A Good Man (2014)

A Good Man (2014)- * * *

Directed by: Keoni Waxman

Starring: Steven Seagal, Iuila Verdas, Victor Webster, Sofia Nicolaescu, and Tzi Ma

A man known only as Alexander (Seagal) is a former Special Ops soldier. After a mission doesn’t go as planned, Alexander goes “off the grid” - WAY off the grid as a handyman in a Romanian apartment building. After living life under the radar for a while, he becomes mixed up in a mob war between Russian and Chinese gangsters. 

After becoming friendly with his next-door neighbor Lena (Verdes), he becomes especially mad when her daughter Mya (Nicolaescu) is kidnapped by the super-evil baddie Mr. Chen (Ma). Alexander then teams up with a fighter named Sasha (Webster) and, after years of living a violence-free life underground, goes into full battle mode to save Mya and perhaps redeem his soul. But will it be at the cost of losing his status as A GOOD MAN? Let us see...

We finally have some good news to report on the Seagal front. We actually liked A Good Man, and we believe it’s his best effort since Urban Justice (2007). The vibe is quite different from the latter movie of seven years previous, as we’re now deep into Seagal’s Eastern European DTV phase, and he’s a long way from beating up homies in the hood. 

One of the main reasons we can be so positive towards the movie is that Seagal is not a sadistic torturer this time out; while calling him “likable” is just a teensy bit of a bridge too far, this is the closest he’s come in years, and we give him props for that. His character is well-suited for the project, a sort of wise and weary veteran who has seen it all, but who can still fight when need be. It doesn’t call for him to be vicious, belligerent and brutal, which made for a refreshing change.

While the voice doubles and stand-ins are still here, they seem less egregious because we were reasonably entertained by the movie as a whole. Plus, they’re now an indelible part of the Seagal experience, so you might as well sit back and enjoy them. Additionally in the win column, he’s surrounded by some quality on-screen talent: Victor Webster has some nice fighting moves and a good screen presence. He was last seen (by us at least) in the silly Gangland (2001), and makes a nice foil for Seagal, just as Byron Mann did in Absolution (2015). 

Perhaps not coincidentally, that was also co-written and directed by Keoni Waxman, who seems to have hit upon a good formula for the Seagal vehicle. Tzi Ma is also noteworthy as the philosophical baddie.

As we’ve noted time and again, oftentimes the little kid in the action movie steals the show, and the girl who plays Mya was one of the better attributes here. You can see why  Alexander wants to save her - she’s not annoying like a lot of onscreen kids. 

The movie also tries to be topical, with Islamic terrorists and drone strikes at the outset of the proceedings detailing the former life of Alexander. Whether it’s normal or not to have a 62-year-old man in the field with all the young bucks, we don’t know. We’ll have to consult our team of military experts. The fight scenes have some cool moments and the whole outing is not quite as stupid and brain-numbing as you might think it would be.


We’re truly hoping Seagal and his behind the scenes bros (he calls a lot of people “bro” in the movie, by the by) go more in this direction in the future. We hope now, after a lot of unnecessary dumbness in years past, he’s finally found his niche.

Comeuppance Review by: Ty and Brett 

Born To Raise Hell (2010)

Born To Raise Hell (2010)- * *

Directed by: Lauro Chartrand

Starring: Steven Seagal, Darren Shahlavi, and Dan Badarau

Our old buddy Seagal plays Robert “Bobby” Samuels, an agent for the “IDTF”, or International Drug Task Force, in Romania. When a psycho named Costel (Shahlavi) begins going around raping and killing people, not only does this upset Bobby, but it also tees off a criminal overlord named Dimitri (Badarau) whose toes Costel is stepping on. Despite initially being rivals because they’re on opposite sides of the law, Bobby and Dimitri enter into an uneasy alliance so they can both achieve their aim: stop Costel. Will they accomplish  their goal, or will they succumb to the depression of Eastern Europe? Dare you find out...?

In 1994, Motorhead, Ugly Kid Joe, and Ice-T all teamed up for the song “Born To Raise Hell”, which featured on the soundtrack to the movie Airheads, released that same year. Presumably they weren’t singing about Steven Seagal, but there are plenty of airheads in this run-of-the-mill latter-day Seagal DTV yawner. Perhaps Seagal himself is still bitter he wasn’t invited to perform on the track, as he is a musician, don’t’cha know. He’s really got the blues. One minute he wants to be an Asian Martial Artist, the next minute a Black bluesman, the next minute a Southern “Lawman”. Anyone but himself. 

Our working psychological theory for now is that 
Seagal is constantly running from his true self, which is why he constantly uses voice and body doubles as well. What he’s running from, we don’t know.  But he should run more often (we’ll try to keep the fat jokes to a minimum, but no promises).

As for the movie itself, it has that bleak Romanian DTV vibe regular viewers will recognize by now. To its credit, it doesn’t hide the fact that it was shot in the land of Vlad the Impaler and pretend it’s New York or something, but Seagal more closely resembles Count Chocula than anyone else more fearsome. Maybe his next movie will be a ghost story where he takes on the title role of Boo Berry. 

Born to Raise Hell just presents us with more depressing, soulless brutality served up as undemanding entertainment for less discerning viewers. Sure, it’s all tempered by the fact that we can now gauge the BMI of Seagal’s stuntman and Seagal himself is always shot with these bizarre shadows on his face, but none of this muck is really floating our boat as viewers. Seagal (or whoever is doing his ADR) is a bit more animated and less whispery this time around, but you’ll still need the subtitles on the DVD if you want any hope of knowing what people are saying.

It’s loaded with those quick-cut editing effects that are inexplicably used by moviemakers of the modern DTV era. Unless it’s all a conspiracy by LensCrafters and Pearle Vision Centers working behind the scenes with them so we all need glasses after watching a few DTV’s, there’s no reason for them to exist. They’re not cool, they’re just annoying. 

The same could be said for the dumb dialogue said in this movie, and what Seagal says is not tough-sounding, and doesn’t add to his image. It just makes him look like a cross between Eddie Munster and a walrus in an oversized leather coat. He ends most sentences with the words “boy” or “man”. Evidently he is judging how mature you look, which is just creepy.  After the second half of the movie, it just spins its wheels, nothing noteworthy happens and you’re mentally checked out and thinking about what you’re going to be eating for dinner that night. Not unlike...well, you get it.

While we appreciated the presence of fan favorite Shahlavi as the baddie, and perhaps the quick-and-silly fight/action scenes, we just thought it was typical crude oil from the Seagal spigot. Seagal fans may defend this one, as they are wont to do, but we just weren’t feeling it.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Also check out a write-up from our buddies, Cool Target and DTVC