When a team of baddies led by the diabolical William Strannix (Jones) takes over a battleship, the USS Missouri, with the goal of stealing the Tomahawk missiles contained onboard, things don't look good for the crew of the ship or the stateside higher-ups. When a helicopter carrying SEAL Team 5 sent to save the ship doesn't make it, Strannix appears to be on the verge of accomplishing his mission. He just didn't count on one thing: Casey Ryback (Seagal). Ryback is the self-described "lowly, lowly cook" on the vessel, but the truth is that he's a highly-trained SEAL himself with more than enough know-how to singlehandedly bring down the evil plans of the bad guys. Tagging along with Ryback is Jordan Tate (Eleniak), Playboy's "Miss July '89" (which Eleniak was in real life as well). Hey, if you fall asleep in a giant cake you're supposed to pop out of, strange things happen. Will Ryback stop Strannix and his plans for world domination? You probably already know the answer... Under Siege is mainstream Hollywood action that even people who are not typically action movie fans have seen. It was wildly popular at the time, despite the fact that it's the first Seagal movie to break with the "Three Word Title" tradition. Seagal re-teamed with Above the Law (1988) director Davis - who also directed Chuck Norris in Code of Silence (1985) - and the results have that glossy, professional Hollywood sheen to it that even action movie "noobs" will find palatable. The fact that Davis's next film was The Fugitive (1993) makes sense; it's a natural extension of the groundwork laid down with Under Siege. Most of the street-level grit found in the early clutch of Seagal titles such as Out For Justice (1991) is missing here, presumably in a bid to garner a larger audience. It seems to have worked, even though Seagal's viewing public was already pretty darn huge at the time. While the movie does lose a bit of steam towards the end because it doesn't have to be as long as it is, all in all Under Siege is solid. It's nothing to go wild about, but it's like the USS Missouri itself: big, solidly built, steady, and professionally cared-for. To Under Siege's eternal credit, it's not a submarine slog, bogey slog, ship slog, or any other kind of slog, which it easily could have been. It's simply what we call a "DieHardInA" movie, which were everywhere in the 90's. It seemed every time you turned around, terrorist bad guys were taking over buildings, ships, nuclear plants, water treatment facilities, PathMarks, Waldenbookses, CompUSA's or any other kind of structure that holds human beings. For a more in-depth look at the 90's DieHardInA trend, please see our review of Sudden Death. In that case it was a hockey rink, in case anyone needed reminding. One of the main reasons Under Siege stays afloat (sorry) is the cast. First off, we have our old buddy Seagal, who is actually pretty likable here and you do root for him. He's backed up by the spunky Eleniak as his sidekick, and on the baddie side we have Tommy Lee Jones, who of course is excellent as the evil Strannix, and he has Gary Busey as his sidekick. Now that's a power-team if there ever was one. Colm Meaney as another bad guy adds color, as do other incidental characters played by familiar faces such as Bernie Casey, George Cheung, Nick Mancuso, Andy Romano, and Dale Dye, among many others. Interestingly, Tommy Lee Jones gets into a knife fight with Seagal in the climactic battle, and Jones also played a knife expert in The Hunted (2003), and those to date are the only two TLJ movies on Comeuppance. Overall, by our standards at least, the violence is relatively toned-down. Sure, Seagal tears somebody's throat out and shoves another guy into a circular saw, but somehow it all feels more muted than usual. Under Siege was perhaps the peak of Seagal's Hollywood career and is not bad by any means. It's a bit mainstream for our personal taste but if you're trying to get a non-action fan into action movies, this is a good and easy way to break them in to the genre.

Erika Eleniak jumping topless out of a giant cake. 10 stars.Rest of it, don't remember. Think there was something about a boat and a cook who wasn't really a cook. I dunno, 5 stars?Split the difference and call it 7.On reflection, extra star for the cake bit, 8 stars.

Gets better with age! When I first saw Under Siege I thought cheesy, and far fetched! Well disgruntled professionals, crazy plans, and unbalance dialog is believe. Not in 92 but believable for 2017. Bussey is great as an angry Navel officer. Jones is great as an angry/crazy, but brilliant/mad disgruntled ex C I A employee. The taking of the ship with real time martial arts is exciting. There is a evil plan and knife fight at the end. From a ugh movie to one I like to watch! Under Siege is repeated on cable t v over and over again. I can watch part one over and over too. Under Siege two is even better. 7 out of 10.

Seagal's first four films undoubtedly constitute his best work as far as his fans are concerned. This DIE HARD clone set on a Battleship wins mass appeal based on its premise alone and cements its stature as "Best Seagal Movie" with very strongly directed and acted scenes involving the villains. There's a wonderful little cat 'n mouse feel to the film and even manages to stay interesting during the scenes in between the action with Seagal stalking the ship's lonely corridors and various rooms, encountering various obstacles along the way.However, there were a few worrying trends beginning to surface when this film was made. Most obviously was Seagal's weight, which was starting to become a bit of a distraction by this film and even more-so with each concurrent film following this (aside from his commendable attempt to trim down for EXIT WOUNDS). This would be the first film of many to feature his image on the cover heavily digitally doctored to reduce his double-chin.Additionally this is the first Seagal movie to introduce him working with a team of lackies responsible for doing a lot of his dirty work, presumably as a way to make his one-man-army routine have some semblance of realism. Okay, well MARKED FOR DEATH had some of this too, but they were at least interesting characters. Unfortunately though, they also serve to steal attention and screen time away from our hero, villains, and quality kills to the point where (as in all his modern films) Seagal is barely even in the thing.Now, Seagal never was the most approachable or friendly-looking guy but this film is the first time the villains are much more charming and compelling than he is. Given that Jones and Busey are charismatic actors, their characters are actually interesting and off-kilter while Seagal is just an even more one-dimensional version of himself, with all kinds of the shoehorned-in CIA and Special Forces ego-trip background motifs that have been with him since is first film. The entire movie I was rooting for them to just shoot him and felt a little sad with each terrorist fatality. It introduces the bumbling and annoying sidekick, epitomized by Ms. Eleniak who is utterly useless in this film aside from as comic relief and the all-too-brief birthday cake scene. Seagal unforgivably makes her change in the very next scene, adding to the unlike-ability of his character.UNDER SIEGE is a fun film, possibly the most fun of all DIE HARD's clones. It's got its share of disappointments though and plenty of brilliant villains whose IQ decreases by 100 points whenever they get a chance to kill the hero. At one point, one of them even dies twice if you watch closely, possibly another nod to a Seagal earlier work regarding a villain in MARKED FOR DEATH. We have the success of UNDER SIEGE to thank for the existence of Seagal's insane tour de force in the legendarily awful ON DEADLY GROUND, which was financed to secure his appearance in this film's inevitable sequel.