Dull and Boring
Added 10/24/2009
Perhaps "Against the Dark" is the worst Steven Seagal film, this side of incredibly terrible "Attack Force." Trust me, this is really bad. And what is worse, boring.
Steven Seagal is Tao, a sword-wielding zombie hunter dressed in black leather coat. Actually, he doesn't use the weapon very much, let alone his (once trademark) martial arts skills. What he does in this post-Apocalyptic world where most humans turned into zombies, is just roaming in a dilapidated hospital at midnight, mumbling something forgettable occasionally.
There are other characters trapped in this deserted building, some trying to find medicine, some just to survive. In this awfully ineffective story, all they have to do is look worried, keep talking and walking. Actions? None. Scares? None. Unintentional laughter? None, again. The editing and photography is below average, so poor and dark that sometimes you cannot tell what is going on. The film is just boring, a total waste of time.
Keith David appears as a military officer who must make a tough decision. He deserves much better films than this.
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Wrst Steven Seagal movie, ever!
Added 8/16/2009
"Against The Dark is hands down the worst of Steven Seagal's movies and he has had some bad one's. If I were him, I would be ashamed to have my name associated with this movie. It doesn't have a sensible plot, is poorly acted by all and is the most boring movie I have ever seen.
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Diary of the Dead meets Seagal w/a Katana
Added 8/15/2009
I certainly can understand all the negative reviews. I had hopes despite them that this might be sort of a "28-weeks later" type of film with Seagal, but obviously not a lot of effort was put into this film by the director to make that so. It's just your run-of-the-mill low budget zombie movie, but with Seagal wielding a katana. I'm being a bit generous with the 2-stars because I'm a Seagal fan, though his movies are rather hit and miss in my opinion, and there were a few cool scenes of Seagal and his side-kick loping off heads or kickin' some ace. However, the story is pretty mindless - survivors from a mutation virus that turns people into zombie vampires try to get from point A to point B with Seagal's help. Of course en route to point B are a whole hell of a lot of zombie vampires and the team of 10 dwindle down one by one - 5 of them make it out alive, I'll let you guess which 5 survive. That's part of the fun with these kind of films, right?! Even with an incredibly simple storyline, there are still holes in it!! Again, part of the fun of these types of B-movies is finding the plot holes, so I won't dwell on it.
The first half of the movie you don't really even see much of Seagal. The first half of the movie focuses more on the group of 6 survivors, I guess in an attempt to form some character development, but that miserably fails. But in the 2nd half of the film, Seagal and his band of merry men, make that two chicks and one dude that looks like the Rock, meet up with the group of survivors and assist them in their journey through a hospital to reach "daylight."
I can't recommend this movie to anyone really except die-hard zombie movie fans. Seagal fans are likely to be disappointed in this one because his dialogue is pretty limited and you don't really see him use much of his Aikido, though there are some cool scenes using the katana, but even this is fairly lame because of the way it was shot, it makes it difficult to really see what he (or his stunt double) is really doing. Hopefully Seagal's next effort is a little better. I'm a fan, but there is a limit to the amount of $5 I will plop down for a poor quality DVD rental.
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...against the pork...
Added 8/15/2009
Since August is officially Put Down Steven Seagal month, I guess I'll go ahead and do my part. It should be noted that I'm only reviewing AGAINST THE DARK because the priest at my last confession said I have to watch it as penance. I hung out with my shiftless, out of work neighbor Tony who, after 15 minutes of watching this, went out looking for a job.
Creatures who rend flesh and suck blood face off against Steven Seagal, whose films tend to sap your will to live. I figure it's a wash. Nowadays, putting Seagal in a horror film is just being redundant. I was told, perhaps erroneously, that AGAINST THE DARK, a.k.a. LAST NIGHT, actually debuted in Direct-to-Betamax format in participating Bed, Bath & Beyond locales. That's because Tower Records took the easy way out.
