbered. Completely unexpected.

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Genres:

Action | Crime | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for pervasive action violence, language and some sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Pictures - includes trailer

Country:

Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

15 November 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lockdown

Filming Locations:

Berlin, Germany

Box Office

Budget:

$13,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$409,207 (France) (9 May 2003)

Gross:

$409,207 (France) (9 May 2003)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Screen Gems, Franchise Pictures, Half Dead Productions Inc.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Nia Peeples performed all of her own stunts for the martial arts sequences

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Goofs

At the end of the movie the color of the sky and parachute change between shots.

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Quotes

49er One: You give me Lester, and we'll let you thumb a ride with us.
Sasha: Hitchhiking's dangerous. Didn't your mama ever tell you that?

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Crazy Credits

The movie title plays as an overlay during the film's opening scene.

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Connections

Referenced in Hollywood and the Muslim World (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Intro"
Written by Irving Lorenzo, Robin Mays, Jeffrey Atkins
Performed by Ja Rule
Courtesy of Def Jam Recordings
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises

User Reviews

The jury decided; I presided.

For a man that is not feeling well, this was the perfect no brainer film to help me conquer those sweats and chills. There was unrealistic fighting, a Swiss cheese plot, and characters that we cared nothing for, which allowed me to doze off and still know what was happening. This was a Steven Seagal film, so I wasn't expecting much, but honestly, after several of his film you come to realize that they are all very similar and Seagal has not changed his fighting habits at all over the years. He is still using the same fist moves that made him popular in Above the Law. Why should he change? He is Steven Seagal.

So, take his old-school 1980s fighting techniques and combine it with a modern day rap artist like Ja-Rule (especially after his popularity with DMX in Exit Wounds), and you have the film Half Past Dead. So, let's begin. The fighting was laughable. I think that if a gust of wind hit Ja-Rule he would fly halfway across the room. Also, why did it become increasingly obvious that Ja-Rule was not doing his own fight sequences? Throughout his fighting with Nia Peeples, it is very clear that it is not Ja-Rule. How could a director allow such a blatant error happen in an action film? This is not the only case of action gone wrong. There are several scenes in which bullets defy their projected path and gravity. Also, let us not forget the flying fists of Seagal which had the sounds of some hard hits, but it was very obvious that he was mock fighting with most of the extras. This unrealistic fighting knocked this film from five stars to four stars.

So, let's move past the fighting. What is a good action film without the story to accompany the fighting? Sadly, director Don Michael Paul felt as if there was no story needed. Why bother the audience with a story when we have Ja-Rule and Steven Seagal fighting together on-screen? The plot was riddled with more holes that my high school underwear. It was as if we were not seeing the entire picture, and instead of showing us the director relied on words to tell us. Some examples of what I mean are how Sasha and Nick first met. I needed to see this. Without this story and seeing their trust be born, it became less emotional when it was broken. I didn't care, I needed to know more about them. The side-story about Seagal's wife was just filler. He has these visions of her that help him live after a gun battle, but that is all we know about her. When I first saw this scene, I thought it was going to be a major influence in the film. Sadly, I believe that was the last mention of the wife. The Prisoner's story with the gold was horrible. I didn't know enough about the guy to make me see the evil in his ways. This ultimately led to an unclimactic ending with this Prisoner. Does anyone really know who Morris Chestnut's character was? How did he get the money to finance this operation, and how did he become the inside man? I needed answers of which Don Michael Paul was not willing to provide. The lack of story and weakness of the main characters knocked this film from four stars to two.

Finally, I would like to comment on the title. What does it mean? Was it a reference to the time when Sasha almost died, or is it a reference to the lack of caring about life from Ja-Rule and the inmates (remember his line, 'Tonight is a good time to die'). I don't know. This led me to the ultimate conclusion about this film. The director just didn't care. He was happy to have Seagal and Ja-Rule signed on, so everything else became second fiddle. In the range of action films, this is pretty poor. Unrealistic fighting with an overabundance of clichéd lines only plummeted this film deeper into the world of action. To be brutally honest, Ja-Rule cannot act, and this became a problem in this film. He needed a smaller film to get his feet wet and see if he was ready for the cinema world. Half Past Dead was not the best role for him. This film is the perfect example of a movie made just to get rap artists some screen time and attempt to bring an overweight action start from the 80s into the new generation. Sadly, in Half Past Dead it didn't work.

Grade: * out of *****