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List Price: $14.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 12610
Released: December 26, 2005 |
| Our Price: $7.02 |
| Used Price: $1.98 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
A hard-hitting, action-packed film starring Steven Seagal at his best. CIA Agent, Jonathan Cold (Steven Seagal) is working as an undercover agent to undermine arms dealers, who want to sell a nuclear bomb to an eastern European terrorist group. His cover gets detected when the weapons dealers' catch his former student, leaving Cold no choice but to save his student and stop the sale of the nuclear bomb in time.
Black Dawn Reviews:
Cool as an ice "Cold" brew. 
2009-12-10 - Even though I'm giving "Black Dawn" 2.5 stars, I somewhat enjoyed it. BD is definitely an improvement from "The Foreigner". The bonus interview with Seagal was great!!! "The Making of" feature was okay.
I'm not going to focus on the negatives because people have already mentioned them. Listen!!! It's a popcorn flick, an ACTION B Movie! What do people want? Use your imagination and pretend that its real.
You have to be patient and wait until scene 12 for the ACTION to start (that's when Jonathan Cold shows his true colors!!!). The ACTION was good at times, but it was also kind of predictable.
My second favorite part was at the Hotel Stillwell! Check scenes 23 & 24 again! After Amanda kills the techninican Julius Macabe, she hides in another room & guess who's getting banged there? Nautica Thorn!!! (I know, I watch too much porn!). That was pretty COOL to see her in a brief cameo!!! I swear that's her!!! I checked (i mdb) and she is credited as being in the film!!!
The best part was scene 12 "Change of Allegiance" because Cold played the terrorists! Also, the shootout there was good. I agree with other reviewers because this film was decent & had the potential to be better! My only problem was Seagal's stunt double!! He should have at least been wearing the same clothes as Seagal!!! I can live with the bad computer blue screen effects, but not the terrible stunt double!!! Hey, at least Seagal voiced all his lines!!! & he has a nice wardrobe throughout the film (suit & tie!!) 2.5 Stars for BLACK DAWN
decent, but mostly boring...
2009-09-20 - This film actually reminded me quite a bit of Shadow Man (2006) though this film being released in 2005 predates that movie. Both films have kind of an eastern European, dark & shadowy espionage-quality to them and despite being fairly-well directed movies are rather slow & methodical without much action to them. However, there wasn't any obvious voice-dubbing in this flick as there was in Submerged (2005) or Attack Force (2006). But there was quite a bit of use of a stunt double and it was obvious at times though it didn't really detract from the movie too much. There was one scene in particular though that I noticed towards the end of the film where Seagal's stunt double is fighting some bad guys in a stairwell and the stunt double is wearing a light grey suit, but in the scene prior to it and following it Seagal's character is wearing a dark blue suit. That was pretty bad!
Unfortunately not much Aikido showcases in this movie, other than the work by the stunt double in a couple of scenes, you don't really see Seagal do much of anything other than shootouts and car chases. More and more of his more recent films are going this direction I've noticed. Less of the martial arts and more of the shootouts and car chases - disappointing. However, not a bad film overall, just a little slow and methodical for my taste.
cold case . . .
2009-05-20 - Black Dawn is another direct to video release from Steven Seagal, which features the action star returning as Jonathan Cold, a deep cover agent involved with criminals, and an Eastern Block terrorist group seeking to construct and employ a nuclear device. While the terrorists commit a number of brutal robberies to raise the capital to fund their scheme, Cold teams with CIA agent Amanda Stuart (Tamara Davies), a former associate to try and stop them.
