The fact that I'd give any Steven Segal movie a 7 is a shock to me. But, I must admit, it's a good film and he actually was very well cast in the movie!

When the story begins, the psychotic Executive Officer (Gary Busey) of the USS Missouri battleship (it's actually the USS Alabama in the movie) is planning on a party for the Commanding Officer. However, I did say he was psychotic and the man is actually in charge of bringing aboard some other psychotics so that they can take over the ship...a ship armed with nuclear and all sorts of other weapons! Fortunately, one of the few men not captured by the evil commandos is Ryback (Segal) and he apparently is more than a match for the hijackers!

There are two minor problems with the movie that kept me from giving it a higher score. First, the film is essentially DIE HARD but on a ship instead of in an office building. Second, Erika Eleniak's character is simply terrible and it seemed obvious that she was tacked onto the script at the last minute. She had little reason for being there and her character was simply awfully written...at first whiny and proclaiming "I hate guns" and "I won't kill anyone" even after the killing starts....and then later, this stripper character suddenly becomes a commando-type!!! This makes no sense nor did most of her dialog.

These problems not withstanding, it IS a very tense and entertaining film. Plus, Segal is perfectly cast as his aikido skills don't always make sense in his other films...but her in small confined spaces it worked well....and Segal also tended to mumble less than usual. Overall, a fun film....just turn off your brain and enjoy it, as such a story really could NOT happen but the filmmakers made it seem like it could.

One of the many films to use DIE HARD as inspiration, UNDER SIEGE is so good that it's nearly on par with DIE HARD and its sequel. While DIE HARD was confined to a tower block, UNDER SIEGE's setting is a battleship, containing hundreds of corridors and different locations. It's a good setting too, and totally realistic, you always believe that the action is really taking place on the moving ship. Even in the enjoyably bad SPEED 2, a ship was put to good use as the setting for the action, I don't know why. Perhaps because of the fragility of the ship, perhaps because of the isolated setting. It's a winner though and I'm sure in future we'll see more films like these set on ships (and what happened to turn up after I'd written this review? Two films called DEEP RISING and VIRUS. I rest my case.) Secondly, the direction is pretty good. Andrew Davis is an excellent director and it shows in this film. There are never any boring moments, and the action is kept moving constantly. The film starts off slowly, gets fast quickly, and moves into hyper-drive for the finale. The actual action scenes are filmed with relish, shootouts occur and are quickly over in cramped locations, bullets fly and things explode realistically. These adrenaline-pumping moments are countered nicely by cuts to either the goodies or the baddies going about their business, delivering choice dialogue.

Which leads me on to the acting. Surprisingly, the principal players are all good in their roles, although some of the supporting cast appear never to have seen a camera in their life. It's left up to Seagal, Eleniak, Jones, Busey, and Meaney to have endless fun in their clear cut, well-defined roles, stereotypical perhaps but very enjoyable. Seagal in particular has matured from being just another wooden cop in NICO: ABOVE THE LAW to his smart, funny, kind yet lethal cook in this film. He's at his most likable here, delivering punchlines and wisecracks all the time, which instantly endear him to the audience. He's a father figure, a protector, someone who'll never let you down, well except when he gets badly wounded by a grappling hook in a rare moment where we feel sorry for his character. Erika Eleniak stars in an obviously out of place role as the stripper who joins in with the shooting, she's not a good actress but then the role doesn't require her to be one - just the opposite in fact. Eleniak and Seagal enjoy some punchy dialogue when they team up, in much the same way Busey and Jones do.

Tommy Lee Jones gives an outrageously over the top performance. Dressed as an ageing rocker, he soon provides himself to be the brains behind the plan, and delivers many witty remarks. He's not much of a fighter though, as will be glaringly obvious when you see a stuntman doubling for Jones in the final fight between him and Seagal. Gary Busey gives an amusingly wild performance as the sadistic, traitorous officer, "outstanding" in every way, he even dresses in drag in a comedy highlight. Colm Meaney isn't given much to do except look mean, but there's the novelty value of hearing him use lots of unsavoury language you wouldn't find in STAR TREK.

And then, there are the acclaimed fight scenes we normally associate with Seagal films. Arms are broken, legs are broken, necks are hit so hard they break, people are punched out and shot in the head, torso, everywhere. As well as these expected deaths, Seagal uses his sneaky knife throwing trick to get an opponent in the neck, makes a microwave bomb which peppers another guy's face with shrapnel, kicks someone into a bandsaw, drops an iron girder that impales another baddie, and in the excellent finale, goes one on one with Jones in a knife fight. As you may guess, UNDER SIEGE is one of my fun favourites when it comes to action films. It's the film which led me to seek out the rest of Seagal's work, a successful hit. Not original, but enjoyable in every other way.

I'm not the biggest fan of Steven Seagal - he's made too many rubbish films and his physical changes haven't helped. However, he found a winner with "Under Siege." The film packs a lot into its 98 minute running time and it rushes by. The plot is fairly standard and includes all kinds of "superhero" type heroics. What makes it work, is the direction from Andrew Davis, the action scenes, the photography and production values but also the performance of Tommy Lee Jones. All you have to do, is to compare his acting with the feeble attempts of Steven Seagal for it to be painfully obvious who the actor is! Most of Steven Seagal's martial arts movies are pretty low budget and have never been given a huge release. "Under Siege" is an exception. Thanks to the films various credentials, the box office takings were bound to be better than usual. Gary Busey does well as an unbalanced villain (they had become his stock in trade long before).