Half Past Dead

Rating:
Summary: Looks Like Unofficial Spin-off of "The Rock" (with no Nick)
Review: "Half Past Dead" features so-so action sequences, incoherent plot, and Steven Seagal who hasn't changed his style for more than 15 years. All those factors are all right if there is something good about the result, like in "Under Siege." Did I find that? Sorry, but the answer's no.

The story means nothing here, but that is OK. In Alcatraz. a newly-made prison is now in operation (the film says), and Seagal's character Sascha Petrosevitch and his buddy Nick (Ja Rule) are sent into the cells there. At the same time, a man in death row is going to the chair, and the judge who presided the case is watching over the proceedings. AND moreover, a group of heavily-armed terrorists arrive there to take over the place, to make the film look like "The Rock 2" or "Die Hard 4."

ALl those situations are acceptable as long as actions are good. And fortunately, we got Hong-Kong born action coordinator Xing Xing Xiong, who provides pretty powerful action sequences. The short but impressive fighting scenes between Ja Rule and Nia Peeples are most memorable among them.

But it's Seagal who drags everyting down. I've been watching his films since his debut, but the fast and deadly movement which only real martial arts specialists can do is sadly gone. Please don't say I am wrong -- see his actions back in the 1990s -- he is clearly out of shape, and you should know that.

Some of the actors are still doing their best -- Nia Peeples is excellent as a dangerous killer -- and you might enjoy the veterans' faces (Linda Thorson, 'Tara King' of the original "The Avengers" for instance). But they are all wasted, and the slow and tedious script cannot be saved from the messy job by the repeated flashy MTV-like cameras.

Rating:
Summary: Don't Waste Your Time
Review: About 95% of PG-13 movies these days are stupid. Half Past Dead is of course packed with Action, But it is boring and I give the acting about a 3 - 4 / 10. Ja rule and Stephen Seagal Do not even act well in the movie. I found myself laughing at a few parts becuz they were trying to be emotional and the acting was so bad it was just funny. I would not recomend this movie.

Rating:
Summary: SEAGAL DEFINITELY DISSAPOINTED ME WITH THIS ONE
Review: AN FBI AGENT [STEVEN SEAGAL] GOES UP AGAINST MERCENARIES WHO'VE CAME INTO ALCATRAZ TO GET THE SECRET LOCATION OF SOME STOLEN GOLD THAT WAS STOLEN BY A THIEF WHO'S ABOUT TO BE EXECUTED. THIS BOTTOM OF THE BARREL SEAGAL MOVIE IS DEFINITELY HARD TO WATCH. AND ADDING JA RULE AND KURUPT TO THE CAST DEFINITELY DOESN'T HELP IMPROVE THE SITUATION. ALL OF THE ACTION IS BORING, THE SCRIPT IS POORLY DONE, AND LET'S FACE IT, ANY MOVIE THAT HAS SEAGAL WORKING ALONGSIDE JA RULE IS ALMOST GAURANTEED TO BE A BAD MOVIE. THIS MOVIE MAKES ''ON DEADLY GROUND'' LOOK LIKE ''UNDER SIEGE'' IN COMPARISON. THIS IS STRICTLY FOR THE DIEHARD SEAGAL FANS.

Rating:
Summary: Seagal is back
Review: First of all if you get bored watching an action movie, your in a heap of hurt friend, go watch a drama or some junk till you man up enough to watch a real movie. This film is not much like The Rock, more like a Con Air in prison meets Steven Seagal... . If you are a Seagal fan(like me) this movie shows us what Seagal could have been if he were 20 years younger, cause in this movie he has wires and cg effects, you think he was good in his older movies wait till you see him in this one. Some of the other reviewers name out all these awesome action movies they didn't like, but what it seems to me is that they don't like action movies to much, so I don't think they should be reviewing a action movie if they don't like them. Beleive me you will NOT be bored watching this movie, because it is stuffed full with action.

Rating:
Summary: The best action movie in a long time...SERIOUSLY!!!
Review: First off, I know you've probably heard a lot of bad reviews for this movie claiming that it's nothing new and all that and it isn't anything new but is that really that bad? It's something we haven't seen in awhile. Folks, this is an 80's action movie. This is what THE TRANSPORTER and BALLISTIC; ECKS VS. SEVER should have been but they weren't anywhere even close.

I must say that HALF PAST DEAD pleasantly surprised me. It's a quick paced, lighthearted action movie with a little bit of DIE HARD, a little bit of CON AIR and a little bit of THE ROCK and that's okay. It works!!! It's an hour and forty-five minutes of straight action and it's leagues better than EXIT WOUNDS, which admittedly doesn't take much.

All in all though it's the supporting cast and not Seagal that make things work. Morris Chestnut (who also starred with Seagal in UNDER SIEGE 2: DARK TERRITORY) brings some style and some coolness to the lead villain. Nia Peeples is just plain gorgeous as the gun-toting, ass kicking martial arts babe who is second-in-command on the bad guy's side. Hell, Peeples' part is the part Lucy Liu should have taken instead of the wretched trash that was ECKS VS. SEVER. Peeples has a really cool fight sequence with Ja Rule. This movie's worth checking out if only for that scene alone.

But the most memorable performance goes to Tony Plana who plays the warden, El Fuego. He literally chews through the film's scenery with his rugged tough guy looks. Trust me, he's a pretty cool supporting character.

Now, can you take this movie seriously...No way! But it is loads of fun. If you're an action fan then this movie should satisfy!It's just too bad we didn't have Jason Statham (THE TRANSPORTER) as the lead in this instead of Seagal then this really would have rocked. Check it out though, you won't be disappointed.

