{"id":2159,"date":"2024-08-08T03:06:58","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T03:06:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2159"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:34:30","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T18:34:30","slug":"under-siege","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/08\/under-siege\/","title":{"rendered":"Under Siege"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Under Siege <\/strong>(1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Andrew Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: J.F. Lawton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Gary Chang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank Tidy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 9, 1992 (US) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cast: Steven Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, Erika Eleniak, Colm Meany, Patrick O’Neal, Andy Romano, Dale Dye, Nick Mancuso, Drucilla A. Carlson, Damian Chapa, Tom Wood, Troy Evans, Dennis Lipscomb, Sandy Ward, Bernie Casey, Glenn Morshower, Raymond Cruz, Eddie Bo Smith Jr., George Kee Cheung, David McKnight, Lee Hinton. Luis J. Silva, Michael Des Barres.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $83.5M (US)\/$156.5M (World)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Some call Under Siege<\/strong> \u201cDie Hard on a Ship\u201d. I call it great entertainment. I\u2019ll grant that its premise resembles that of the iconic 1988 Bruce Willis actioner, a lone man taking on a group of highly-trained terrorists in a confined space. In this instance, it\u2019s Steven Seagal on a battleship. A lot of movies tried to replicate the success of Die Hard; few succeeded. Under Siege <\/strong>is one of the few that did.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Seagal (Out for Justice) plays Casey Ryback, a chief petty officer finishing out his 20 years as the head cook on the about-to-be-decommissioned USS Missouri under Captain Adams (O\u2019Neal, El Condor). As the battleship sets off on its final voyage, the crew is preparing for a surprise birthday party for Adams. One of the executive officers, Commander Krill (Busey, Lethal Weapon), has it out for Ryback. Not only does he arrange for special food and entertainment to be flown in for the occasion, he orders Ryback detained in a freezer until after the party.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The entertainment consists of Playboy Playmate Jordan Tate (real-life Playmate Eleniak) jumping out of a big cake accompanied by a rock band led by Stannix (Jones, The Fugitive). In case you didn\u2019t already guess it, he\u2019s the main bad guy. Before you can yell \u201cSurprise!\u201d, the band and the caterers all pull out automatic weapons and take the entire crew prisoner. Big shocker, Krill is in cahoots with him. He\u2019s the one that shoots Adams dead in his room. In retaliation for being let go by the CIA, the crazed Stannix plans to steal the ship\u2019s Tomahawk missiles and sell them to the highest bidder. What the villains didn\u2019t count on is Ryback. He\u2019s a former Navy SEAL with specialized training in anti-terrorism. Long story short, he escapes from the freezer and becomes a giant pain in their collective ass.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Ryback gains a sidekick when he encounters Jordan who\u2019s completely oblivious to the hostile takeover of the ship. Against better judgment, he allows the frightened sexpot to tail him as he takes down bad guy after bad guy. However, time is not on their side. Pentagon officials and CIA have a contingency plan that involves sinking the Missouri if the SEAL team they dispatch fails to neutralize the situation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although formulaic and far-fetched, Under Siege <\/strong>works because it\u2019s genuinely exciting under the crack direction of Andrew Davis (Code of Silence) who previously worked with Seagal on Above the Law. Working from a screenplay by J.F. Lawton (Pretty Woman), he keeps it tight in terms of story and pacing. He knows his way around an action movie. That\u2019s one item that\u2019s NOT in short supply in Under Siege<\/strong> with a streak of thrilling, well-orchestrated sequences. Once Seagal gets started, the movie barely slows down long enough to catch its breath. Once again, the action star shoots, stabs, cuts, clobbers, punches, chops and kicks his way out of a deadly scenario involving a vicious psycho (in this case, plural).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Let me pose a question. Is it really worthwhile commenting on the acting in a Steven Seagal flick? By now, we know he CAN\u2019T act, but CAN kick ass. Thankfully, Davis allows him to do a lot of the latter and very little of the former. He occasionally shows off a lighter side of his stoic personality in Under Siege<\/strong>, but mainly sticks to doing what he does best. Eleniak, while HOT, isn\u2019t much of an actress either. She\u2019s eye candy, window dressing. She also gets to flash her boobs in one scene. I know that\u2019s what a lot of the guys in the audience want to see. Jones and Busey appear to be competing to see who can be the bigger maniac. It\u2019s a tight race, but Busey wins it by a hair based on the scene where he dances at the party in drag. Jones, on the other hand, plays Stannix as a delusional sort who frequently references Saturday morning cartoons. He does a pretty good Road Runner imitation though. Both actors play it to the rafters with their wild performances.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When I watch Under Siege<\/strong>, I put Die Hard out of my mind and enjoy it on its own terms. It\u2019s a GREAT action flick! I\u2019d even say it\u2019s one of Seagal\u2019s best. He certainly racks up a nice body count. The effects are quite good. I have no real complaints about it. I don\u2019t even mind Eleniak\u2019s underwhelming performance. I actually expected it. She\u2019s easy on the eyes though. In the end, Under Siege <\/strong>works in the areas that matter. It has action, violence, explosions, crazy stunts, a bad ass hero and a pair of insane villains. This is what I call a full-blooded Saturday night guys\u2019 movie.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Under Siege (1992)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 103 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong violence, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Andrew Davis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: J.F. Lawton\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Gary Chang\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Frank Tidy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 9, 1992 (US) \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Cast: Steven Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey, Erika Eleniak, Colm Meany, Patrick O’Neal, Andy Romano, Dale Dye, Nick Mancuso, Drucilla A. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3028,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-kick-ass-actioners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Under-Siege-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2159"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3029,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2159\/revisions\/3029"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}