Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25035 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-03-06
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Dutch, English, Hindi, Portuguese, Spanish
• Dubbed in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 92 minutes

Synopsis
Stephen Seagal returns as Jonathan Cold, a former CIA agent who goes undercover in a dangerous group of terrorists planning to bomb Los Angeles for revenge. When they kidnap Cold's protegee Amanda (Tamara Davies), however, his cover threatens to be blown, and it's a race against time before the city is likewise blown to bits.

Customer Reviews

An Improvement
To begin...
Compared to Seagal's last efforts, (and here I am refering to Submerged and Out of Reach because I have not yet seen Today You Die,) this film for me is a great improvement. I will tell you why...

There is a large amount of gun-play, which is always a pleasure and this time there are some unique locations for the shoot-outs such as in a factory stocked with plastic models, (the kind that would be displayed in the window of a clothes shop,) and that gives the viewer some enthusiasm about the rest of the film. Pity we are let down again by the obvious use of a stunt double in parts that require no physical strength or strain. Seagal's screen writer has confirmed in an interview that Seagal does not like this and will make an effort to stop this happening in future films, (he does his own fights in his latest film Mercenary and you can see pictures of him in the fights.)
I suppose the lack of poor dubbing makes up for this minor glitch though. There is a fantastic dump truck chase and several good explosions apart from the special effect one at the end when a nuke goes off in the sea behind a helicopter which is truly the worst special effect I have ever seen.
On a whole the film is a large improvement on Submerged which I consider to be his worst film but still nowhere near the adrenaline of Into the Sun.
What I don't understand is why do the film-makers, knowing they have a low budget create plots that require a big-budget, decent special effects and large set pieces. Why can't they do something simple. I don't like special effects in the first place. My definition of a good special effect is one in which you don't know it is a special effect.

Thanks for reading.

A POOR FILM THAT LETS STEVEN SEAGAL DOWN.
This film promises much as action man Steven seagal reprises his role of former FBI Agent John Cold. He is working with a group of radical terrorists from the baltic states. They with another group have secured a brief case Nuclear Bomb which has a 5 megaton yeald. Another Agent has been assighned to keep watch on the gang unknown to both Cold and the gang. Mid way through the movie The Agent is captured and Cold's cover is blown. So with no explaination he helps the female agent to escape the gang. He then goes on a wild truck chase in a tipper truck and kills two of the gang in there BMW. As expected he tracks and kills the gang and dumps the Bomb which explodes into the sea. The Explosion somehow misses the slow flying Chopper and Cold gets out alive. In real life the chopper would have been vaporized or the E.M burst would have made it's electrics fail !. This film seems overly long and the scenes drag with no real structure to the story. The attitude to killing like all of Mr Seagal's movies is cavalier , but this is an action movie. It's a real shame that a stunt double does all the stunts for Seagal thus making the film redundant.

IT'S ALWAYS DARKEST BEFORE DAWN
I was looking forward to watching this film and had great expectations of it and it's safe to say I wasn't disappointed as I really enjoyed it.

Yes this is straight to DVD but all the latest Steven Seagal films are recently. Steven Seagal does look fat in this film but that's a sign of content or healthy living.

At least in this film he uses his real voice and it isn't dubbed (unlike SUBMERGED) and the only thing that let this film down was the he didn't do his own fight scenes, but to make up for that there were plenty of gun shoot outs which is always a pleasure to watch, Steven Seagal does those scenes himself. This is also a sequel to THE FOREIGNER (which I haven't seen yet - I know I should of watched that first). There are some good car chases in the film too which are well shot and filmed.

The story is: Ex - C.I.A. agent Jonathan Cold (Steven Seagal - Under Siege, Half Past Dead) mysteriously surfaces on the agency's radar when he springs a dangerous arms dealer from prison and sets out to help a band of terrorists obtain a nuclear weapon - to be used in an attack on the U.S. The C.I.A. is tracking the plot, until the terrorists blow their investigation, leaving the country defenceless. So he is the one thing the terrorists didn't plan on!

The DVD special features are ok, they are a making of featurette, a Steven Seagal interview and a couple of trailers.

All in all a really good action film and one of Seagal's best, so sit back and enjoy it for what it is.

The film is rated a 15 and is 1 hr 32 mins.

Thank you for reading my review.