Review of Half Past Dead (2002) by Paul N — 25 Jun 2009
Everybody's favourite squinty, rapidly expanding, slap-happy lunkhead is his usual wonderful self in this, his last American movie (to date) to hit the big screen. A low-budget bastard child of THE ROCK (which this script was originally titled!) and DIE HARD, its writer/director and crew have to be given props for maximising their limited resources for some rather impressive action scenes (particularly a basement martial arts sequence where the female villain beats the stuffing out of Ja Rule -- Seagal's obligatory rapper sidekick -- it's a stunner).
Inevitably, as with every Seagal film, the plot throws up more questions than answers... Why do the lead male & female villain dress like extras from The Matrix? Why does the villain's scheme actually make no sense, when held up to any sort of examination?? Why are these heavily armed ex-Gulf War vets going to such ridiculous lengths to steal $200 million in gold bullion, when they've clearly spent at least $50 million on weaponry??? (I mean, save the cash and retire to the Bahamas, dudes!) Despite these questions (and many, many more), it's actually not the worst way you can spend a brainless hour-and-a-half.
If you want to watch a Seagal flick, you can actually do a lot worse (see EXIT WOUNDS, ON DEADLY GROUND, etc).
This review of Half Past Dead (2002) was written by Paul N on 25 Jun 2009.
Half Past Dead has generally received mixed reviews.
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