Neville
Frightening Fanatic of Horrible Cinema
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Posts: 3050
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« on: July 12, 2004, 04:22:58 AM » |
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After some rap-fuelled stravaganzas ("Exit wounds", "Half Past Dead"), Seagal returns to a more usual territory, a revenge-based thriller. Yep, just like in his beginnings. Of course, there are some changes. Seagal's character, for instance, is an archeologist specialised in oriental civilisations (wow) who, to account for his martial arts, was a famous thief in the past, known as either "the cool" (I kid you not) or "the ghost". Needless to say, Seagal will have the opportunity to quote "ancient" oriental wisdoms such as "If you look for revenge, dig two graves" (sic) while dispatching some assassins.
Other changes are the oh-I'm-so-cool camerawork used to conceal Seagal's age during fights and some unnecesary wirework. Still, it is a quite enjoyable trip. Although things take some time to get moving, the fights and the campy villains and dialogue are a boot to watch.
Highlights:
1) Seagal fighting a chinese goon in a barber shop. He is even allowed to do part of the fight seated (!).
2) Dialogue (Seagal, while reading some account books): "Uhm... Red Dragon Shipping, Sofia, Bulgaria. What does this mean?". IMHO it means that there's a shipping company in Sofia, Bulgaria, named "Red Dragon".
3) Deep oriental philosophy: "The souls of our enemies will be ashes and dust gone in the sky before the funeral of our loved ones. That's a promise."
4) Dialogue (old and venerable Chinese villain, in an empty conference room, after all his liutenants have been killed): "I guess I'll have to take him myself!"
5) Dialogue (ovcv to Seagal, after he "solves" an enigma easier than most crosswords): "But you needed to have an incredible ammount of wisdom to solve that!".
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