Overrated and overhyped

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great Film overall

An action-packed slog

Seagal is back as ex-CIA man Jon Cold in Foreigner 2: Black Dawn, and this time his work as a freelance agent is deep undercover thwarting a nuclear strike on Los Angeles. It's a mediocre production, cliché ridden and seasoned with sneering villains, double-crossing good guys, and other predictable action-movie accoutrements. But, it is at least an effective offering from Seagal with some good action scenes, even if the visual effects are below par. There is also some good dramatic support from Cold's former protégé helper, played by Tamara Davies.

BLACK DAWN is the sequel to THE FOREIGNER that nobody asked for. Steven Seagal returns as special agent Jonathan Cold, who must tackle a terrorist gang with plans on America. As anybody familiar with Seagal's work over the last fifteen years will know, this means that there's lot of low rent dialogue, doubling, cheesy action scenes, and general inanity.Half the cast have British or foreign accents and seem to be struggling with the dialogue they're given. Seagal appears constipated throughout and is obviously doubled in all of his fight scenes. The film as a whole lacks the kind of familiar faces that show up in a lot of his other work, so it's more tiresome to sit through. It does pick up at the mid point for a surprisingly well mounted truck chase before descending back into ineptitude afterwards.

If I can start by saying something really positive about this movie: it doesn't waste any time in telling you it's terrible. The opening sequence is a really misguided attempt at being artsy, almost like the director didn't know he was making a Seagal movie yet. "Black Dawn" is a sequel to "The Foreigner", which essentially means they were too lazy to come up with a new name for the character Seagal plays in every movie (see also: "Under Siege 2"). They keep up that lazyness in every other aspect. The fight scenes are typical for recent Seagal releases: confusing cuts, extreme close-ups, because that way we won't know it's a fighting double. Every time Seagal fights (granted, that's not often in this movie) he suddenly loses 40 lbs. and has real black hair instead of that weird spray-on hairdo, all the bizarre jump cuts in the world can't hide that. The most hilarious scene is the one where Seagal's on a 'moving' truck though: worst green screen ever, it makes the infamous train scene from Jean Claude Van Damme's "Derailed" look state of the art.P.S: It's nice to know the news can actually show a picture of the corpse when they're reporting a murder, great for the ratings. I'm pretty sure you can get in trouble for that.

Interesting, very interesting. I checked out most of the IMDb comments on the film before buying. Many comments took the view, "I'm a die-hard Seagal fan but this is not very good." But I don't agree. ( Comic Strip reference. ) Recently I've been getting familiar with the 21st century conspiracy material and re-acquainting myself with the heroic deeds of the CIA since the War. I'm an admirer of the two Jason Bourne films, Enemy of the State. I re-watched Spy Game the other night and enjoyed it more for its depiction of the CIA as computer analysts, people no longer capable of acting in the field.I think Black Dawn fits right on in there. It's competent and there is plenty going on, in the style of the Byzantine Empire.Seagal is overweight? When we was he slender? I don't think his weight is relevant to his film persona. I don't associate Steven Seagal with martial arts fireworks. His approach to combat is the realistic one, "Get it over fast." As far as I'm concerned he's always just slapped people's faces and twisted their wrists. He's not like his perceived cohorts who're always trying to top their previous stunts. If you want to see a Westerner 'go for it' then you might follow Jason Statham. I think Steven Seagal's approach is more akin to Sonny Chiba's in the Streetfighter films.Anyway Seagal's are not just about Steven Seagal, although they have a personal moral dimension.This is a competent B movie that is not trying to be an under-funded action blockbuster.