Eye Candy #232 - "On Dangerous Ground" (SEAGAL! #2)

On Dangerous Ground:  I know, I know - every time you watch a Seagal movie, God kills a kitten.  This is Seagal’s follow-up to “Under Siege” (you know, his one good movie), he directed it even as a condition to star in “Under Siege 2” (which was everything “Under Siege“ wasn‘t).  This time around, we get Seagal’s “environmental” movie, where he plays an oil company roughneck that develops a conscience within SECONDS of the opening credits and decides that perhaps his employer is really not a good guy after all.  Granted, the oil company is run by Michael Caine, chewing scenery LIKE A MADMAN  in a terrible hairpiece (he does provide some good laughs though in his hamminess), you would think he would have picked up on that sooner.   Set up as a saboteur, Seagal finds himself taken in by the local Indian population (including Joan Chen; ‘Joan Chen in a Seagal movie’ is second only to ‘the rain of blood’ for signs of the Apocalypse), protecting the environment with a blend of native mysticism and (furry) boots to the head, but degenerates into a “First Blood“ rip-off.   And who knows, maybe Inuit women really do practice their ceremonies topless and spirit journeys include naked, writhing maidens.  Steve‘s certainly do.  And I love how an entire team of commandoes can’t take Seagal out…but a team of sled dogs can.  There are quite a few “name” actors in this film, most of whom have done MUCH better work elsewhere. John C Fricking McGinley is in this film (at least he seems to realize it‘s crap)! Billy Bob Thornton!  R Lee Ermey!  Sven-Ole Thorsen! What the hell!  This film is one of the reasons that Hollywood during the 90’s, in general, sucked.   Seagal’s career took a nosedive with this film that it never recovered. Woodchuck sez, “Enjoyably bad.”