This film is established early on as one of those grim post-apocalyptic deals where, in a depressing fizzle of originality, an unstoppable virus had swept across the globe and rendered those infected into blood-ravenous cannibalistic mutant things, part vampire, part zombie. The situation is dire for what's left of humanity. The vampires are everywhere, medication is scarce, food is running out, although, gazing at Seagal's unhaggard physique, dude's probably got a cache of Snickers bars stashed somewhere on that fancy leather duster.
There are two story arcs going down. One arc tracks a group of panicky (yet good looking) people trapped in a hospital, and if these folks were in a Star Trek flick, most of them'd be sporting that red Please-Kill-Me-Now Starfleet uniform. The other plot centers around Steven Seagal's civilian team of vampire hunters (all clad in spiffy black leathers because they're cool like that). These two groups eventually run into each other, and we get a bit of that "Oh, um, hey..." bit of dialogue going on. There's a frantic flight to amscray out of there, what with what's left of the military planning an aerial strike at dawn on the sector encompassing the hospital. And, all along, vampires occasionally pop out of the woodwork and try to snack on our cast. Steven Seagal mutters incoherently, his legs (or stunt legs?) spend lots of camera time trudging thru hallways, and he indulges in a bit of unimpressive sword fighty fight and a hint of aikido. Remembering the bounty of cool he used to produce (MARKED FOR DEATH, HARD TO KILL, UNDER SIEGE, heck, even THE GLIMMER MAN), watching Seagal nowadays is some painful shi...
Somewhere, Jean-Claude Van Damme is wiping his brow and saying, "There, but for the grace of Dieu." Gone are the days when Steven Seagal was an honest-to-criminy exciting action star making bone crunching action movies. The only thing crunching nowadays is when he's biting into a caramel apple. You got tricked again, if you thought this was a Steven Seagal feature. The once lean but now gravy-filled former action star isn't in this film as much as you'd think. And his acting? Again, in lots of scenes, ol' puffy face is simply walking and walking thru hallways. And, honestly, for a guy walking thru hallways, I don't know that he's that believable a character.
The production values? Please. The film's biggest special effects is to make Steven Seagal look mobile. There was one scene of him in slo-mo, and guy exudes such listlessness I half-thought that maybe it was him in real time all along. The budget is so woeful I actually suspect my jobless neighbor Tony of bankrolling the thing. The creature f/x consists basically of splattering red syrup on the vampires' mouth regions. It can't help but go downhill when you also factor in the crapalicious sreenplay, the dreadful pace, the unappealing action sequences, the sluggish scares, and the unabsorbing characters and the no-name cast which plays them (okay, Keith David is in it - or maybe David Keith?).
Horror 101: When surrounded by the stalking undead, never ever split up. Keep a hand near your weapons. In fact, HAVE SOME FRIGGIN' WEAPONS!! When entering a room occupied by a ghoul and a cowering figure with her back turned towards you, don't assume that the cowering figure is some helpless chick (they rarely are). And, one more time, never split up. I'm just sayin'. Having said that, these are some of the wimpiest, easiest to take out bunch of vampires I've seen on cinema.
This DVD also comes with "Fighting the Shadows: Behind the Scenes of AGAINST THE DARK (10 minutes long). If you thought Seagal's face was doughy and damp with meat sweats before, brother, just check him out without the magic of make-up. Steven Seagal, master of aikido, never could fend off the Pizza Hut delivery guy.
But there's a rainbow over the horizon for Steven Seagal. Seems like he's slated to co-star in the upcoming theatrical release MACHETE. That may be his last chance to revive a film career and get the eff out of Bucharest, Romania, which just declared a national food shortage. Thanks, Steven.
I also watched AGAINST THE DARK with my girlfriend, and she broke up with me.
