Born to Raise Hell

Another Steven Seagal straight-to-DVD movie . Another forgettable one . This one not only has Seagal as the star , but also as the producer and writer . The story isn't complicated – what did you expected ? The action and dialogues aren't amazing either. It's another action movie for Seagal fans and action junkies. What will I remember from this one ? There is quite a lot of sexy ladies here . Hell , Seagal even has a sex scene ! Thank God he wears his clothes during that one … The movie also seems to have kinda decent budget – it doesn't look as bad as other Seagal efforts . Anyway , this is one strictly for Seagal fans . I give it 1/10.

Seagal in Born to Raise Hell seems almost identical to Seagal as himself in his reality series. In some ways this might be a good thing. It means that the film acknowledges that there is no point in asking him to play act stereotypes anymore, like he did in his last film A Dangerous Man. Here he's just being himself. Something else which makes that a positive is the simple fact that the movie isn't really about him. It's more about a drug war between cops and Eastern European mafia. Seagal is just one cop out of a handful. As a screenwriter, Seagal chooses to write him self out rather than in, and subsequently we spend more time with the mafia. The fight scenes come with a crunchy sound mix, and they allow us to see more Seagal than Stunt man, but they reek of bad editing. the people who direct movies like Born to Raise Hell are not qualified for anything except music videos. this movie implements a very miscalculated Goddardian style of cutting, and a severe overuse of slow motion. We don't need to see a guy ripping a bedroom apart for jewels at five frames per second. The last scene is kind of touching (at least for a Seagal movie). It was around that part when I realized that the movie is not really about Seagal. That and the fact that we only here his name about five times. I don't wanna mislead anyone however. Born to Raise Hell will probably do the job for whatever fan base the old man has left. He's done better, but he's also done way worse.

The once glorious (well I'm sure some still believe that to be the case) Steven Seagal might be lingering in direct-to-DVD haven, but these enterprises sometimes provide the goods, that's if you're not expecting much. But then again there are some just plain and dull outings and for me this European stint "Born to Raise Hell" fell in to this group. Seagal feels like nothing more than a bit player and a bored one too. Spending more time sitting about, pondering, having a heartfelt chats or if he has to - walking from 'a to b' to shoot someone or casually crack some bones. So when it comes to the explosive bursts, they do lack any sort of punch or adrenaline despite the seedy scene. Here he plays a streetwise American Interpol agent assigned to a drug / weapon trafficking task force in Eastern Europe. This is one rather generic action drama, which thinks it's tough, but comes across as violently spiteful and sluggishly paced with a bogged down script. The director keeps it rather kinetic with the filming techniques, being slickly dressed up with sped up visuals, slow motion and titled camera angles. The performances are nothing to write home about, but the cast do acquit themselves well enough. Not terrible, but a very ho-hum Seagal vehicle. "I like your style".

Last evening I decided to play a bit of Russian roulette again watch one one Steven Seagal's direct to DVD movies that was given on W9. Again there was nothing else worth watching and I did think the last one that I watched, The Keeper, was too bad (for a direct to DVD by Steven Seagal that is) so I thought let's watch it. This was not one of the better movies that I have watched to say the least. The movie starts off with a series of rapid cuts from a fire-fight and it pretty much continues in that manner. The entire movie is cut in a very choppy manner which I personally am not too thrilled about. The plot is forgettable to say the least and the entire movie is just a copy-paste job of standard scenes and actions sequences from start to finish. The action scenes are not too bad and what makes the movie not be a total waste. Do not try to find any logic in people's actions though. There is none. When Seagal felt he wanted some tough talk then he plopped it in and so on. I guess he likes scantily clad ladies as well since the movie is liberally sprinkled with them. Too bad only the bad guys seems to have the hard hitting chicks working for them though. Someone said that this was a "guy movie" and I would say that is a correct statement. It is filled with elements that would appeal to the stereotype of some "beer belching" male person doing most of his thinking using the reptile parts of his brain. I do not mind action, though talk and scantily clad ladies in the movies but I do prefer when there is a script worth talking about to string everything together instead if just throwing them into a blender and serve the slop that comes out. Not a total waste of an evening but close.

