Out Of Reach (DVD)

...the foster Home and find out the truth for himself. What he finds shocks him as the foster program is actually a front for a human trafficking network. Of course this network is headed up by the biggest crime lord in eastern Europe and is worth millions of dollars. It’s down to Lancing to try and find all the kids that have gone missing and stop the crime lord. For some unexplained reason Billy Ray also has a number of official government looking ...
...names and certainly no stand out performances. It is in keeping with the whole movie, average performances from average actors in a pretty poor to average movie. Most of the other roles are filled by z list celebs who either haven’t made it in proper films or are just starting out.

So I’d have thought by now I hope I’ve put enough people off seeing it. With a planned Under Siege 3 it worries me a lot that Seagal’s movies seem to be ... more

I seem to be a sucker for Steven Seagal films. My mum’s a huge fan and as a result we always seem to get his latest straight to DVD release. Of course once they are in the house I usually end up watching them, cause lets face it I’ll pretty much watch everything. I had been seriously disappointed with his last film especially after the great films he made in the early 90’s. He seems to have totally lost the standard he set with films like Under Siege of course that’s probably more down to the roles he has chosen since.

This time Seagal plays Billy Ray Lancing, an ex covert agent turned survivalist. No real surprise there really, he always seems to be an ex this or former that. This time he’s been sponsoring a young girl through a foster program. When she suddenly stops writing to him Billy Ray starts to become a little suspicious as by now he knows the girl very well. So when he gets a letter saying she has ran away he decides it may be time to investigate for himself.

So he heads over to Poland to find the foster Home and find out the truth for himself. What he finds shocks him as the foster program is actually a front for a human trafficking network. Of course this network is headed up by the biggest crime lord in eastern Europe and is worth millions of dollars. It’s down to Lancing to try and find all the kids that have gone missing and stop the crime lord. For some unexplained reason Billy Ray also has a number of official government looking types on his trails to dodge as well, will he be successful?

Well to be honest not long after the film starts you give up caring. It is pretty much the same as his last film Belly Of The Beast. He’s the only big name star in the film and the story has obviously been worked around him. If you like an action movie that goes by the book then I’ve no doubt you will love this. I couldn’t help feel though that it had all been done before and on those occasions it had been much better. If you are a die hard Seagal fan I’d also think you’ll like this but if like me you are a casual fan I wouldn’t bother with it.

It comes from director Po-Chih Leong who hasn’t really made any films of note. Of course Seagal has taken a role as producer on this, as he did on Belly Of the Beast and just about every other film he’s appeared in. So there are a lot of similarities. The slow motion fight scenes that annoyed me so much during Belly of the Beast are used again. This makes the fight scenes hard to watch as the action slows down during certain kicks and moves, disturbing the flow of the film.

It doesn’t help that the plot is slow moving and at times loses your interest quite quickly. There are thousands of plot holes and guys running around trying to kill people even though you have no idea who they are. This seemed to be bad writing and another major flaw with the movie. The special effects are pretty good but there isn’t really anything to test them, just a couple of gun fights. The camera work is pretty standard and follows the action well using simple methods and not really testing the directors abilities or giving us anything new.

If you’ve seen any of Seagal’s movies you wouldn’t be surprised that he’s pretty much the same in this as everything else. He plays the part quite straight laced and as he’s gotten older he seems to have lost the slight tinge of charisma he had. It must come from playing the same sort of role year after year as he is certainly an ideal candidate for a type cast actor. The oddest thing I found though was that he didn’t sound like himself. Parts of the film sound like they have been dubbed by another voice and others sound like he is actually talking.

The other actors in the film just fill the roles. There are no big names and certainly no stand out performances. It is in keeping with the whole movie, average performances from average actors in a pretty poor to average movie. Most of the other roles are filled by z list celebs who either haven’t made it in proper films or are just starting out.

So I’d have thought by now I hope I’ve put enough people off seeing it. With a planned Under Siege 3 it worries me a lot that Seagal’s movies seem to be getting worse with each one. This isn’t even remotely interesting and I found that by about an hour into it I’d started fidgeting and generally doing anything but watching the film. It’s not one I’d recommend unless you were a die hard Seagal fan and even then be very wary of it.

Available on DVD from amazon.co.uk: £15.99
 

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