On Deadly Ground

"FUCK these animals STINK!"

Nothing, NOTHING, tops the "cupcake" sequence.

"What does it take to change the essence of a man?"

"... I need time...to change..."

Awesome.

I'm seconding Savage here. Watching the movie again recently, it dawned on me that this scene in particular is the whole movie in a nutshell.

Seagal really had some huevos rancheros to just go for it and make the movie in this particular way.

The scene plays it completely straight and asks you to take its earnestness at face value. It's a variation on his standard "fight in a bar" scene that uses it as a pass for social commentary.

It asks you to be moved by a genuine epiphany.

Whether or not you are is besides the point. That the movie actually asks this of you, with a straight face, is what I find fascinating.

Exactly. What I love is that nearly all Seagal movies have some "spiritual" side to them, and it's extremely serious.

Fuck, I need to re-read Seagalogy.

I'm still trying to shake the mental image of Seagal in bikini underwear.

I still dream of a 3-Disc Director's Cut Blu Ray. Maybe, after Lawman and Machete bring him back into the spotlight (assuming they do), this can happen.

It won't.

But let me have my moment.

I use to own this one on VHS back in the day and all I can really remember is that Billy Bob was in it.

Billy Bob on his rifle.

"I feel kinda like a pussy with the stock in, but with it out I feel better, and that's how I'm going to feel when I kill this guy."

I have a feeling Billy Bob just ad-libbed all that stuff and Seagal (a regular Christopher Guest himself) appreciated it and let him do it.

Thornton really is the most memorable of the mercs. It's nice to see a solid actor like that just tear into a part. Even one as simple and potentially insignificant as this.

He at least gets that memorable dialogue while the one Native American merc "Tonto" gets pretty much nothing to say save for R. Lee telling him to guard an entranceway like it was his sister's cherry. The man is a genius.

Nothing gets better than R. Lee's pre-mortem rant and the shotgun flip. Also John C. McGinley in the first have of his eeeeeeeeeeeevvvvillllllllllllllllll henchman duology (the other being Surviving the Game).

McGinley really earns his pathetic demise.

"I've got files, records... all you need to take him down."

"You'd better have 'em right here in your pocket."

"I got 'em. I got 'em"

WAAAHHHRRRGGH!

Um, McGinley was neither evil nor a henchman in Surviving The Game.

He was in The Rock and he has a great death in that

Watching this back then, I thought Caine didn't actually bite it when falling into that vat of black oil. I mean, it's not like it caught fire afterwards or exploded, right? So it gave me hope for an On Deadly Ground 2 with him returning.

...And I got it. Problem was it was actually Fire Down Below retitled as such here. That was definitely the day I lost my innocence regarding Seagal movies. The beginning of the end of an era.

You ponytailed BASTARD!!

And did they go as far as changing the character's name in the dub? Is he called Forrest Taft again? Because that's funny.

Like you, I wasn't sold on Fire Down Below at first. Re-visiting it recently, I found it to be quite entertaining. It has a nice look to it and a rich supporting cast. I also have to say that Seagal actually gives a pretty solid performance. Give it another look.

...

They do that a lot, don't they? I think Out For A Kill is Hard To Kill 2, isn't it?

Nope, he remained Jack Taggart, but since Seagal's audience are supposed to be mouthbreathers, they thought no one'd care. What changed though was his dubbing and that killed the movie even more so than the flick itself. Imagine losing the actor who also plays Tom Hanks, Sean Penn and Tom Cruise (who, as you can imagine, did him wonders) to a much blander one, the Police academy-era Steve Guttenberg one IIRC. Sacrilege!!

Hmmm, I caught it on TV the other day, but couldn't stay through much due to its Movie/ Episode of the Week feel. The cinematography's great indeed as are some of the performances (Marg Helgenberger, Stephen Lang, Harry Dean Stanton!), but the abuse subplot is dull and overstretches the movie. And that montage at the opening credits is so fucking painful and obvious is just destroys whatever mistery there could've been to the movie. A friend of a cousin of a someone I know got Jeb Stuart's first draft -remember the writer of Die Hard (not fucking DeSouza) and The Fugitive- and while not spectacular, definitely has the seeds of what could've been a lean, mean, action thriller. So much so that it even got to be one of the 90's hottest specs until the Seagal people got their hands on it and... you know the rest.

Blind Vengeance it is around these parts. Wonder what Rutger's got to say about it. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!

Holy Shit, I totally forgot Billy Bob was in this.

I'll give Dutton "evil" in a minute. He pretends to give a shit about Mason so he can set him up for the hunt. McGinley just seems like a guy with a lot of misplaced rage. If I recall correctly, he views Mason as a symbol of the guy who murdered his daughter. Of all the hunters, I'd say outside of the boy, he's the least evil.

Well, let's not go and turn this into the "Surviving The Game" thread.

Frankly, I could listen to Basil Poledouris' opening theme with the Inuit throat singing over and over.

I always found that line to be hilarious as he proceeds to fuck all kinds of shit up. Violently, and gory.

Well Seagal, if there has ever been a time for this film to be relevant it's right now. It truly is his masterpiece (though I'd watch Out For Justice over this any day of the week).

Seagal's the only man who could make a jacket with frills look amazing.