On Deadly Ground (1994)

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

How sad is this?

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

"On Deadly Ground" may have had good intentions, judging by the synopsis. The final results are nothing short of disastrous. Steven Seagal convincing himself that he's a director, doesn't exactly help matters. His "direction" is heavy going to say the least and can't maintain a good enough pace. Michael Caine - in yet another woeful film - tries and fails dismally to put on an authentic American accent. His hair dye job only makes it worse! One scene that invites unintentional mirth, is the one in the local bar when Seagal crosses swords with bigot Mike Starr. The reason why this is all a bit ridiculous, is when the two men test each other's hand speed. Seagal was by now piling on the pounds, so his opponent here would have to be on the stout side. Otherwise, a skinnier opponent would only make Seagal look decidedly slow....An absolute farce! This film is about loads of money being wasted on a story which wasn't developed properly. It becomes just another excuse to have good guys vs the bad guys, guns and all.

I tend to actively avoid Steven Seagal films like the plague, and realize intermittently that I do in fact enjoy certain ones from back in the day. He's made a ton of trash, no doubt, but the clouds part every now and again, for select occasions like Under Siege, The Glimmer Man, Above The Law, Fire Down Below and the snowbound On Deadly Ground. The main marvel in this one is an incredibly hammy Michael Caine as the mustache twirling villain, a Big Oil maniac who has his amoral sights set on sacred land belonging to Inuit tribesman. Seagal plays yet another martial arts trained badass who takes it upon himself to bring down Caine, his nefarious capitalist plans and the violent mercenaries he has hired to wipe the land of indigenous natives. It's as silly as silly can be, right down to him falling in love with a beautiful Inuit girl (Joan Chen, actually Chinese), but enjoyable on its own terms when you look at the solid choreography, stunts and impressive location work. Also, the roster of villains is too good to pass up, starting with Caine's outright, wanton psychopath. We're also treated to the Sergeant himself, R. Lee Ermey as a merc with a particularly salty attitude, John C. McGinley over-playing one of his patented schoolyard bullies, and even Billy Bob Thornton shows up, adding to the sleaze factor. Watch for cameos from Mike Starr, Michael Jai White and an unbilled Louise Fletcher as well. Seagal directed this himself, so it's essentially one big vanity piece where he gets to play Dances With Wolves for a couple hours, but the trick is to see the unintentional comedy in that and enjoy it. Seagal is one of those goofs who I am not a ashamed to say I am laughing at, not with. Caine is the real prize here, and his merry band of assholes. An action flick is only as good as it's antagonist, and this guy is bad to the bone in hilariously over the top ways. A big dumb flick, nothing more, nothing le- well maybe a little less in places, but fun in other spots nonetheless.

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.

Forrest Taft works for Aegis Oil. Corrupt CEO, Michael Jennings, doesn't care whether or not oil spills into the ocean or onto the land, just as long as it's making money for him. Jennings is almost finished building his new oil rig, but the problem is that if he doesn't finish building the rig in thirteen days, the land rights will be returned to the Eskimos and the Alaskan government. Jennings finds out that Taft's best friend has a disk that contains information about defective equipment on The rig, so he sends out his goons to murder him. When Taft tries to interfere, Jennings tries to kill Taft. But an Eskimo woman named Masu, who introduces Taft to her father Silook, the chief of her tribe, rescues Taft, and hi shiny coat.....Seagals directorial debut marks the moment when he became self aware, and started to preach more on screen, rather than kick butt. His golden era came to an end with Under Siege, and his silver era began with this, and ended with Fire Down Below (which also sounds like an STD).But it's still a load of fun, Seagal started hi strange dress sense with this, and if you can swallow all the hocus pocus, and mythology stuff, its a pretty decent action movie.Caine is on best bad guy duties here, shouting all the time and generally being vexed about every little thing, and is the best thing here, the film is always fun when he is on screen.The fight screens are as good as always, even though we have to endure 'people changing' speeches every now and again, and also, Seagal has a tendency to go 'bang!' When he hits someone every now and again.But instead of ending the film straight after the Die Hard on an oil rig type finale, Seagal treats us to a little lecture about oxygen and electric cars.All in all, its a fun little movie, just a tiny bit preachy every now and again...