Among B-movie action heroes, Romania has become recently popular. In addition to Seagal, e.g. Van Damme and Lundgren have also found some subject matter there (one of the poorest NATO countries with respective issues, and a cheap place for filming...? Well, Bucharest is an okay and grand capital). Anyway, the plot is unpretentious as usual, although Seagal shows more oral and less fighting skills, but shooting-fighting- chasing scenes are still catchy and clichés used do not become ridiculous or boring (with the exception, perhaps, Seagal's erotic scenes with much younger woman). Scenes towards the ending originate from the principle "enemy of my enemy is my friend" and are not too credible. In any event, the movie is watchable, if you are not a Seagal's hater; for the others, to grin and mock, you better choose some other movie - Born to Raise Hell is not among Seagal's worst, sooner the opposite.

Watching a Steven Seagal film is a bit like going to eat something you know is not really good for you and has passed it's sell by date, but somehow,you still can't resist taking a bite. I am no expert on the film career of Mr.Seagal, but in everyone of his films that I have seen, he appears to play the same person. In this film Steve is transported to Eastern Europe to take on a Russian Drug Dealer called Dimitri and another gang led by a very unpleasant fellow called Costel. Dimitri is supplying drugs to Costel but it soon develops that these two fall out, with very unpleasant consequences to follow. The job for our hero becomes personal when Steve's partner is killed and the usual gun fights and fist fights ensue. In between all the action there was a tender moment between Steve and his girlfriend, however, as Mr.Seagal is not in the first flush of youth he might well be advised in the future to avoid love scenes with topless young women,as it looks a little unattractive. Born to Raise Hell is basically the usual Steven Seagal movie under another name, but nevertheless, I enjoyed it.

Steven Seagal is sitting down in his favorite Romanian restaurant with his 19-year old blonde girl-friend; he is wearing his favorite turtle-neck and leather jacket combination for the occasion. When he is done ordering for him and her from a dodgy-looking waiter ("She's having what I'm having, because I'm totally awesome. - What I'm having? I don't know, what are you having?"), two even more dodgy-looking pony-tailed Albanians pop up, and certainly not to sell roses... So Steven tries to get up, falls over - almost into a fire - because for some reason unknown to the viewer, he suddenly seems to be wearing no less than FOUR TURTLENECK SWEATERS! So his stunt-double is trying to get up while Steve is fighting off two dodgy-looking Albanians and multiple turtlenecks. On top of that he's wearing a MASSIVE bullet-proof SHIELD that leaves room for about seven more turtlenecks and two more leather jackets! Just as everything gets get way too complicated on the eyes, ears and brain, the muscles take over and get the job done! Steven Seagal's hand muscles - in extreme close-up: supreme slapping by Steve! Every other Balkan-type is effortlessly brushed aside with a top-spin backhand. Steve pushes a few more - also some innocent looking staff - out of the window and takes his stone-faced trophy by the hand. "This is why I hate eating out," he groans as he walks out of the place. And he is so right. Putting on multiple turtlenecks, two or three leather jackets and a kevlar suit two times the size of Oprah Winfrey must be a hassle - let alone the fans that want a word, an autograph or a smack in the face ("Please, Steve - It would be an honor!"). Add that to the fact that it takes him about five minutes to get a bite of food down. Steve is practically unable to breathe during dinner and he has to rely on ancient eastern meditation techniques to stay alive! No - bothering the maestro during a meal is certainly not a good plan. Don't do it kids, stay in school! Don't do Steven Seagal. Well, not unless you're 18, or until you're 16. Or before you're totally awesome. Like the pony-tailed sushi-chef extra-ordinaire himself, the man whose hair has miraculously started to grow back since 1988, after a mystical experience at a Rick Astley concert. The man we have all learned to love, in spite and because of everything he is, was, and will be. If one time, the day comes that I am to meet him, I will not kneel and kiss his feet - no siree Bob! I will stay out of his way, because I'm afraid he will do something unexpected , like quote Shakespeare. And that would not be right. Because, not only is Steven Frederic Seagal an outstanding thespian in his own right and time and place in time and space, he's an excellent auteur as well. So there is absolutely no in him quoting a fellow playwright. Hah! Having said that and having said this and having said earlier that what I'm saying right now may or may not be entirely according to the truth as we know it , I rest my case.

