Another day, another straight-to-DVD release from fading action star Steven Seagal, whose career has discovered a new lease of life in a string of cheaply made, inexplicably popular DVD B-movies that exploit the ageing star's presence as a one-time ass-whupper of the big screen. Surprisingly enough, SUBMERGED is actually a decent Seagal movie, standing head and shoulders above his other recent offerings and definitely up there with the likes of OUT FOR A KILL, BELLY OF THE BEAST, and MERCENARY FOR JUSTICE. The film has a great cast for once and strong direction from WAXWORK's Anthony Hickox that makes it far better than it has any right to be.When this film was being produced, word had it that it would be an underwater monster flick in which Seagal fought a biological mutant creature – wrong. Instead the plot is action-focused, detailing groups of soldiers, bodyguards, and special forces agents in a running battle with a scientist who has developed a drug that turns normal people into killing machines. Shades of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and a dozen other mind-control flicks here but director Hickox wisely chooses to focus on the action rather than the clichéd plot machinations. The result is an action-packed movie that fulfils its quotient of shoot-outs, wild car chases, and big explosions.Seagal himself takes more of a back seat than usual, typically hiding in the shadows while somebody else's voices dubs over him. He takes part in a couple of action scenes, shooting a shotgun that never needs to be reloaded and tackling a hulking bodyguard in a good ol' fashioned fight scene that looks like it should have been in UNDER SIEGE 2. This is a Seagal who doesn't really care too much anymore, happy to pretend he's black (he tells somebody to move their "white ass"!) and reference his older films – there's a quote about making a phone call to "touch" someone that's lifted from ON DEADLY GROUND. The good news is that, where Seagal fails, the other cast members step in to make this an entertaining experience – and none other than Vinnie Jones is this flick's biggest selling point.Jones is stereotyped as a tough British SAS veteran who retains the 'football hooligan' persona we all know and love from countless other films with him in. Jones brings life and character to the movie and takes part in the best action scenes. One violent fist fight is a highlight and recalls his glory days as he beats down a zombie-brained soldier and continues to pummel him to death. The film immediately becomes better whenever Jones is around and he's impossible to dislike. The rest of the cast also seem to have fun, although I could have done without the black female sidekick played by Christine Adams; her expression doesn't change even once throughout the film and she's even worse than Seagal himself.The film has quite a few different bad guys and most of them are familiar. The mad, Nazi-style scientist is played by Nick Brimble, who was the Creature in FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND but who is most recognisable these days from his turn as a villain in ITV's EMMERDALE! Brimble chews the scenery with relish and you know he's enjoying himself. Also about is William Hope, best known as the ineffectual Lieutenant Gorman in ALIENS; Hope hasn't changed too much over the years and his slimy, weaselly villain is good fun here. Finally, lower down in the cast list is Brit martial artist Gary Daniels as a brainwashed soldier who battles Seagal in the kitchen in a knife fight that recalls the glory days of UNDER SIEGE. Daniels is hardly in the film but he's nevertheless a solid addition to the proceedings.The film has plenty of fun action, but there are three really strong moments. The first is the assault on the compound, in which Seagal and his squad hold off an entire army (including a tank) in a pyrotechnic display of cool effects and a disregard for realism. Next the scene on the sub in which the brainwashed bad guys turn on the heroes is actually very suspenseful and effective, although sadly it is over far too soon. Finally, the ending really delivers what action fans have been waiting for. There's a decent shoot-out at an opera of all places, then all hell breaks loose as Seagal goes ape, smashes up a car, and beats up the bad guys for the last time. My favourite scene has a broken helicopter whizzing around a square, knocking the heck out of the scenery and proving to be one of my favourite 'helicopter' scenes in a film EVER. Better than many a big-budget production, Hickox really gets his money's worth out of this one. So, SUBMERGED is a cheesy B-movie for sure, but a darned entertaining one at that and one for the collection.

(3%) The ONLY upside to this awful movie is that big Steve paid off a few bills, besides that this really couldn't be much worse. Why can't the makers of these low budget action movies just keep things simple and make a fun watchable little time passer, is it really too much to ask? Seagal is his usual lazy self, and like many of his films these days his dialogue is clearly re-dubbed by someone else, it's all a little tragic really. Vinnie Jones tries, but just like every other "character" he's fighting a losing battle with a beyond terrible script/plot, appalling editing and lousy direction. The movie is awful, pure and simple, and it isn't even so bad it's almost good, just plain old boring cheapo garbage that belongs in a bank vault to be forgotten about forever.

