Steven Seagal Movie:

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Belly of the Beast [Region 2] Reviews:
rescue mission in Thailand . . .
2009-11-04 - Steven Seagal returns to the far East, in Belly of the Beast (2003), another direct to video release. Seagal is Jake Hopper, an ex-CIA agent living in Honolulu. When his daughter Jessica and a US senator's daughter are kidnapped by a terrorist group in Thailand, Hopper heads overseas to see what he can do.

Hopper teams up with his former partner Sunti (Byron Mann), who gives up his vows as a monk to lend a hand. Hopper tries to get some leads from another pal Fitch (Vincent Riotta) who runs a night club. Lulu (Monica Lo), one of the club's hostesses, becomes a new friend. The situation is complicated, and Hopper's investigations disturb the plans of those involved.

The film has a mostly serious tone, with very few intentional laughs. Seagal is man on a mission, in this pretty straightforward adventure. There is lots of gunplay, but also a good deal of martial arts featuring Asian weapons. The metaphysical elements that are introduced at the end were perhaps intended more for Seagal's Asian audience.

Director Siu-Tung Ching employs the usual tricks to make Seagal look good. Quick cutting, shooting from the rear, speeding up and slowing down the action, zooming in really tight, and using doubles. Who knows how much is actually Seagal any more? Some of the fights look strange, but they often give the illusion that you saw, what you were intended to see. One would think that an unarmed man facing an opponent with a samurai sword would at least lose a limb or two, but not so here. Head baddie General Jantapan (Tom Wu) is lightning fast, built like a tank, and a weapons expert, but with the gods on Hopper's side, he is doomed to failure. Byron Mann does pretty well when given the chance, and his character is shown appropriate respect at the end of the film.

Belly of the Beast provides what most would probably expect from a Seagal film, at this point in his career. There's action and gratuitous violence, but the story does seem to matter, and holds together well enough. There's plenty of bad acting all around, which kind of elevates Seagal's performance. And the Asian setting is a change from the cold European locations of some of his other films around this time. Presentation is HD, anamorphic widescreen, with English subtitles.

Not as good as Into the Sun, but pretty darn good
2009-03-25 - If you want to see Seagal jump kicking and kung fu flipping a bunch of evil cronies with ease than this is the movie for you. This time, Seagal is in Thailand, where he's forced by circumstances, to have to kick massive amounts of a$$. It's not quite as good as Into the Sun, in my opinion, but still really good. Only one shoddy fight scene, that's the one near the end against the girl, I think we all could have done without that one, but it's still a good film.

A Bellyful Of Fun
2008-05-20 - I give Steven Seagal and director Siu-Tung Ching (The Royal Tramp Collection) a lot of credit for this film: after so many lacklustre action-thrillers with delusions of seriousness starring the martial arts master, the mindset of "Belly of the Beast" is one of "forget the storyline - bring on the action!". Believe it, this is a wonderfully refreshing change of focus for the DTV-mired Seagal, whose face has yet to see the silver screen again.

In "Beast", Seagal is an ex-CIA operative whose daughter is kidnapped while vacationing in Thailand by a violent rebel organization. Seagal saddles up to rescue her after employing his agent-turned-monk ex-partner (Byron Mann, Street Fighter (Collector's Edition)), and the two of them embark against insurmountable political and spiritual odds.
Mind you, these "political and spiritual odds" are a large focus of the film: a corrupt Thai military becomes involved, as well as a creepy demon-worshipper who attempts to trounce Seagal with black magic. Believe me: it's all very nonsensical, but also very fun if you don't let yourself be hindered by things like realism.

The film is a return to action for Seagal: after the stale shootouts and repetitive wrist-snapping of films like The Foreigner, the wild and diverse battles of "Beast" are a sight to behold. Just to name a few of these encounters, we see Seagal battle a deadly transvestite armed with a whip and razor-sharp nails, and also engage a magic-enforced general (Tom Wu, Mutant Chronicles) with swords, spears, and arrows.
The choreography of these encounters - done by the director himself - is better than one dares hope for in a Seagal film nowadays: fast-paced and fluid, with nifty exchanges and attention to detail in every shot. The inclusion of wire-fu, liberal slow-motion, and rather obvious use of a stunt double might deter some Seagal-traditionalists, but I was happy to see some innovation for ol' Steven.

The editing is good (always a 50-50 possibility for Steven's films) and the acting is solid, though the need to actually act falls only on a few members of the cast - Sara Lane as Seagal's daughter and Monica Lo as Seagal's love-interest Lulu. Byron Mann also pulls off a good performance, which should be expected since he's been more focused on drama than action lately. As for the rest of the cast, really nobody does a bad job...except maybe Seagal, but then again, we've gotten used to that, huh?

Bottom line: this is a surprisingly fun to watch action flick, even if you're not a Seagal-devotee. Fans, at least, shouldn't waste any time to buy it.

Suspense and Action
2007-09-28 - This is one of Seagal's better movies. The action is good. The story and plot are excellent. There are many good gun fights. Seagal's daughter is kidnapped and Seagal must find her. Seagal is forced to deal with local police, the military, a rebel military group, our own CIA officers, and bad guys. Everyone has an agenda and Seagal must discover who kidnapped his daughter and where she is. Even our own CIA guys have motives that Seagal is not aware of. Can Seagal find his daughter before it is too late? Can Seagal survive an encounter with a rebel military group? What happens when the military wants to arrest Seagal? You can probably guess the answers but it is more fun to watch and find out.

GOOD FILM BY SEGAL
2007-01-19 - BELLY OF THE BEAST

I found this dvd in the pawn shop the other day for 2 dollars and decided to get it since I enjoy pointless action films. As another one of the straight to dvd movies from Segal I figured this would be like most straight to video action films, not that great. But I was pleasantly surprised with this film, it had the action of course, with fight scenes and things going BOOM. But it was the story line and some of the performances that made this movie good.

The story is as follows, Jake Hopper is a former C.I.A. agent who just happens to have a daughter that is friends with a senator's daughter. The two girls head off on vacation to Thailand with their boyfriends and get kidnapped by a terrorist group. Well as you can guess Segal [even in old age] heads into battle with the group, the local police force, and even his own old friends.

Director Ching Siu Tung did a pretty good job with this film, and along with Cinematographer Danny Novak made this film look good. Along with six producers, one of which being Avi Lerner, and writer James Townsend they all put together a really enjoyable movie. Is it a great film on the classic level, no, but it is good enough to just chill one day and watch. I recommend owning it, it is a pretty good flick.