For a Steven Seagal movie it's not to bad. That's the nicest thing I can say about "Born to raise hell". There's really no plot (read the summery, that's all you need to know) and the acting is, well, I'm no expert but I've seen better. As usual Seagal is a cop. And an martial arts expert. And yes, he is a hero. There's also a lot of shooting. He applies street justice to the bad guys. As usual. Now and then Seagal speaks with a soft voice and uses the F-word and profound language. By now you're thinking: "Hey, I think I've seen this movie." True. If you have seen any Steven Seagal movie before you don't have to see "Born to raise hell". There's nothing new in it. The best thing about the movie is actually the camera work. There's some shots, especially in the action scenes where the camera is in slow motion or "fast motion", there's stills in black and white etc. That's the freshest thing about the movie and keeps it some what interesting. For a Seagal movie that is. But if you like Steven Seagals previous work you won't be disappointed. It's a traditional Seagal movie.

Born to Raise Hell is set in Romania where tough American narcotics cop Robert 'Bobby' Samuels (Steven Seagal) works for the International Drug Task Force in an effort to stop the flow of illegal drugs & the revenues created by it funding terrorism. After a routine drugs bust Samuels is given the name of local drug lord Dimitri (Dan Badarau) who supplies several large scale dealers with their drugs, one of whom is the crazed & sadistic Costel (Darren Shahlavi). As Samules & the task force close in on them Dimitri & Costel start to turn on each other in order to save themselves & things get personal, eventually Dimitri & Samules form an uneasy partnership to take Costel & his gang down for good... Directed by Lauro Chartrand this Easten European set crime thriller not only starred Seagal but he also produced & wrote the thing as well, I have to say I found Born to Raise Hell a throughly dull way to spend 90 minutes. All the usual low budget Seagal ingredients of recent times are present & correct, a cool sounding but meaningless title, a tough cop character, a few European bad guy's & lots of slow motion during the fight scenes. The plot, as it is, is rather dull with Seagal basically just tracking a couple of drug dealers who end up fighting between themselves & Seagal sort of steps in to pick up the pieces & sort everything out. There isn't much of a cohesive story, Seagal just sort of wanders around & crosses paths with the two dealers every so often, the film has no real purpose & secondary character's are poor of the clichéd bad guy with a gun type. Also isn't Seagal's character supposed to be the good guy cop? What's with this pact with Dimitri the drug dealer at the end? So Dimitri has morals as far as drug dealers go while Costel is much worse has he raps his victims & shoots kids as well, in fact Seagal & Dimitri even spark up a bit of a friendship that goes against everything his character should stand for. The dialogue is poor, the pacing is poor with various lame shoot-outs to pad the time out & it's throughly predictable & unoriginal. As usual for most Seagal films these days Born to Raise Hell went straight to video but even that is too good for it, the film looks pretty drab as well with dark lighting & dull locations although I will say there are some really hot women in this so I suppose I can give it another star for that. The fights all annoying slow motion, image blur, freeze framing & other such trickery which just got on my nerves & looks cheap. There's no great thinking behind it & the makers just seem to have thought 'we haven't had any slow motion shots in a while so lets just put one here' without much regard to the scene in question. The IMDb says Born to Raise Hell had a budget of about $10,000,000 which is total crap, there's no way this cost that much. Filmed in Bucharest in Romania. The acting is poor, Seagal mumbles his way through the film as usual while everyone else is just bad. Born to Raise Hell is yet another crappy low budget European Seagal film with nothing to recommend it, a lack of decent action or a decent story really kill it. Sure there are a few good looking European girls but nothing else, one to avoid.

As anyone who has followed Seagal's career knows, some of his later movies have been less than fabulous. The reason for this, as far as I can see, is post-production editing. It appears that post-production editing in these movies has been done by inept morons who wouldn't know an action movie if it roundhouse kicked them in their minuscule balls, punched them hard on their weak chins, and then ripped out their tiny hearts. Anyway, BTRH has (thankfully) been released without having been neutered, and is a rock-solid action movie, with decent direction, plot and characters. The basic tale is an old one, but is well done. And it's great to see Mr. Seagal do what he does best (battering, maiming and killing) without the over-the-top slowmo fight scenes, or utterly unconvincing stand-ins (another post-production stupidity, designed to add a few seconds to the running time). I watched The Expendables the day after watching BTRH, and BTRH was, in my opinion, a better movie. An aside: this movie, and a few other of Seagal's movies, really would have benefited from being a little longer. I would have liked to have seen a little more back story of the main characters.