C+

Rating:
Summary: Half Past Dead
Review: For a man that is not feeling well, this was the perfect no brainer film to help me conquer those sweats and chills. There was unrealistic fighting, a Swiss cheese plot, and characters that we cared nothing for, which allowed me to doze off and still know what was happening. This was a Steven Seagal film, so I wasn't expecting much, but honestly, after several of his film you come to realize that they are all very similar and Seagal has not changed his fighting habits at all over the years. He is still using the same fist moves that made him popular in Above the Law. Why should he change? He is Steven Seagal.

So, take his old-school 1980s fighting techniques and combine it with a modern day rap artist like Ja-Rule (especially after his popularity with DMX in Exit Wounds), and you have the film Half Past Dead. So, let's begin. The fighting was laughable. I think that if a gust of wind hit Ja-Rule he would fly halfway across the room. Also, why did it become increasingly obvious that Ja-Rule was not doing his own fight sequences? Throughout his fighting with Nia Peeples, it is very clear that it is not Ja-Rule. How could a director allow such a blatant error happen in an action film? This is not the only case of action gone wrong. There are several scenes in which bullets defy their projected path and gravity. Also, let us not forget the flying fists of Seagal which had the sounds of some hard hits, but it was very obvious that he was mock fighting with most of the extras. This unrealistic fighting knocked this film from five stars to four stars.

So, let's move past the fighting. What is a good action film without the story to accompany the fighting? Sadly, director Don Michael Paul felt as if there was no story needed. Why bother the audience with a story when we have Ja-Rule and Steven Seagal fighting together on-screen? The plot was riddled with more holes that my high school underwear. It was as if we were not seeing the entire picture, and instead of showing us the director relied on words to tell us. Some examples of what I mean are how Sasha and Nick first met. I needed to see this. Without this story and seeing their trust be born, it became less emotional when it was broken. I didn't care, I needed to know more about them. The side-story about Seagal's wife was just filler. He has these visions of her that help him live after a gun battle, but that is all we know about her. When I first saw this scene, I thought it was going to be a major influence in the film. Sadly, I believe that was the last mention of the wife. The Prisoner's story with the gold was horrible. I didn't know enough about the guy to make me see the evil in his ways. This ultimately led to an unclimactic ending with this Prisoner. Does anyone really know who Morris Chestnut's character was? How did he get the money to finance this operation, and how did he become the inside man? I needed answers of which Don Michael Paul was not willing to provide. The lack of story and weakness of the main characters knocked this film from four stars to two.

Finally, I would like to comment on the title. What does it mean? Was it a reference to the time when Sasha almost died, or is it a reference to the lack of caring about life from Ja-Rule and the inmates (remember his line, "Tonight is a good time to die"). I don't know. This led me to the ultimate conclusion about this film. The director just didn't care. He was happy to have Seagal and Ja-Rule signed on, so everything else became second fiddle. In the range of action films, this is pretty poor. Unrealistic fighting with an overabundance of cliched lines only plummeted this film deeper into the world of action. To be brutally honest, Ja-Rule cannot act, and this became a problem in this film. He needed a smaller film to get his feet wet and see if he was ready for the cinema world. Half Past Dead was not the best role for him. This film is the perfect example of a movie made just to get rap artists some screen time and attempt to bring an overweight action start from the 80s into the new generation. Sadly, in Half Past Dead it didn't work.

Grade: * out of *****

Rating:
Summary: not Seagal's best, BUT far from his worst!
Review: Half Past Dead is far from Steven Seagal's best work (see: Above the Law and Under Siege). It is also nowhere near some of his more recent dreadful flicks (see: The Patriot (on my top 10 list of all time worst films ever)). Half Past Dead's predictable plot provides enough action and interesting characters to keep the viewer's attention. I could do without the slow-mo/speed up fight seen special effects. Overall this is a decent film worthy of renting by action film fans and of buying for Seagal fans.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT POPCORN MOVIE
Review: Half Past Dead is fun comic book styled entertainment. I did not expect Hamlet and wanted a comic book styled action flick that was fun to watch and that's just what I got. It's easy to make fun of this flick, but if you want art watch Citizen Kane. If you want an entertaining actioner you can kick back and enjoy with some friends and popcorn check this out. As escapism it delivers.

Rating:
Summary: Half Past Dead
Review: Half Past Dead is one cool movie. With alot of action and with a decent cast.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty Darn Good, best Segal in a LONG LONG LONG TIME
Review: Half Past Dead was actually a pretty cool movie. I had put off watching it cause the last bunch of segal movies were absolutely horrible, but this one was actually cool. Basically, he's an FBI agent undercover, of course, and he's in prison. They call it half past dead cause in a scene in the begining of the movie where he gets shot and dies, but they are able to save him. Anyways, A dude in that prison stole like 20 million in gold 17 years before and they never found the gold and he never told anybody where it was, he's scheduled to be executed at midnight, but not if a bunch of commando like mercenaries have anything to say about it. They take over the prison, and try to get the dude to tell them where the gold is. Segal is meanwhile undercover as a prisoner, just a coicidence that he was there, he was really there to earn the trust of a different prisoner, but of course he's always in the right place at the right time. Anyways, he of course causes havoc for the mercenaries and gets some of the prisoners to help him out. There's a butt-load of shooting in it, and actually quite a bit of martial arts fighting in it. He actually didn't look fat at all either, so either they did some good camera tricks or stunt doubles, or he actually lost weight. There were also some scenes with like this kung fu maniac super chick who kicks the heck out of lots of people. He must have gained all his weight back after this movie cause the next movie after this one, Belly Of The Beast, he was fat as heck. So I would definitely reccomend you check this one out. It's not a new release anymore. It was nice to see a newer segal movie that didn't stink.