Submerged starts as hard as nails ex-military man Chris Cody (Steven Seagal, also executive producer) is offered a deal, either he undertakes an assassination & rescue mission for the Government & pocket a hundred grand or he goes to prison for the rest of his life. The choice is as easy one & one that the rest of Cody's team accepts too, their job is to go to Uruguay & rescue some captured US soldiers & kill madman scientist Adrian Lehder (Nick Brimble) who as created some method of mind control & is using it for less than friendly reasons including trying to gain control of an entire country. Cody & his team successfully rescue the soldiers but Lehder escapes, while on the submarine Alcatraz heading for the warship Clinton the rescued soldiers turn on their saviours as Lehder's mind control kicks in. With a fully armed nuclear submarine under their control Cody has to prevent a potential disaster, then he & his team head for Lehder himself & the corrupt Government officials who fund & allow his work...This British Bulgarian co-production was co-written & directed by Anthony Hickox, to be honest I wasn't expecting that much from Submerged considering the crap Steven Seagal has been churning out lately but I was fairly pleasantly surprised here as I though Submerged was a decent enough straight-to-video/DVD action thriller that wasted an hour or two harmlessly enough. The first hour of Submerged is rather enjoyable in a fun action film sort of way, it moves along at a great pace, there's plenty of action albeit quite low budget & it's good fun. Unfortunately once the shoot-out in the submarine is over & Seagal & co make it back to dry land Submerged turns into a rather dry & somewhat confusing political thriller that ditches the pace & action seen earlier for lots of exposition that is too complex for it's own good. There are double agents, double crosses, mind control, bad guy's, good guy's, shoot-outs, fights & you never quite know what anyone's motivation is or why they are doing what they are. The script is to blame here, it just isn't clear enough & is far too muddled to make complete coherent sense & with a film like Submereged the average viewer just wants to see lots of fights & explosions rather than a muddled plot that made me lose interest. The character's are average for this type of stuff with Seagal his usual by-the-numbers action film clichéd hard as nails dude with a military background who never loses a fight or gets shot in a shoot-out & the main villain is also especially bland this time out. So, the first half is good clean violent Seagal action film fun while the second half is a dry, confused & rather dull political thriller that is worth a watch for sure but ultimately won't totally satisfy fans of either genre.The part set inside the claustrophobic interior of the submarine with Seagal taking out the bad guy's could have been a mini fifteen minute Under Siege 3 & this is when the film is at it's best. The action is pretty good, there's plenty of violence, blood splatter as people are shot, a car chase, an exploding dam & submarine & Seagal single handedly taking out a tank. Like you do. Seagal is overweight in this & he again wears a long baggy coat to try & hide it while the other members of his team wear proper tight fitting military uniforms. Some of the modern souped up directing techniques are a bit annoying at times, from slow motion to fast motion to quick cuts & edits to colour tinting.Apparently filmed in Sofia in Bulgaria this had a supposed budget of about $12,000,000 & the film has decent production values although the model aeroplane & submarines look terrible. Steven Seagal seems to be almost entirely dubbed in this & when his character talks there are loads of reaction shots of other character's or establishing shots of the surroundings, ex-footballer Vinnie Jones is quite funny while Gary Daniels is alright.Submerged was a lot better than I had expected, it ain't no masterpiece & it's a shame the pace & action of the first half is jettisoned in favour of a muddled thriller but all in all not a bad effort from Seagal & one of his better straight-to-video/DVD flicks.

In 'Submerged', Seagal stars as some geezer called Cody who is like a hard bloke that the government go to when they need help. I worked out why they didn't get Jack Bauer straight away - the film was made at the time in between seasons when they thought he was dead! So anyway, Fat Cody then gets his whole team back to help him do this thing. Oh yeah, the thing is blow up some dam that some bad guy is hiding in. Oh yeah, the bad guy is none other than Little John from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. So anyway, Fatty and his crew of hard nuts made up of assorted crap actors such as Vinnie Jones and the old guy who batters someone to death with a dildo in Lock Stock, then go about getting to this dam. So they leave their aircraft carrier but before they get there, they double-cross someone who was apparently double-crossing them and steal his helicopter (I dunno I must have blinked cos I completely missed how Seagal worked that one out!). So then they take the helicopter to some bird who is like one of Seagal's old secret agent women (he probably banged her!) and she turns out to be none other than the woman who is in those Daz adverts! You know the 'whiter than white' woman. She just started working on Coronation Street. At her rate of ascension, she'll be receiving an Oscar in no time! Advert -> Seagal Movie -> Coronation Street -> Oscar! No prob'! So then they get to the dam but Little John has disappeared. So they fight some army and blow the dam up. In one bit Seagal selflessly runs at a tank with nothing but a hand grenade and destroys it. But not before a pithy remark "Here catch!" Amazing! So instead of escaping in the helicopter they arrived in they decide to steal none other than a submarine! I don't know. Of all the stupid get away vehicles he may as well have just swam back to the aircraft carrier and pretended he was a whale! Anyway, I thought I'd let that one go but it turns out that some people on the submarine are being mind controlled by Little John and decide to sink the sub. They kill most of the team leaving only Fatty, Vinnie Jones, some black girl and The Daz Woman alive. The four of them then escape in a life raft before the sub gets blown up.Can you believe all this only happened in one hour? I still haven't finished watching it but I think I'll have to find out how it concludes in a little while. I can't take too much Seagal at once!(PS) I forgot to mention that Seagal has almost been completely dubbed throughout the whole film by some bloke that doesn't sound anything like him. I have no idea why but it is so obvious! When it IS Seagal's own voice he tries to be black. He actually says to Vinnie Jones in the dam... "Damn, there some sick sh*t up in here, Alligator!" Then a second later he adds "Be sure to get yo' white ass 'outta here!"This film has to be seen to be believed! But don't watch it all in one viewing or you may go totally head-mental!