Sascha Petrosevitch (Steven Seagal) is an undercover FBI agent who is tryimg to destroy a cr theft ring in order to avenge the death of his wife who was killed by a car jacker who ten in turn took the car to the chop shop that he has infiltrated. Along the way, he has gained the friendship and trust of Nick Frazier (Ja Rule) who is the moneyman for the operation. It comes time for the agents to move in and close the operation down, but things go horribly wrong. The bad guys open fire and fight back in the process Sascha is hurt and flat-lines for 20minutes giving way to the phrase "half past dead".
When all is said and done and as to not low his cover, Sascha ends up doing time with Nick. But again things go horribly wrong. This time they are in the same prison as Lester (Bruce Weitz) who has been sentenced to death. But he has remained silent about part of his crime - where he hid 200 million in gold. This shouldn't be too much of problem expect for the fact that an elite gang of criminals have decided to break into the prison to find out the whereabouts at any cost. Even killing anyone who gets in the way of their quest for the information.
The Dish
Steven Seagal movies should have their own genre because I always find myself qualifying them with "For a Steven Seagal movie…" and I'm about to that again. For a Steven Seagal movie, this one wasn't completely horrible. The problem is these movies aren't their own genre so compared to other movies these positively stink. Even with this I still feel the need to state that taken for what they're worth it was one of the better ones. And I've just figured out how brilliant Steven Seagal really is. First of all, he knows that most of us in the African American community have a special affection for blaxsploitation movies and he manages to create flicks that steal elements from those movies. He also takes rappers and gives them a break. I imagine he doesn't have to pay them that much because they are itching to make into the film industry. Add to this a built in audience and it should be kinda hard for each outing to be a financial flop. This of course means there is more to come.
Okay so what was the deal with the movie? It was standard Seagal fare. Bad dialogue and over the top fight scenes. WAY over the top. I spent most of my time laughing at Ja Rule as he went flying through the air each time he was barely hit - ya know he sure has a potty mouth for a 14 year old *grin*. Nia Peeples was a bad ass chick. I could watch her kick ass again. Morris Chestnut was cute and that's about it and Steven Seagal.. well Steven was … Steven.
The Directive
Mindless entertainment worth a rental if nothing better is available.
Almost dead on arrival.
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Copyright Kamal "The Diva" Larsuel-Ulbricht, 2002
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