This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Saying that in the most recent years something terribly wrong has happened with Seagal's shape is as innovative as stating that the amount of the unemployment allowance is like a gloomy joke. Famous in the days of yore actor in his fattest aptly named years was gleaming with his brawn and gelled hair, combed in a ponytail, sprightly breaking enemies' bones in a very spectacular way, at least for the audience.What's left from the aforesaid magic of Steven is merely a foggy recollection and the man who had significant contribution in propagating Aikido all over the world is currently nothing but a (considerably huge) shell of himself in terms of the appearance as well as regarding his cinematic achievements.The flick called "A Dangerous Man" is a perfect fit in the trend sustained by the most current pictures - lowbrow action cinema, filmed with a strictly limited budget (partly from the pocket of very Steven himself), with deplorable montage, artificially accelerated motions, the excessive presence of a double and run-of-the-mill scenario.Obviously, Steven once again repeats his role of a killing machine able to break one's neck with the slightest move of his finger, the character so typical of his films. Some Shane Daniels (Seagal) is sentenced to prison for a murder he didn't commit. After 6 years of doing his time in the penitentiary, new evidence is taken into account and Daniels is made up for his hardship with a sum of $300k. Unfortunately, Shane's wife didn't manage to be faithful to her beloved for so long; therefore Seagal, pardon, Daniels, is all on his ownsome. Less than 24h without the handcuffs pass and he is once again mingled in a crime, witnessing a murder committed by two Chinese. The murderers attempt to finish off both the inconvenient witness and Sergey, who was also present at the crime scene. After a short shootout, Daniels saves the boy and finds out that there is a kidnapped girl in the trunk of Chinese's car. All three of them decide to combine their strength to face both the Chinese mob and the corrupt police officers collaborating with the latter ones...Surprisingly, the sheer beginning of "A Dangerous Man" gives hope for a movie somewhat better than the previous disasters with Seagal. The fighting scene on a parking lot is filmed without the annoying acceleration of movements, whose aim is to conceal the deficiencies; moreover, hand motion of 'stoutly built' Seagal is clearly visible (albeit reminding of Aussie salute performed to get rid of an obtrusive tsetse fly...).Unfortunately, the further you go, the worse. That the script is filled with well-worn motives would still be acceptable; cheesy lines could also be overlooked. However, the whole movie is simply destroyed by a pile of pathetic C-class-like ideas, employed together with tragic Seagal's performance and extremely bad execution of bare-hands fighting scenes. How could anyone take seriously Steven who is almost stammering every line like he was reading them from the stickers glued to the table? How could anyone not be about to laugh when god-like Seagal is having a sexual intercourse with his naked wife wearing leather jacket and grinning like an innocent chubby boy? The schemes mentioned above comprise not solely the loutish scenario with easily predictable plot twists, filled with tacky dialogues, but also the very sequences of melee (which by the way are in the minority in comparison with the shootout scenes, the latter ones not requiring too much mobility). Relentlessly, the audience watches the sped up montage; moreover, every malefactor dutifully destroys at least one furniture/object/window glass with his bulk Isn't this peculiar predilection of Seagal's characters towards smashing the room equipment too close to some kind of a deviation? One could assume that the executive producers of „A Dangerous Man" have an agreement with IKEA regarding the supply of devastated furniture...Other clichés, so typical of other flicks from the same genre as „A Dangerous Man", can't be overlooked as well due to the simple fact that they are ladled in bluntly lackluster manner. The sequence when Seagal triggers off a bomb, walking as steady as a rock towards the camera with the explosion behind his back is just one of a few examples. An obligatory mug (even more than one) thrown through the window and smashing the glass to the shatters is yet another one.Bare-hands fighting sequences suffer from bad montage execution, they usually present only sheer hands (seldom legs) of the main protagonist. Rarely Seagal bends one of the unfortunate fellow with a wrist lock, in the majority of the scenes however he simply restrains himself to throwing people at tables/chairs/TVs or other equipment from the IKEA offer.Albeit I've poured some smears at present Seagal, I'm far from condemning his overall achievements. Steven from the era of „Above the Law" or „Out for Justice" is the one we would like to see on a TV screen. Not the obese, chubby bear-like character, relentlessly wearing the same coat/jacket (horror of horrors, declining to take them off even in the bedroom scenes) and definitely not Steven overusing stunts. The only hope lies in the return of Seagal to his greatest shape, dropping the doubles playing the majority of scenes instead of himself and cooperation with some decent director who avoids cheap flicks, having solid cinema on his account.To conclude: „A Dangerous Man" is not even watchable as an unintentional parody of the whole genre. It's too rotten, excessively packed up with clichés reminding of „straight-to-DVD" films (which, by the way, the reviewed movie is) and simply boring as hell, lacking decent action/shooting/car-chase sequences. The worst of Seagal's – avoid at all cost.The telegraphic shortcut: Seagal combating his excessive weight rather than the enemies; pathetically accelerated takes in few action scenes make the reception of the flick even worse; poor script together with Seagal's bad performance greatly contribute to the picture of a cinematic disaster.

