Belly of the Beast (2003) (V)

Director:

Siu-Tung Ching

Writer:

James Townsend (written by)

Release Date:

20 February 2004 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action

Tagline:

A Father's Rage Knows No Limit

Plot:

An ex-CIA agent's quest to find his kidnapped daughter leads him on a trail of political intrigue, corruption, danger and betrayal; he will stop at nothing to save her.

Plot Keywords:

CIA | Sweater | Transvestite | Arms Deal | Illegal Arms Trade

US TV Schedule:

Mon. Nov. 16

12:00 PM

SPIKETV

Cast

Steven Seagal	...	Jake Hopper
Byron Mann	...	Sunti
Monica Lo	...	Lulu
Tom Wu	...	General Jantapan
Sara Malakul Lane	...	Jessica Hopper
Patrick Robinson	...	Leon Washington
Vincent Riotta	...	Fitch McQuaid
Norman Veeratum	...	Suthep
Elidh MacQueen	...	Sara Winthorpe
Chau Siu Tung	...	Kong
Kevork Malikyan	...	Fernand Zadir
Pongpat Wachirabunjong	...	Mongkol
Alastair Vardy	...	Security Guard #1
Andy Adam	...	Security Guard #2
Shahkrit Yamnarm	...	Brice (as Shahkritt Yamnarm)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and brief nudity.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Canada | Hong Kong | UK

Language:

English | Thai

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Sweden:15 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:18 | Australia:MA | Germany:18 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15 | USA:R | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Company:

Century Time (H.K.) Ltd.

Trivia:

Dedicated to 'Trevor Murray'.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The empty bullet casings dropped from a Humvee-mounted machine gun are the ones from blanks , not the ones from real cartridges. With a normal cartridge the casings would end with a large hole where the bullet was.

Quotes:

Bar Thug: Are you calling me a junior?
Jake Hopper: You look like a junior.

Movie Connections:

References The Matrix (1999)

Recent Seagal film that manages to be entertaining

Here's something I never expected I'd be saying about 'Belly of the Beast': It is an entertaining action movie. That's right, it may a new Seagal movie that has a totally disjointed plot and an identity crisis regarding what style of action movie it wants to be, but its a fun way to kill time.

Seagal plays Jake Hopper, an ex-CIA agent (you guessed it) working on the side as a professional ninja for an old agency buddy. This led me into thinking that ole' Stevie could very well star in a 'Beverly Ninja Hills Ninja 2' film, he certainly is getting to look a little like Chris Farley. Jake seems rather uninterested when he is informed that Muslim extremists in the north of Thailand have kidnapped his daughter, but that's only a cover for his apparent unlimited rage, at least according to the tag line. So Jake is off to Thailand to his rescue his daughter and show off his UNLIMITED RAGE!

Now I realize that 'Belly of the Beast' is a poor film in every aspect of film-making, but its one of those endearingly bad films. The plot is disjointed and sometimes predictable, sometimes suffering from an identity crisis. Seagal seems as excited as he always is (i.e. he actually looks really bored and seems as though he would prefer a quiet night in with a video instead of attempting to kick arse), and his physical fitness really needs to be questioned. You can hear his heavy breathing throughout the film, seemingly suggesting that Seagal just carried a box of donuts up small flight of stairs and now he he needs to recover. The fact that he even has a sex scene is just disturbing to even think about and is best left as one of those "let's never speak of this again" moments. In a scene in which Seagal is chatting up a monk, his voice actually changes! Some suggest Seagal was dubbed in that scene, but I always suspected that Stevie was the romantic type (at least when talking to monks).

The lack of any distinct action style doesn't help things. Seagal starts the movie off with some Tai-Chi and kicking that Stevie can't possibly perform in his shape and also sends his opponents flying through walls. When I realized who the director was, none of this surprised me and I even expected some sort of mystical battle to end the movie. I did not expect random normal shootouts and random 'Matrix'-style shootouts. Basically what we have here is almost a fantasy ninja movie with John Woo adding lots of guns, or something like that. It is confusing, it isn't compelling, but it makes for cheap entertainment.

I should probably feel shame for saying 'Belly of the Beast' was enjoyable. It is a terrible film, and most people really should avoid it, but there are a select few out there who (like me) can use this for cheap laughs - 2/10