Submerged

Sorry to say that I know know why this went directly to DVD. This film is not vintage Steven Seagal at his finest. He character in the film almost seemed like he was tired. If you like "shoot em' up" films just for the firepower then this is the film to see but if you enjoy an action film with a flowing story that makes sense then you're going to be horribly disappointed. Without giving anything away, right from the beginning you wonder how, under his current legal circumstance, he was picked for this mission. They don't explain why. If I directed this thing I would have at least had a line in the film saying "we can't trust anyone other then someone that has been locked away from the rest of humanity for quite sometime" which would have worked. The film went downhill from there. Even the film's title didn't make sense. It leads you to believe that the film takes place on or about a submarine which it does not. The submarine scene really had nothing to do with the plot. At one point one of his men say "we are submerged" hence the film topic. Point is that even the title wasn't suited for this film nor was the film suited for me. Mr. Seagal did one quick Martial arts scene in the entire film. Not what I expected from a marital arts action star. Many of his lines were vintage Seagal one liners but were very dorky. Sorry Steven but this is not your best work. I was very disappointed with this film and honestly I suggest keeping your money and renting one of his other films.

Syeven Seagal is gone for good. All he ever makes these days are crap B movies. The old stuff like Nico, Hard To Kill, Out For Justice and Under Siedge is in the past... If you don't wanna see a crap movie then just skip this one. Totally crap. I have seen all of Seagals movies and this is in the league of one of his baddest to date. Oh my god I say. Gary Daniels I expect this from but from Vinnie Jones? I hope I never see something this bad again ever in my life. But I know I will some day :) Forget this crap. I give it 1 out of 10 stars and that's just cause I have to give it one as it is the lowest. Pls Steven, get some backbone and stop making crap movies.

This picture is based in a country with bananas, terrorists, tyrant government, Heidi's girls raising goats...COME ON!!! URUGUAY IS IN SOUTH America, and we raise COWS no goats!!! This is one of the most peaceful countries in America, that's one of the most particular characteristics of our country. We have nothing in common with BULGARY (where it was filmed), we don't have Maya's ruins (that is in north and central America, please!!!), and we can't hide a submarine!! If you want to create a new country, be my guest! But you are showing this movie all over the world with bad concepts and a very poor history. Please...search a little more before you film a movie!!!

Unfortunately, this total stinker of a movie repeats all the previous mistakes from Steven Seagal's recent films. I'll mention a couple of them

-Almost no fighting. The action scenes mainly consist of really boring gunfights, and they are performed rather badly. I guess Seagal just got to lazy to try something more physical. Shame on you, man.

-Very stupid story. It was rather hard to follow, and had so many twists and turns that the movie instead seemed like a mess of a mix of random events.

It's just so clear that Seagal doesn't care about his movies anymore, since everyone can see that he makes no effort at all here.

Also, it was very sad seeing Gary Daniels sinking into the gutter together with Seagal here. A great martial artist like him, and he only had one very bad fight who involved no fighting techniques at all. A total waste, people. Do your hear me? A TOTAL WASTE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please quit the business, Steven.

Submerged is yet another putrid straight to video release involving a bloated and aging Steven Seagal trying unsuccessfully to hide the fact he can barely do any martial arts any more and the fact that he is really quite overweight. He still can't hide the fact that he can't act either, despite the fact he appears to be dubbed for sections of the movie (Which is why some of his dialogue is actually semi-intelligible for a change). The film-makers attempts to hide Seagal's lack of mobility and increasing girth are largely what make these latter day Seagal flicks entertaining. Clever tricks such as close editing in the fight scenes so you can't actually see Seagal isn't doing anything very impressive, dark lighting to hide his jowls and breadth and loose clothing so as to not accentuate his less than athletic physique.

Anyway, the movie involves Seagal and a ragtag group of ex navy bad-arses being pulled out of prison (There is some lame political cover-up after an operation gone wrong angle to explain their presence there) to go after an evil scientist who has developed a mind control device and hiding out with some vaguely motivated militants in Uruguay. It is never made clear exactly why the hell the government is using a bunch of convicts for this mission- I thought perhaps they would have been selected as it was more likely they hadn't been got at by the mind control device when it had been established the US special forces had already been compromised this way but such explanation was not offered on screen- in other words if the script-writers for this movie actually put as much thought into the plot in writing the script as I did in watching it for a few minutes it was lost in the editing stage. At least Seagal isn't playing an archaeologist, a scientist or an arch bishop or some equally unbelievable profession in this one.

Although the movie is called Submerged very little of it actually set on a submarine. It was rumoured before this one came out that it was to involve Segal on a submarine battling a sea monster but unfortunately this was not the case. (No cheap jokes about Segal playing the sea monster I promise). The first section involves the group getting together and raiding the baddies base, the middle section is actually on the submarine and actually seems kind of shoehorned in, almost as though they wanted to make this mind control action picture and then found half the budget had been blown on a submarine set they were then obliged to use. The last section of this meandering and goofy storyline is set in some South American city (Yes I'm too lazy to look it up).

The plot is meandering, is full of holes and makes little sense (I was quite frankly shocked) but the film is full of action and is never dull, even if it is because of unintentional laughs, of which there are many. My two favourites- Seagal's ultra cheesy slow mo entrance- chained in shackles walking slowly toward the camera (Naturally) with loud heavy metal playing in the background in a lame attempt to make him look cool. The second and funniest is at the end when Segal kicks one of the main bad guys about forty metres through the air accompanied by some bizarre trumpet blast sound effect. Seagal doesn't actually do much in the way of martial arts (Wonder why?) but there are plenty of goofy action sequences such as a Commando like sequence where Segal and friends take on a small army, complete with tanks and barely get hurt. As I said, the movie is fast moving and all over the place shifting from location to location, from a dam/naval facility to a submarine, to the streets of a South American city, to an opera house, to a cartoonesque super-villain base/ laboratory. There is a large supporting cast to distract from Seagals non-acting, most of whom are dead by the end of the movie, including two Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels alumni- Vinnie Jones, applying his usual cheerfully violent soccer hooligan type character that brings some much needed colour to the screen and Hatchet Harry. Most of Seagal's team is forgettable, the only other ones I remember a few days after watching it are stiff faced woman and skinny Latino dude.

In summation, if you want to watch a stupid, cheesy but on the whole entertaining(ly bad) action flick and laugh at the comedy institution that is Steven Seagal then Submerged is pure gold.