Dirty cops. Russians moving illegal cars. Chinese gangsters. A kidnapped girl and drug money now in his possession after interfering with Chinese thugs who kill a policeman and Russian car thief, ex-Special forces soldier Shane Daniels(Steven Seagal), just released from prison after 6 years for a murder he didn't commit(DNA evidence proving his innocence, but the time costing him his marriage), is right in the middle of quite a mess. It's good that he has the fighting skills and capabilities to deal with constant threats while looking to help a girl, Tia(Marlaina Mah) free her uncle used as bait to trade drug money between Chinese. Sergey(Jesse Hutch)is the son of a powerful Russian, Vlad(Vitaly Kravchenko)and was stopping off while moving an SUV(his friend had to urinate) when they come across the police officer pulling over two Chinese gangsters with Tia hostage. Mao(Byron Lawson)is the Chinese gangster(working for drug lord Chen(Terry Chen)who expects to use Tia's uncle as a trading device for drug money)who witnessed Daniels' handiwork and couldn't stop Sergey(and a drugged Tia)from fleeing. Sgt Ritchie(Jerry Wasserman)is the leader of his county's crooked cops, under the 'advisement' of Chen(in other words, Ritchie and his men are in Chen's hip pocket). Vlad doesn't like Ritchie or any other cops on his turf and soon has a war on his hands..Sergey, whose life was saved thanks to Daniels(Daniels happened to be in the vicinity where Mao and another goon were killing the cop), will hold his savior in his debt. Because Sergey's life was saved, Vlad offers Daniels a hand of friendship and protection. Even more threatening than Chen is The Colonel(Byron Mann), a "Danu" warrior who has special plans to take Tia's Uncle himself. So Daniels has much to contend with, joining forces with Vlad, they will attempt to get Tia's Uncle away from The Colonel by any means possible. Two major action sequences include the shootouts at Vlad's mansion and Chen's lumber mill, with Seagal looking superhuman thanks to camera speed and editing. Daniels' kicks send opponents hurling in the air and through windows, shelves, and other furniture. Daniels' arms move impressively quick, about as fast as a hummingbird's wings. Mao and The Colonel, neither one, are able to withstand or combat Daniels' staggeringly swift hands and stunning power. Director/writer Keoni Waxman makes Seagal look really good, though, and I think it's all too clear that cinematic techniques contribute mightily to this effect. Notice how camera speed, for instance, adds impact to Daniels' blows and movements. While an aging Seagal is no longer in his ABOVE THE LAW/HARD TO KILL prime, thanks to proper editing, it looks like his Daniels is a dangerous killing machine without an equal, even though we can figure that his stand-in stuntman carries a lot of the load with less appreciation. Still, there are moments where we see Seagal's hands engage with the enemy, and that does add value to the fight sequences.

For a recent Seagal effort I thought this was quite good. There are a fair few fight scenes with Seagal doing most of the fighting (a little double work). The film moves at a brisk enough pace and although its a similar story to ones that we have seen before (ex special ops etc) I liked the story. 6/10fights: a good selection of fight scenes with plenty of bone breakingDubbing: There is some dubbing, but its not as bad as in some of the others (attack force)Acting: Fair enough, typical Seagal fair. Supporting actors were OKStory: A rehash with a little twistEntertaining overall!

I gave this movie 8 out of 10 stars. Now before you laugh let me explain myself. In the Seagal world from 1988-2002 Seagal made theatrical, quality films ending with "Half Past Dead". Now people that grew up with Seagal as an action hero (Under Siege came out when I was in high school) then you also understand what happened next. In 2003 Seagals "The Foreigner" was pulled from Theatrical Release and release direct to DVD. Seagal fans were in shock at how bad this film was. Along came the DVD release of "Ticker" which was filmed in 2001 and shelved before being released. We all know why. "The Foreigner" was followed by the atrocious "Out For A Kill" and Seagal fans got worried. Then "Belly of the Beast" was released and Seagal fans let out a collective sigh. Not a great film but by no means was it as bad as the aforementioned films. It can't get any worse right? Well it could. Seagal fans went numb watching the likes of "Out of Reach", "Mercenary for Justice", "Today You Die", and "Submerged". Seagal fans re-watched "Exit Wounds" to remind themselves what his films used to be like. The all time low came in 2007 with "Flight of Fury" which was an outright joke. I had given up. Then came "Urban Justice" and "Pistol Whipped" and slowly I became interested again. In line with "The Keeper" "A Dangerous Man" keeps up the hope as it is probably his best Direct to DVD film yet. The action is solid and the fights are terrific. Yeah, the story lags in the middle a bit but you barely notice amidst the bone cracking martial artist (overweight I might add) doing his thing. So 8 out of 10. Not because it compares with a Tarantino film by any means. If you are a Seagal fan like I am then compared to "Flight of Fury" this truly is an 8 out of 10. Bring on "Machete"!