There's a high level of violence, and some good action sequences, and plenty of gunfire, explosions, and chase or two. Seagal breaks one wrist, but doesn't do much actual hand to hand combat. Those days are probably gone. For Seagal's fights, some funky editing is used at times, to give the appearance of battle, or perhaps it is ballet? Still, the plot holds together better than one might expect, unlike the first Jonathan Cold adventure, The Foreigner, which was rather a disjointed effort. Although the final action sequence involving a helicopter is a little weak, among Seagal's recent films, this is one of his better efforts.
another awful film in Seagal's Direct-to-DVD Era 
2008-10-26 - Black Dawn is one of the very bad films in Seagal's direct-to-DVD era. It's a sequel to the equally horrible The Foreigner (also a 2-Star Film). As with other bad Seagal films the storyline is very difficult to follow. Making the film even more difficult to follow is the terrible sound quality. I gave up watching Black Dawn 40 minutes into the film. Unless you're a big Seagal fan, I would recommend skipping this film and going for some of his earlier works or even some of the more recent DTV works which are of much better quality. If you've really got to watch this one, rent it or buy it used on Amazon.
Segal revives the Jonathan Cold character, the Michael Myers hair, and the 70's pimp suit all in one movie!
2008-07-16 - Black Dawn was made in 2005. For those of Sid's readers who are not Segal historians, this was right in the middle of his one foot off the cliff stage in his career. Meaning, he was on a self-destructive path that miraculously ended in Segal becoming the king of straight to DVD action rather than killing himself. The movies he did during this period were attrocious at best. He must have realized how horrific he looked on camera at this point because it was here that he started producing as well as staring in these flicks. Thankfully, Segal threw in the towel on looking presentable in his films, gained an extra 50 pounds(for a total gain of 195 since Out for Justice), grew out the Myers hair more, and gave us a classic in Pistol Whipped hopefully with more to come.
The tagline for Black Dawn is "It's always darkest before dawn." Sid's theory on this is that it had nothing to do with the movie. No, it must have symbolized a sad night when Segal arrived at his local Wendy's just after it closed. He probably got a Santa-like far away look in his eyes and contimplated life, arriving at the conclusion that he couldn't get his usual 80 nuggets and life just isnt fair. If Sid was forced to come up with a tagline for Black Dawn, it would either be "Steven Segal or the former Duran Duran rodie: Which guy's got it?" or maybe "Don't waste your time." This film was awful, and that's saying something considering Sid's love for Segal.
The movie started out well enough. Segal plays Jonathan Cold(awesome name) again. Aparently, this is a character from another Segal masterpiece. It had Segal as a rouge ex-CIA agent like he always is now in his movies. Except, after that it kind of got blurry. Sid remenbers a few former Duran Duran rodies, or maybe they were former Depeche Mode rodies. Either way. And there was an appearance by McGyver's Richard Dean Anderson's brother Richard Dean Anderson. There was also a terrible scene when Segal and the B Nicole Kidman were driving. It looked just like when people drove in movies in the 50's. You know, there was an obvious seperation between the background and the actors. Does this mean that there have been no technological advances in movies in 50 plus years? No, sadly it just means that 90% of the film's budget was wasted on Segal's dressing room Arby's spread, his robes, and massage oils. And believe us, the film suffered. What about the part at the end when Segal was throwing the Depeche Mode rodies' bomb into the water? It looked like plastic. The effects in this movie just could not have been worse. It even got to the point where Sid got tired of making of Segal. Well, except for his awful suit. It was an old-school brown pinstripe 56 long and portly at the same time with a crappy off-white shirt and an even crappier yellow tie. And it looked worse than it sounds. It was designed by the famous Burlington designer Knights of the Round Table. And it was topped off by a pair of Honchos. That was wonderful, the highlight of the movie.
Well, you know a movie is terrible when the highlight was Segal's $45 ensamble. It was that rare kind of film that was only 90 minutes long but it seemed to last forever. That's not a good thing. Segal, of course, has since made a major resurgence. But, this film might have been Segal's worst effort. He had only the begining stages of his now famous Myers hair and panda bear face. And he didn't even talk like he was an aging dude from the hood. You still couldn't understand what he was saying, but there wasn't a hint of ghetto slang. Very disappointing. In fact, in keeping the old Sid tradition, let's give this one a new title. Instead of Black Dawn, it's now Brown Pile.
