{"id":2161,"date":"2024-08-08T03:15:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-08T03:15:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2161"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:36:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:36:24","slug":"on-deadly-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/08\/on-deadly-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"On Deadly Ground"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"On Deadly Ground <\/strong>(1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong brutal violence, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steven Seagal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ed Horowitz and Robin U. Russin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Basil Poledouris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ric Waite \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: February 18, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Steven Seagal, Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey, Shari Shattuck, Billy Bob Thornton, Richard Hamilton, Chief Irvin Brink, Apanguluk Charlie Kairaiuak, Elsie Pistolhead, John Trudell, Mike Starr, Sven-Ole Thorsen, Jules Desjarlais.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $38.5M (US)<\/p>\n

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

\u00a0If you think Steven Seagal is a bad actor, wait until you get a load of him as a director. On Deadly Ground<\/strong>, his sole effort behind the camera, is easily the most ludicrous action movie of the 90s. It\u2019s an environmental sermon disguised as a violent action flick. Scratch that, it\u2019s a vanity project for Seagal who\u2019s into environmental causes big time. Maybe he thought the best way to spread his message of environmental responsibility was through a kick-ass actioner. Whatever he thought (if he was actually thinking), it only succeeds at being one of the most unintentionally hilarious bad movies ever made. If I didn\u2019t know better, I\u2019d swear it was a parody of the genre. Alas, it is not.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Seagal plays Forrest Taft, an expert in dealing with oil-drilling related fires and ignoring his employer\u2019s unethical business practices. He works for a company called Aegis whose ruthless CEO Michael Jennings (Caine, Get Carter) stands to lose the oil rights to the original owners, the Eskimos, if his new refinery in Alaska isn\u2019t up and running in less than two weeks. That\u2019s when the rights revert back to them. As such, he cuts corners wherever he can without regard for employee safety.<\/p>\n

\u00a0After extinguishing a particularly bad fire on one of the rigs, the foreman Palmer (Hamilton, Pale Rider) blames it on faulty equipment. Jennings blames it on human failure. When it\u2019s discovered Palmer plans to spill his guts to the EPA, Jennings sends his main henchman MacGruder (McGinley, Point Break) to deal with him in a most final manner. When it\u2019s further learned Taft accessed top secret information backing up Palmer\u2019s claims, he\u2019s set up to be killed in an explosion. Naturally, he survives and goes after the bad guys. Realizing Taft is still alive, Jennings brings in a group of mercenaries led by Stone (Ermey, Full Metal Jacket) to find and kill him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0That\u2019s not all. I didn\u2019t tell you everything. A tribe of Eskimos finds the badly-wounded Taft and takes him to their village where the chief uses his magic to heal him. After that, the chief has him undergo a vision quest in which he learns (a) his spirit animal is a polar bear and (b) it\u2019s his destiny to stop people from polluting the world. The newly enlightened activist sets out on his new purpose with the chief\u2019s attractive daughter Masu (Chen, The Last Emperor).<\/p>\n

