Under Siege, 1992.
Directed by Andrew Davis.
Starring Steven Seagal, Gary Busey, Tommy Lee Jones, Erika Eleniak, Bernie Casey, Troy Evans, Patrick O’Neal, Colm Meaney, Raymond Cruz.
SYNOPSIS:
When the USS Missouri gets taken over by terrorists on its final voyage, it is up to ex-Navy SEAL-turned-cook Casey Ryback to save the day.
There is a lot to be said about action movies from the 1990s, and even more to say about the never-ending soap opera that is Steven Seagal, but believe it or not there was a time when the arrival of a new Seagal movie was greeted with some excitement. Granted, it was usually by adolescent males looking to live out their action hero fantasies, and Seagal was – again, believe it or not – a little more relatable to the average over-excited fanboy because he wasn’t a hulking stack of muscles like Arnold Schwarzenegger or Sylvester Stallone, and he made it look all so easy with his flips and throws making mincemeat of the armies of goons swarming him throughout every movie, barely breaking a sweat as he effortlessly made them fly backwards, upwards and all over the place with a flick of his wrist.
Of course, we know now that this was all ego trips and clever editing, and that Steven Seagal didn’t really have the same powers as Emperor Palpatine, his intended targets assisting his ‘skills’ by launching themselves whenever he raised his hands, but for a time it made for entertaining movies, and in Seagal’s catalogue of action heroics none comes more entertaining than 1992’s Under Siege, now given a new lease of life in 4K UHD thanks to Arrow Video.
To fully appreciate Under Siege, you have to go back further to 1988 and a little action movie called Die Hard (you may have heard of it), in which an (alleged) everyman goes up against terrorists in a tower block. That movie’s hero, John McClaine, was played by Bruce Willis, who was also not a pumped-up bodybuilder, and so began a wave of ‘Die Hard in a…’ knock-offs, where one man was pitched against gangs of baddies in one location. Speed, The Rock, Cliffhanger, Sudden Death, Passenger 57, Air Force One, Con Air and Speed 2: Cruise Control (alright, forget that one) all followed and showed that the formula could work in other settings if approached in the right way, but it was Under Siege that came the closest to matching Die Hard’s sense of excitement and danger, as Seagal played Casey Ryback, a cook in the US Navy who not only has to save the USS Missouri when it gets taken over by terrorists, but also has to put a stop to said terrorists launching missiles that threaten to kill millions and eliminate Honolulu. Oh yeah, Ryback used to be a Navy SEAL but got demoted due to his attitude and temper, or something like that.
And that really is the whole plot. Of course, there are other details, such as Tommy Lee Jones’ madman William Strannix is a former special ops agent gone rogue and that he has a possible past with Ryback (which is hinted at but never delved into), and this being the caring and sharing ‘90s we get a female sidekick – played by former Baywatch star Erika Eleniak – who gets to shoot guns and kick ass along with Seagal, although the filmmakers knew their core audience and got in a gratuitous topless shot first, just in case.
Naturally, this is The Steven Seagal Show and he doesn’t disappoint, as he whispers and mutters his lines whilst dispatching baddies with an array of weapons – he even makes a bomb out of a microwave oven – whilst his heart rate barely moves, but you wouldn’t have him any other way, would you? Casey Ryback knows how to shoot every type of gun, throw every type of blade, fly every type of helicopter and use every piece of Navy equipment, all of which is obviously very handy given the circumstances in which he finds himself, and it must be catching as Playboy model Jordan Tate (Eleniak) goes from being a topless bunny girl to showing another Navy sailor how to use a machine gun in under an hour.
All very silly, of course, but what makes Under Siege slightly different from other Die Hard clones is that it has a superb supporting cast, headed up by Tommy Lee Jones as Strannix, who is as charismatic and funny as he is clearly insane, and Jones has never looked like he is enjoying himself more than he is here; he even gets into an up-close-and-personal knife fight with Seagal and manages to hold his own against the master (but Seagal get the better camera angles). Talking of unhinged madmen, Gary Busey plays Commander Krill, Ryback’s nemesis and Strannix’s man on the inside, and, like Jones, is clearly having a blast being out of control (although it is unclear how much of this was acting). Such is the chemistry between these two, just imagine if Busey had been cast as The Riddler in Batman Forever instead of Jim Carrey – something to think about.
So, whilst there is no doubting Under Siege’s entertainment value, there is the question of whether a 4K UHD upgrade is worth shelling out for, especially if you already own it on Blu-ray, and this is where harsh decisions will have to made. Like many movies made on film stock from that era, Under Siege is hardly a dazzling spectacle of colours and effects so it does look a little flat. Yes, there are plenty of explosions and the greens/reds of the radars all pop nicely, but the bulk of the movie is shot on a grey battleship, the 4K bringing out the details in the decks – you’ve never seen as many rivets in one place – but it is still grey metal against a blue sea. Some scenes look marginally better on UHD than on Blu-ray, but probably not enough to warrant upgrading, unless you really want to hear interviews with Erika Eleniak, actor Damian Chapa or director Andrew Davis to sweeten the deal.
As with all of Arrow’s recent 1990s mainstream action movie releases, it isn’t the titles themselves that warrant any decision making on whether to buy – after all, if you don’t own these movies and want to see them in the highest definition possible then here’s your chance – but whether the upgrade is worth double dipping for if you already own it on another format, and that is a decision between you and your wallet. Regardless of the moral quandary, Under Siege stands up as an action classic, in as much as it was brilliant fun then and is still brilliant fun now. It is ridiculous – as the final shot of the movie perfectly (and unintentionally) encapsulates – but movies that are this entertaining normally are, and Steven Seagal never made a better movie before or after this one (although Marked For Death comes close). Make of that what you will.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
Chris Ward
