jenswellejus Years ago I liked some of Segals work for the simple action. But, this movie is simply an insult to the intelligence of the viewers. Somebody should have offered some sort of advice to the crew responsible for this. Just about any aspect of this movies is poor. I strongly suggest you skip this one.

Dark Jedi Last evening I decided to play a bit of Russian roulette again watch one one Steven Seagal's direct to DVD movies that was given on W9. Again there was nothing else worth watching and I did think the last one that I watched, The Keeper, was too bad (for a direct to DVD by Steven Seagal that is) so I thought let's watch it.This was not one of the better movies that I have watched to say the least. The movie starts off with a series of rapid cuts from a fire-fight and it pretty much continues in that manner. The entire movie is cut in a very choppy manner which I personally am not too thrilled about. The plot is forgettable to say the least and the entire movie is just a copy-paste job of standard scenes and actions sequences from start to finish.The action scenes are not too bad and what makes the movie not be a total waste. Do not try to find any logic in people's actions though. There is none. When Seagal felt he wanted some tough talk then he plopped it in and so on. I guess he likes scantily clad ladies as well since the movie is liberally sprinkled with them. Too bad only the bad guys seems to have the hard hitting chicks working for them though.Someone said that this was a "guy movie" and I would say that is a correct statement. It is filled with elements that would appeal to the stereotype of some "beer belching" male person doing most of his thinking using the reptile parts of his brain. I do not mind action, though talk and scantily clad ladies in the movies but I do prefer when there is a script worth talking about to string everything together instead if just throwing them into a blender and serve the slop that comes out.Not a total waste of an evening but close.

Scarecrow-88 Steven Seagal (who also wrote and helped produce the film) stars as the head of The International Drug Task Force, in Bucharest, Romania, who wants revenge against the thieves who murdered his partner and the man's wife in cold blood. The leader of this group is named Costel, in league with a former member of the Russian Special Forces, Dimitri, using women to mule dope to London, also a sick rapist pig who enjoys invading the homes of the Romanian rich to steal their money and sexually molest the wives of those they steal from. When Costel has a falling out with Dimitri (resulting in the murder of Dimitri's wife), the two will enter a war with Seagal's agent Samuel Axel allowed a chance to exploit this "rift"; Axel will gain an ally in Dimitri who has the kind of connections which enable him to find out the whereabouts of Costel.BORN TO RAISE HELL is yet another low-budget Romanian Seagal flick, with the star going through the motions, a little grumpier than he usually is in these kinds of action junk, at one point cursing out a cop under his command, Steve (D Neil Mark) when an arrest doesn't adhere to the proper procedures. Dan Badarau's Dimitri is a quiet, reserved Russian kingpin who only uses violence when he must, such as silencing a regular customer who blabs to Samuel about his drug trafficking and dealing on the Bucharest streets. Darren Shahlavi, on the other hand, as the hostile Costel, is a depraved, repulsive creep who enjoys raping, dealing, stealing, and killing. Seagal's screenplay is designed to make Costel as disturbed and twisted as possible so when his hero dismantles the heavy at the end, you hate the scumbag so greatly his demise is justified with the proper applause. Zoltan Butuc is Dada, Costel's cruel enforcer who is the triggerman that blew away Dimitri's lady. The movie has all the tired clichés, with drugs the typical excuse for Seagal's above-the-law narcotics officer to bash Costel's men into mush. The sound effects, when Seagal lands his arsenal of blows and martial arts techniques to subdue his opponents, make him sound superhuman. As usual, Seagal hurls men into furniture and glass, with bodies breaking and shattering whatever objects they are thrown into so that he looks like a million dollars. The same editing wizardry is applied so that Seagal appears to be unstoppable, such as when he takes apart a group of Dimitri's men outside a van during a stakeout, or the final hand-to-hand combat with Costel (more like hand-to-face as Costel is essentially a punching bag). Sadly, you can tell that some of Seagal's dubbing is through someone who attempts to impersonate the way he talks—the man can't even bother doing his own dubbing. These movies are just a means for extra income and jokers like me continue to rent this crap.

Jan Strydom After seeing A DANGEROUS MAN I almost said I'm through with Steven Seagal movies but then I decided to pick up this one in the hope Seagal could be redeemed, it turns out this film was one of his more solid DTV efforts aside from the fact that it was still flawed, it had the dubbing problem but not as much as his other films, Seagal's fight scenes were edited a bit fast although there were shots that showed him actually doing the fight scenes and Seagal wears a thick coat to hide his weight now I regarded that as one of his trademarks so I didn't really give that much thought.The best moments of the film were the shootouts, they were very well done and also pretty tense, something I haven't seen from a Seagal movie in a long time, the acting was surprisingly good this time even from Seagal himself but there are two other actors that stand out, Darren Shalavi who was ideal for the part of the villain and Dan Badaru who plays a Romanian gangster out to get revenge for the death of his wife and son.Also now that I thought about it, this film features a brief love scene between Steven Seagal and a woman possibly young enough to be his daughter but she does look legal and very attractive, after seeing that scene and remembering Seagal also wrote the script, I reckoned this is one of the interesting things about being a writer and an actor, you give your own character a story and a hot little number and you add a steamy love scene between the two of you, now that's a different kind of fantasizing right there only Seagal puts it down on paper and it gets put on film with him in the scene, "sigh" some guys have all the fun.Overall, its one of the better Steven Seagal DTV entries but it is way too flawed to measure up to the caliber of a Steven Seagal classic like UNDER SIEGE.