\u00a0There is a lot that is ridiculous about On Deadly Ground<\/strong>. Let\u2019s look at a few details that rank high on the long, long list. If Seagal\u2019s character is such a friend to nature, why is he wearing alligator-skin boots and a buckskin jacket? Did God\u2019s creatures willingly give up their lives so the star could look good? Caine, looking like a spokesmodel for Grecian Formula with his slicked-back, jet black hair, devours the scenery as the evil, greedy corporate monster who\u2019ll stop at nothing to protect his interests. What is he even doing in such rubbish? Oh yeah, this is the Michael Caine that appeared in Jaws: The Revenge NOT the one who won an Oscar for Hannah and Her Sisters.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Moving on, I guess Eskimos have the need for speed too. It\u2019s the only reason I can think of why they have a snowmobile at the ready when Taft and Masu start their journey. There are so many shots of polar bears in this movie (none of whom are holding bottles of Coke, btw), it should be renamed Dances with Polar Bears. The idiotic dialogue runs the gamut from speechifying about the environment to overly macho drivel like \u201cI wouldn\u2019t dirty my bullets.\u201d My favorite line is one that defies explanation or classification. When Taft beats down a big guy in a bar for harassing the locals, he asks him, \u201cWhat does it take to change the essence of a man?\u201d Seriously, who writes this stuff?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Don\u2019t even get me started on Seagal\u2019s little speech at the end. Addressing a room filled with Native Americans in full NA costume (headdresses and all), he talks about alternate fuel sources the government keeps secret from the public and how they protect the oil companies responsible for destroying the ecosystem by polluting it. Wait a sec, Steve-O! Isn\u2019t the noxious BS pouring from your mouth a form of pollution? What about the smoke you\u2019re blowing up our asses? That can\u2019t be environmentally safe either. The nicest thing I can say about his speech is it\u2019s shorter than it was originally supposed to be (11 minutes!). The studio made Seagal cut it down to four minutes after preview audiences laughed, booed and made obscene gestures during the sequence. WHEW! We dodged that bullet.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Just when you think you\u2019re finally out of the woods, Seagal delivers a final blow to the senses with this awful song entitled \u201cUnder the Same Sun\u201d (by The Scorpions) over the end credits. The lyrics are beyond banal. I can all but guarantee that it\u2019s not on the playlist of even the staunchest vegan environmentalist.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Now let\u2019s talk about the contradictory nature of On Deadly Ground<\/strong>. What sense does it make to save the Alaskan environment by blowing up the refinery? Wouldn\u2019t that cause a major oil spill? I don\u2019t know a lot about oil refineries or how they work, but it seems to me blowing one up would do more harm than good environmentally speaking.<\/p>\n

The acting in On Deadly Ground<\/strong> is pretty bad, but the most embarrassing performance comes from Ermey as a jarhead type exaggerated to hilarious proportions. His character is more (unintentional) comic relief than a figure to be feared. McGinley overdoes it as well as Jennings\u2019 right-hand man. Chen is given little more to do than follow Seagal as he takes on the bad guys single-handedly. Speaking of our esteemed lead actor, he actually attempts the impossible by trying to give a real performance. His character Taft starts out complicit with Jennings\u2019 criminally negligent actions until he grows a conscience and tries to do good. I didn\u2019t see any difference between bad Taft and good Taft; I can\u2019t be the only one that doesn\u2019t see it. In trying harder, Seagal does worse. This is hands-down his worst performance EVER! As for Chen, she\u2019s as plastic as Seagal is wooden. As such, they\u2019re an ideal couple.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I should have known On Deadly Ground <\/strong>was doomed when the studio cancelled the prelease screenings. I don\u2019t recall their official reason, but it was total BS whatever it was. Still, I went opening night with high hopes. It\u2019s Seagal, how bad could it be? I wish I never learned the answer to that one. The most telling line of dialogue is a warning his character issues to his colleagues: \u201cIf you smell anything, get out of here!\u201d Perhaps audiences should have heeded this warning as well. Seagal should never be allowed to direct a movie again. EVER! He\u2019s as bad as William Shatner (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier anybody?). Even the action scenes are clumsily handled. Then again, I\u2019d rather watch it than The Glimmer Man or any of his straight-to-DVD titles. In its defense, On Deadly Ground<\/strong> is a great bad movie. It\u2019s funnier than a lot of intentional comedies. I know it\u2019s a back-handed compliment, but at least it\u2019s a compliment. It\u2019s the best I can muster for this mess of a movie.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Deadly Ground (1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Action\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 101 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, strong brutal violence, brief nudity)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steven Seagal\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Ed Horowitz and Robin U. Russin\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Basil Poledouris\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Ric Waite \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Release date: February 18, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Steven Seagal, Michael Caine, Joan Chen, John C. McGinley, R. Lee Ermey, Shari Shattuck, Billy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-guilty-pleasures"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/On-Deadly-Ground-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\/2161","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=2161"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3033,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2161\/revisions\/3033"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}