THE MOVIE

In On Deadly Ground, Steven Seagal delivers something of an environmentally friendly role. By that I don’t mean that his part in the movie is subject to 20% reduction, or that he has lost 20% of his weight. I wish he had....lost weight that is as he seems to have widened a lot from his Under Siege days. Here we get to see Steven’s spiritual side as he dons the native American look and seeks to take on a major oil company in another David and Goliath story.

Steven Seagal plays Forrest Taft, an expert fire fighter specialising in oil fires. He works for Aegis Oil, headed by the ruthless Michael Jennings (Michael Caine) who will stop at nothing to make his fortunes out of violating the environment.

One day, an oil rig fire is used to cover up the death of the foreman Hugh Palmer (Richard Hamilton). Taft, after putting out the fire, becomes suspicious of foul play and soon discovers the nasty dealings the company he works for is in to. When he gets too close, Jennings tries to eliminate the threat via another fire. He is unsuccessful. Taft vows revenge and, with the help of native woman Mesu (played by Joan Chen) and a little spiritual healing, the two begin to overthrow Aegis Oil.

Jennings’ men have a hard time getting rid of Taft as we inevitably discover that Forrest Taft has a secret past. He was a highly trained CIA operative, trained in explosives and the like (well they have to explain Steven Seagal’s martial arts and weapons training some how). So we have oil rigs on one side and an explosives expert played by Steven Seagal on the other- the perfect recipe for big explosions.

In the end, the good guys triumph and the bad guys (headed by Jennings) are blown away in a huge explosive final scene on Jennings new (but not so safe) oil platform. The movie concludes with Taft giving a warning/lesson in the form of a speech to all the big fossil fuel players around the world that the planet is suffering by our own hand and that we should look to cleaner and more efficient energy sources for the future.

This is one of Steven Seagal’s better movies (still no classic though) although his real life strong beliefs in protecting the environment are once again shown. This is perhaps becoming a bit annoying now as his last 3-4 movies have had the exact same theme, so it may be time for him to change tempo.

THE TRANSFER

Video:

The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, 16x9 enhanced. The video quality is good, which is to say it could have been better. It lacks sharpness and clarity that would have otherwise been expected, and certain scenes are made worse by a distinct grainy appearance. Only a very few artefacts were observed, but nothing to detract from the movie itself.

This, rather lack-luster transfer, is not helped by the colour scheme which appears dull and lifeless considering the abundance of forest and nature sequences in the movie. The lack of colour definition could have been deliberate to convey the plight of the environment or perhaps it was just the transfer.

Audio:

The audio track is quite good and makes up for some of the pitfalls of the video. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is used successfully with plenty of use of the surrounds, particularly during the explosion scenes, where the bass is quite lively. Spatial dexterity was evident, providing a very nice engulfing soundscape.

THE EXTRAS

There are no extras to speak of. Very disappointing once again........extras are always a good incentive for buying a disc and when they are totally missing, it will certainly impact disc sales

SUMMARY

Seagal does prety well in this movie although some of you, I'm sure, would have gotten a bit tired of his 'save the planet' theme by now. The disc isn't too bad but once again there are no extras to be found