Review: Under Siege 2 Is A Snorefest On A Train.
- Mar 26, 2017
- 2 min read
Continuing my foray into the extensive career of Steven Seagal I decided I'd follow up Under Siege with its sequel, the cleverly named, Under Siege 2. Is it any good or is it just another 90's sequel? Lets find out.
Casey Ryback (Seagal), now retired, is taking a well deserved holiday. Like any self respecting navy seal/chef, he's taking a 6 hour train ride to get there, and he's bringing his niece along with him. When a tech head accompanied by a group of mercenaries hijack the train and use it as an operation centre to control and fire the US military's new toy, a satellite equipped with awful 90's effects and what amounts to an earthquake making laser beam that can also shoot down jet. Now its up to Ryback to stop the bad guys using his usual methods of shooting and stabbing brainless minions.
While the Under Siege was an enjoyable action movie, the same cannot be said for its sequel. Under Siege 2 lacks the creativity and villains that made the original so fun and it fails to even try to explain how we went from cruise missile to space lasers in the time it takes for Seagal to learn a new martial art. The worst crime committed by Under Siege 2 is that it's kind of boring.
Seagal is far from an interesting actor. He doesn't have the enigmatic charisma of Arnold nor the unexpected range of Sylvester and even his Bruce Willis impression is lacking. The prior film was made most enjoyable by the gloriously cheesy and yet thoroughly entertaining antics of Tommy Lee Jones and Gary Busey. Here we get Mr No One and his friend, Captain Nobody, villains whose names I've forgotten and can't be bothered to look up cause I'm afraid I might fall asleep due to excessive boredom.
There's no reason that Under Siege 2 couldn't of been an entertaining sequel. It's not like they didn't have some solid actors in the movie. In fact, Jonathan Banks, who you may know as Mike from Breaking Bad, and Kurtwood Smith, the villainous Clarence Boddicker of Robocop fame, both have minor roles here.
At the end of the day, Under Siege 2 is a boring at best sequel to a mostly entertaining movie. If you feel some desperate need to watch every Seagal film or are deluded enough to believe in his acting talents you'll probably enjoy it. If you don't fit into either of those categories, the best I can say is that it'll probably cure your insomnia.
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