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Dangerous Man, A

Paramount // Unrated // February 9, 2010
List Price: $22.98 [Buy now and save at Amazon]

Review by Ian Jane | posted February 4, 2010 | E-mail the Author
The Movie:

Not surprisingly, in this latest straight to video Seagal epic, the man plays a former special forces operative. His name is Shane Daniels and at the beginning of the movie we see how he was sent to jail for a crime he didn't commit. You see, some thugs were hassling his wife and he was going to mess them up but good but he didn't - someone else did. We never learn who but it doesn't matter, Shane goes to jail for six years. He's cleared when some DNA evidence is admitted and the man lets him free, but in the interim, the foxy wife who gave him lap dances and let him play with her perky boobs leaves him to move on with her life.

Understandably upset about the loss of the B-cups, Shane takes to wandering around Seattle. He stops in at a liquor store and some toughs try to rob him. He warns them to back off by uttering the classic line:

"I used to, you know, study real hard and learn all kinds of different ways to kill motherfuckers just like you. So just let me go, or I'll fuck you up real ugly."

The bad guys don't listen, and so Shane bashes one of their heads in with a gun and knocks out the other dude. He leaves with his bottle of bourbon and decides to hang out by the water front and brood for a bit. It's here that he sees some Russian car thieves show up to take a leak at the rest stop, and then shortly after, witnesses some Chinese gangsters kill a cop. Shane inexplicably blows up his own stolen car as some sort of distraction and beats up the Chinese guys only to find a bag of cash and a hot chick (Marlaina Mah) in the trunk. One of the Russian car thieves gets caught in the crossfire, the other drives him and the hot chick to safety. From here on out, he works alongside the Russian car thief's mob connections to stop the Chinese gangsters and the corrupt Seattle cops from taking out the hot chick's uncle. At one point he calls a guy 'white boy' and the father of the Russian car thief threatens to fuck a cop in the mouth. Lots of people get shot and a surprising amount of people get their faces punched in.

There are a couple of spots where Segal's stunt double takes over and a few spots where he's inexplicably dubbed by someone who sounds slightly like him, but for the most part this is Seagal in reasonably good shape. Still missing the pony tail, he macks his way through the movie by playing up the 'my life is ruined so I don't care anymore' aspect of the character and while it's never all that convincing, it's plenty entertaining.

Where this movie excels, however, is in the violence department. Seagal teams up with Keoni Waxman recently on The Keeper, which was a better than average Seagal film but which didn't come close to the level of on screen carnage seen in A Dangerous Man. Here not only to we get the requisite gun shots and squibs but we're also privy to some flinchingly brutal scenes of Steve literally punching people's faces in and blowing holes in their chests. The editing can sometimes be too choppy and fast for these sequences to have as much impact as they should have, but there's still a whole lot of nasty action here and Segal's character actually comes across as a complete and total psychopath. He might look goofy with his doo-rag on but he'll mess you up good if given even the slightest reason to.

So yeah, if watching Steven Seagal get laps dances and play with boobs before heading out to save a hot Chinese chick and fucking up people ugly sounds like your idea of a good time, definitely give this one a shot. It's complete and utter nonsense from start to finish but it's massively entertaining and often times impressive in its gratuitous violence and exploitative tone. Waxman and Seagal have made two good films together so far, here's hoping they churn out a few more.

The DVD

Video:

The picture is presented in a pretty good-looking 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. There aren't any compression artifacts to note, though there is some very mild edge enhancement but none of it is overly severe. Colors look pretty bold and robust without coming across as overcooked, and the flesh tones in the film remain life like without turning too pink or too orange. The opening few minutes of the movie have an odd yellow tint to them but this definitely looks like an (odd) stylistic choice rather than a problem with the transfer. There's virtually no print damage worth complaining about and the grain that is noticeable is only of the very fine variety. The movie looks pretty good and leaves little room to complain.

Sound:

The English language Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound track does a great job of handling the action scenes for this film. It's a pretty aggressive mix that differentiates and places the action sound effects across the soundstage as required by the way the film plays out. Plenty of gunshots, bone cracking, and face punching galore mixes nicely with the background music. The talkier bits stay clean and easy to follow, though there are times where Segal's dubbing is obvious. This DVD contains optional subtitles available in English and Spanish.

Extras:

Extras are limited to previews for two unrelated Paramount DVD releases, static menus and chapter selection. There's no trailer for the feature included or any other extras related to the feature included, which isn't all that surprising even if it is disappointing.

Overall:

Despite the almost barebones presentation, the movie at least looks and sounds pretty strong. As for the feature itself? It's a good one, Seagal is in pretty good form here, busting his way through bad guy after bad guy and playing the part with that snarky self righteousness and arrogance that makes his movies as bafflingly amusing as they are. Ridiculously violent, completely farfetched, the film still manages to entertain, making it recommended for his fan base and a solid rental for the action movie conscious curious out there.

Ian lives in NYC with his wife where he writes for DVD Talk, runs Rock! Shock! Pop!. He likes NYC a lot, even if it is expensive and loud.

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