I always thought that the early Seagal films are the best and this film is one of them with a fantastic performance from Micheal Caine as the Baddie oil Baron trying to stop his land reverting back to the eskimos... I also think that Steven Seagal did an amazing job directing this picture as well with shots of eagles and polar bears plus beautiful views of the snow capped mountains throughout the film. It's a good movie, but not for everyone. Set in Alaska, Native religious ideas are explored well. It may seem oddball to some people, but I found it touching and enlightening, as it is handled well. There is some good humor, including Billy Bob Thornton as oil rig security with no brain.The movie is filled with wall-to-wall action scenes that don't add up to much, other than that outrageous explosion near the end (which actually feels out of place in this movie!). Michael Caine's performance is very silly, but I am not one of those critics who wishes to attack Seagal for his politics or his motives in directing a particular film, but let's not kid ourselves by denying that he had gotten a little ahead of himself in this case. Nonetheless, there may be something more to this movie than some of us are seeing right now, and there are some good moments scattered about, so I am not going to lower my rating too much. A bit too much swearing, a few too many explosions, and a really brutal fight scene in a bar (which feels unnecessarily exploitative in this context) tip it towards the lower end of the scale for me (at first), but I do think it's interesting what Seagal is trying to do as a director.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Forget "road House" in the cheese stakes, this hot mess of a movie beats it hands down.1994 was the year two Forrests, Gump and Taft, duked it out for box office supremacy, and the better retard won handily. but don't let that dissuade you from enjoying this supreme example of Steven Segal's monumental hubris. The man who professed to be so attuned to the plight of the Aleut cast Japanese women because actual Aleut women were deemed too ugly, at least in a romantic lead role. It gets better. Modern Aleut are depicted living in skin huts and travelling on dog sleds, until Segal arrives to save their primitive asses, whereby they reveal the Skidoo they have concealed in anticipation of the great day when a Caucasian Saviour will show up to employ this incomprehensible technology on their behalf. This is aggressively stupid and over-the-top racist even for Steven Segal, which is saying a lot. Anyone who has seen "On Deadly Ground" must have struck by the utter ludicrousness of protecting a sensitive eco-system by blowing up an oil well right in the middle of it; anyone, that is, except Steven Segal.Oh to live in a Segalian universe where no problem is so big or small that it can't be solved by beating the sh*t out of it. Strong work from Michael Caine whose unapologetic scenery-chewing constitutes an even bigger environmental threat than the aforementioned oil rig.

This film is really abysmal apart from Micheal cane who is a credible villain and the action scenes are stunning there the two points that give it a resounding 2 sea-gal is terrible he is wooden and emotionless as always i grant you he is outstanding in the action scenes but that's all he can do his delivery of his lines is poor and the direction mediocre at best and the cinematography amateurish uneven the only thing that's good about the movie is Micheal cane who is a menacing and threatening as the villain of the piece he wants to destroy Alaska anyway overall sea-gal really needs to go back to drama school and learn how to act but in terms of the action sequences he his top notch a++++++++++ material that's all i can say .

I'll be frank. This isn't a favorite SS film with me. We can see this is a very passionate effort, and we long for the moment, Seagal breaks a few chops, and crack some skulls. Having to compete again in the acting stakes with heavy weights including Caine as a evil, greedy, and ruthless developer, and some great character actors as his henchmen, he plays EPA agent Forest Taft, with of course, a mysterious background and deadly and handy martial arts skills who takes on this group. Caine who really shines believably in bad guy roles, wants to blow half of Alaska: the environment, so he can do his thing. We all know that attempts on Seagal's life always fail, with most of his killers ending up on the morgue. He's one tough guy you can't kill, and we know what happens when someone draws first blood, before Seagal asks them ever so nicely nicely. Joan Chen, wasted, also an environmentalist, teams up with him, where the scene is set for explosive action, and a body count. What I got off the movie, was the simple message, had bogged it down, or too it may of got lost in what all of it inferred. It was the bogged part I definitely got off of it. Check out even the end credits. Fire Down Below, ran similar paths, but the points were more clearly explained here. I don't hate the movie. I might of just been expecting more action or a more brutal display of violence. This one, I just didn't favor as much as his early or after cinematic ones. It's great though to see Caine and Seagal square off, but in respect for Seagal, it's good to see him express his voice in his directional debut, for which he feels very passionately about, as I said earlier. I hope he's proud of this project and I mean that genuinely. Fun too, with this movie was watching John Mcginley's character and Thornton's as some of Caine's bad asses.