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NEEDED MORE SEAGAL AND VAMPIRE/INFECTED
Added 7/9/2009
AGAINST THE DARK
I am indeed a Steven Seagal fan but not even I can defend this one to much as it is well kinda boring at times, I hate saying that about any film. Seagal has been doing rather well lately with his direct to DVD films or at least compared to others just goes away with this one. It may e because of the writing or the filmmaking but I think it has a lot to do with the actual absence of Steven, he is barley in this film. Still at least the vampire/zombie infected people or what ever look cool.
This film follows two groups of people who are very much the opposites of each other in the fact that one is prepared and the other is not. One group is a group of survivors that are trapped in a hospital over run by these vampire like people. The other is a group of hunters headed by the one and only Steven Seagal. So the movie pushes forth as it shows what it is like in this world from both groups' perspectives and one group is doing better than the other. As the survivors not only try to fend off these creatures they fight each other along the way, you would think they would pull together more. On the flip side the gun toting or in Seagal's case sword wielding hunters are taking these things out.
The thing about this flick is that while a big rip off of other films the vampire/infected people look pretty cool and Seagal is always entertaining it falls very short. The script by Mathew Klickstein could have really used some work because the dialogue is well not all that great, originality could have also been added. The direction from Richard Crudo feels very uneven and makes you wonder if he was trying for something new or just going by the other flicks of this kind. It is weird because this guy has been the DP on some really entertaining flicks. I had really high hopes for this film because when Seagal steps out of his element even a little the results are usually good. His hood flick "Urban Justice" was actually very good and very enjoyable, believe it or not.
If you have to have every Seagal flick like myself then I would say go ahead and get this but know now that he is not in this as much as he should have been. Especially since his character is entertaining, but he only shows up every now and then. The infected vampire like people look cool and when Seagal is on screen there are some good kills but other than that, not as good as it could have been.
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How Many Abducted Daughters/Nieces Does He Have?
Added 11/10/2009
How many seconds in the opening minutes did the camera stay focused on a string of pearls lying on the floor? Answer: A little less than 6 seconds. An indication of boredom to follow!
How many times can a person make money off of retreads? Answer: Over 30.
How many times have Seagal's movies involved him having a family member killed/abducted by bad "whatevers"? Answer: Most of those 30.
How many weapons in Seagal's movie arsenal? Answer: Lost track.
How many times does he intersperse gun play with fight scenes using his stiff as a board "move your hands around" and pan the camera? Answer: Almost every movie.
How many of his movies have "kill" or some variation of "death" in the title? Answer: 8.
How many times did I fall asleep and not even bother to finish the movie? Answer: 1 and that's sufficient to resolve my mistake.
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Steven Seagal is the best!!!!!!!!!!!
Added 10/27/2009
You losers. Steven Seagal is the best, this is his best movie in last five years. Very true to life in way that Russian mafia works, perfect movie, go rent it or buy it like I did. Honestly, Steven Seagal would kick everybody's behind, including Bruce Lee, Chuck Norris, Jeah claude Van Dam, Jet Li, Jackie Chan, and Arnold. Yeah, how I know this? Because I am also an expert in Aikido, Jujutsu and Kenjutsu. I know what works. Kung Fu is joke, Japanese occupied Chine in 5 minutes back in the days, art of samurai is clearly superior to Kung Fu and all others. Five star film, go see it, and if you don't get it, go learn something about Samurai and Ninja for real. Here is a tip for you - learn from Japanese sensei, not American. Good luck to you. Grasshopper. Hahahaha!!!!
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They took his daughter. So he's taking them down
Added 10/14/2009
Honor must be earned. Bullets, blood, bodies. International action superstar Steven Seagal is back...with a vengeance. DRIVEN TO KILL is a riveting action-packed crime sage that pits Seagal's lethal skills against a notorious criminal syndicate. Ruslan Drachev (Seagal) is a highly respected former enforcer in the New York-based Russian Mob who abandoned the gangland lifestyle years ago to pursue a peaceful career as a novelist. But after a brutal attack on his daughter-who was engaged to the son of a ruthful Russian nemesis-Ruslan must return to the sinister underbelly of his past and dole out his own merciless brand of justice.
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