"Force of Execution" is the story about a crime lord torn between his legacy and his desire to get out of the life of crime that has built his empire, when a new player to the scene tries to use the town anti-hero's network to climb to power. The only friend the crime lord has is his assassin protégé who has troubles of his own. Force of Execution is no masterpiece and it's definitely the B-type of movie i'd expected it to be but i was suprised to discover and see that it wasn't that bad. Bren Foster was really good and the rest of the cast did a good job too. (6.5/10)

Mr. Alexander (Steven Seagal) is an ex-government agent who learned "things" in the mountains of Thailand. He is now the crime boss over the city of Albuquerque. Iceman (Ving Rhames) has recently got out of prison and is challenging Alexander, who simply wants to be bought out honorably. In what passes for a Seagal subplot, Roman Hurst (Bren Foster)who works for Alexander, gets double crossed by Iceman and is forced to retire, losing the use of his hands- somewhat, but he can still slow motion kickbox. He now lives in a room off a diner owned by Alexander and run by Jimmy Peanuts (Danny Trejo). The waitress (Jenny Gabrielle) becomes a focal point, because that is where the crime boss likes his girlfriend to work.The plot, like Seagal is straight forward. Trejo supplies us with a surprise, but the plot is not twisty. The tough guy dialog is cliche, using lines like, "You broke the code." Seagal is a bad guy who kills people, but commands with over doses of corny respect speeches. At one point Seagal sits down and describes his gun collection, giving us the advantage points of each piece, topping it off with "Isn't that amazing."I found this to be a better quality Seagal film, as he is not in every scene and shares with Rhames and Trejo.

After a relatively high publicity run, things are sort of looking down for Steven Seagal: not only is he receiving criticism for his partnerships with Joe Arpaio and Vladimir Putin, but his UFC protégé Anderson Silva seems to be publicly distancing himself from the Buddhist Bonecrusher. Seagal's in need of a good movie like few times before, and luckily he's gotten one in FORCE OF EXECUTION. I'm genuinely surprised by how much I like this film, which may very well be the most action-packed flick Seagal has done in quite some time. It's not nearly perfect and it isn't even really a vehicle for the man, but I predict that a lot of fans and action devotees in general will like this one.The story: an emerging crime lord (Ving Rhames) prepares for a bloody street war with the established kingpin (Seagal). In the middle of this, a former protégé of the latter (Bren Foster) - maimed and cast out for a past failure - must decide whether he will play a part in the violence to come.Seagal seems really into his role: he tries for an accent again, but more notably has the tone and personality of the antihero down pat, as though he prepared for the part with a Coppola marathon. He's matched in presence by Ving Rhames, who can do these tough guy roles in his sleep but doesn't phone in his performance at all. Danny Trejo is here as well, playing the grizzled owner of a diner, but the real star of the movie is in fact Bren Foster. Graduating from his supporting part in MAXIMUM CONVICTION, Foster soundly steals the show out from under his better-known costars and makes the movie his own by being not only an impressive martial artist but also a surprisingly adept actor, turning his portions of the plot into generally the most interesting ones.Director Keoni Waxman seems to be the preferred filmmaker of Seagal these days, much to my chagrin since I'm not a huge fan of any of the work they've done together, but he redeems himself by not only directing a better-made movie in this, but also a more interesting one. There are some of those annoying DTV slights that we've had to get used to - Seagal's dialog being dubbed here and there, scenes between characters wherein the actors were clearly never in the same room, etc. - but they appear to a lesser extent than expected. The writing is also better than one might expect, with more character development scenes than are the norm for low budget action fare, and occasional weird/cool moments (SPOILER) like when Trejo reveals himself to be a "Mexican witch doctor" and cures Bren Foster's injured hands with live scorpion venom.One of the major complaints among viewers of Seagal's movies of the last ten years is their relatively meager martial arts contents, and "Force of Execution" addresses this qualm with no less than 10 hand-to-hand brawls - 13 if you include the short ones. Thanks to Foster, these may also be the most legitimately athletic fights we've seen in Steven's movies since early in his career. Seagal is more than serviceable for his four tussles, relying less on doubles than in his worst films, and even Ving Rhames mixes things up in a single brawl, but it's Bren's work as both an acrobat and a down-to-earth martial artist who elevates the entire picture. Think Scott Adkins without the gratuitous flipping. The scenes wherein he takes out a hallway full of prison guards and duels escrima guru Ron Balicki with knives are standouts, and should make Seagal consider handing the reins to other martial artists more often in his movies.Speaking of Steven, I have the feeling that he's finally winding down. I may be reading too much into this, but his character alludes more than once to "retiring" and references his age in a negative context as well. In playing the part, he really gives the impression that he feels he ought to be done with this kind of stuff. Seagal is clearly still making movies over a year later, but should he be in the last leg of his race, he definitely started it on the right foot.

I've looked at a lot of reviews for 'Force of Execution' and they would have you believe that it's an absolute classic. Don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting Shakespeare. I knew I'd be letting myself in for a B-movie with stars from yesteryear, however, all I got was a pretty sub-standard affair.The story is all over the place with one scene after the next depicting one gangland hit after the next. Steven Segal phones in his performance and Ving Rhames just grunts all the way through it (and don't get me started on his 'fighting abilities'!).In short, this story is a mess. The settings chop and change from one location to another, never really linking together the overall tale, let alone leaving any space for the audience to care about any of the one-dimensional characters.Yes, I know it's a B-movie, but I was hoping for it to be entertaining. Sadly, this one's better left off everyone concerned's C.V.http://thewrongtreemoviereviews.blogspot.co.uk/