Out of Reach (2004) (V)

User Rating:

3.7/10   

Director:

Po-Chih Leong

Writer:

Trevor Miller (written by)

Release Date:

5 November 2004 (Romania)

Genre:

Action | Drama | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

It's a split second between hit or miss.

Plot:

Billy Ray Lancing, a former covert agent turned survivalist, discovers that the foster program he is using to help a young girl is actually a human trafficking network. Lancing heads overseas to find the girl and shut down the operation.

Plot Keywords:

Orphanage | Chess | Brothel | United Nations | Illegal Trafficing

Cast

Steven Seagal	...	William Lansing
Ida Nowakowska	...	Irena Morawska
Agnieszka Wagner	...	Kasia Lato
Matt Schulze	...	Faisal
Krzysztof Pieczynski	...	Ibo
Robbie Gee	...	Lewis Morton
Murat Yilmaz	...	Azimi
Nick Brimble	...	Mister Elgin
Jan Plazalski	...	Nikki
Shawn Lawrence	...	Agent Shepherd
Hanna Dunowska	...	Rosie
Ola Hamkalo	...	Katya
Frank Hildebrandt	...	Postmaster (as Frank Hildebrand)
Klaudia Jakacka	...	Petra
Jan Janga-Tomaszewski	...	Uncle Pawel

Also Known As:

Poza zasiegiem (Poland)
The Rescue (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence and some language.

Runtime:

Argentina:88 min

Country:

USA | Poland

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Certification:

Germany:18 | Finland:K-15 | Iceland:16 | Sweden:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | New Zealand:R16 | Philippines:R-13 | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Old Town, Warsaw, Poland

Company:

Franchise Pictures

Trivia:

Steven Seagal's character's last name in Lansing. Steven Seagal was born in Lansing, Michigan.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Just immediately after William step out of Kasia's car (after the evening in bar, he offered her to drive car for her), he walks on the right side and Morawska on the left. But if it would be in Poland, he should drive the car on the left position, so after he parked the car, he would step off on the left side.

Quotes:

William Lancing: This is my favourit moment in life.
Faisal: What's that?
William Lancing: That's when the predator becomes the prey.
Faisal: Also my favourit moment, but it remains to be seen whose the predator and who is the prey.

Complete toilet,but sadly exactly what I've come to expect from Seagal nowadays...

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

Billy Ray Lancing (Steven Seagal) is a former CSA agent turned survivalist who exchanges letters with a polish girl named Irena (Ida Nowakowska) who he is sponsoring through a foster program.However,when the lettters suddenly cease,his suspicions are aroused and he goes searching for his pen pal.It is from here that he learns that Faisal (Matt Schulze),a sinister criminal,has taken Irena and a host of other girls hostage to be used in a human trafficking programme.With the assistance of Special Agent Kasia Lato (Agnieszka Wagner) and street pick-pocket Nikki (Jan Plazaski-I checked on the IMDB homepage,and I'm aware that this is a female actress,but I'm sure I heard Seagal refer to him as Nikki at least a couple of times in the movie,so,I don't know who else to put as playing him!),he sets out to stop this forthwith.

To be honest,I'm really not sure why I even bothered renting this in the first place.By rights,I went off Steven Seagal a long time ago.I don't think this is an especially surprising thing.It's easy to see that his career is basically over now,his best days are now well behind him and that he's really only making any new films to pass the time.It's just,I dunno.......as I said,I pretty much knew what to expect,and maybe that was the thing.Seagal's last few DTV productions have all been the same sort of thing,and maybe a weird sort of addiction for them has set in.I actually thought this would be a good movie to rent and fall to sleep to...

Well,on this level,I suppose you could say I was pleasantly surprised on a few factors.But,as you know,a few ain't much.And these pleasantly surprising factors would have to be good things.And they are,well,only a few things.Matt Schulze (and even Nick Brimble in the cameo he occupies) are surprisingly engaging villains,with some pleasant depth invested in them,as well as being offered some good lines by the script.Plus,in one or two scenes,where he learns of the fate of the girl,Seagal offers something verging on depth that get us on the edge of our seats.

At just 82 minutes,this ranks as the shortest Seagal film ever (though it doesn't necessarilly feel like it!).And maybe this could be a contributing factor to another problem.The story has no depth to speak of!The bond between Seagal and the girl is not portrayed movingly enough,and so it's harder for us to care whether he saves her or not.That's not to mention the amount of plot holes and goofs it contains.And,one could say Seagal is showing a similar lack of effort to the script-writers.Once again as in his last effort,the atrocious Belly of the Beast,at various segments in the film,his voice is dubbed.Seriously,this voice gives him the accent of some refugee off that TV series Dragnet,with a cloying New Yorker accent as opposed to the pony-tailed one's distinctive Michigan voice.That's not to mention the fact that it gives the film the feel of one of those Bruce Li movies from the 70s.Seriously,it really says something about Seagal when he feels the scripts he picks are so poor he doesn't even want to use his own voice in them.

And if you're tuning in for action,you'll be seriously disappointed.For a film that bills itself as such a genre,it's practically non-existent,with hardly any explosions springing to mind,and very tamely filmed shoot-outs and martial arts sequences.

It would be a point to say that the acting's insufferably poor as well,but then the obviously low budget allocated to the film seems to have only been able to hire no name Polish actors to play all the parts which require english to be spoken,of which they all only seem to have a very basic grasp of,most prominently in the case of the boy actor,who noticeably speaks probably fewer words than Kurt Russell in Soldier and comes across as very forced when he's trying to convey an emotional scene (I certainly don't remember the script making any reference to him being a mute,that's for sure!)

However,I feel brighter things may be on the horizon.I hear Warner Brothers are going to be behind Seagal's next project,Into the Sun,and it would be nice to see that one get a theatrical release.As for this one,yeah,use it to fall asleep to.Just don't lose too much over the good stuff you do miss.**