Marketic It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

barryownsdoallindustries can anybody please tell me the music title or tracks/ songs playing at THE END OF THIS MOVIE where Nadia playing the LP record (classical? / violin or piano?) to Steven Segal in the living room together. thank you so much, Barryit seems Steven Segal knows his style of kungFu. Bryon Mann's kungFu style is weaker in this movie than his other movie. i would give more vote to this movie due to fact that Steven Segal's first wife scene has too much flashback memory. Vinnie Jones is a bit violent character and crazy for sex in this movie, he plays a bad guys in lots recent movies. the night club shown in the movie is fabulous i wish there is one in Canada or USA.

Comeuppance Reviews A man known only as The Boss (Jones) is some sort of crime lord but also has a kill room where he tortures and murders the captive victims of his insane rages. When one girl, Nadia (Stetcu) escapes The Boss, she ends up crossing paths with a hired Killer - said to be "the only guy who can do the job" - named John (Seagal). John, a rotund man of girth, teams up with an actual Martial Artist named Chi (Mann) so they can both fight the baddies that are after them - some for political reasons, some for personal ones. After a lot of violence and bloodshed, the final confrontation occurs: The Boss vs. John. Who will feel the ABSOLUTION? Absolution is proof that they are indeed still making Steven Seagal movies. Maybe it's not that difficult to head off to Romania for a while and, armed with a computer that can do CGI bullet hits and editing software that can speed up fights and take away frames, come back with something that you can release to DVD. Presumably Seagal himself doesn't have to appear that long on the set, as he has other people do his ADR, his stuntwork, and even his dialogue scenes, as stand-ins, well, stand in for him. Many times this is very obvious that Seagal is not actually there listening to the dialogue said by other people. Usually his stand-ins look like Hollywood producer Robert Evans or Roy Orbison. So now you'll know what to look for. It's possible some of the stand-ins even have glasses or blonde hair, that's how little they care to make it match. (That's a joke, but very close to the truth).Just exactly why Seagal doesn't do these fundamentals of filmmaking remains unexplained. Is he some sort of Hollywood royalty that thinks he is above doing these things? Better question: what does this free up time for him to actually DO? What is so important to him that he can't really even appear in his own movies, but for a bare minimum? When did he get so lazy? Why is he running away from himself? (Stay tuned until the last paragraph for a potential answer).We're not really sure who is watching these Seagal movies (besides us, obviously, but we have a website about direct-to-video action movies - what's everyone else's excuse?) - and, if people are watching them, are they taking them seriously? Are they meant to be taken seriously in the first place? Judging by Seagal's narration about him being a bad man in search of absolution, whatever that may mean, we think the answer may be yes, interestingly. Maybe the foreign markets eat these things up, we don't know. Thankfully, when Seagal is talking (and not someone else talking for him), he doesn't lapse into a random Cajun accent too much, but you never know when it will strike. It's like a cobra. A Cajun cobra.Smartly, the filmmakers brought a solid actor and quite good Martial Artist named Byron Mann to pick up Seagal's considerable slack. The movie could have starred Mann and been perfectly fine, if a bit junky. However, the two of them walk away slowly from an explosion, so, maybe there was some bonding there. Fan favorite Vinnie Jones as the uncreatively named "The Boss" (Seagal's name is "John" in the movie so the writers get zero points for creativity in naming the characters) is really at his worst here. Not him, per se, it's not his fault, but the role is weak. But the guy likes to keep working, so, lord bless him. But as a pseudo-Saw-type monster/crime boss, Jones doesn't shine like he should. It could've been anyone wearing that apron in that green-tinted room.Seagal is a victim of his own choices in life. He is where he is because of no one but himself. He wanted to place more emphasis on being some sort of blues-playing Buddha than on doing what he does best. He should consider being less lazy and arrogant and instead put some energy into what he puts out there with his name on it. If he were to reverse course and do that, we might really have something going forward. But as it stands, this is pretty much standard Seagal muck.

joshuawood-54247 As for how Segel Movies have went in the past he did start with some amazing movies then hit a rough patch. It is obvious that with this movie he is back to the classic 80'2 early 90's action. Most forget that he doesn't practice kung fu or Karate Though he does hold a black belt or equivalent in four different martial arts forms. In his movies he uses a version of Aikido to disable or kill his attackers. It is not the slow snappy fight stuff you see in most martial arts movies. He never kicks above the waist, never attacks first he uses the attackers energy against themselves. Often manipulating joints and breaking bones. Now for the Movie, he does play a Mercenary that was part of a failed mission that did not result in the kill or capture of its primary target in the beginning. Does the movie build from there, yes it has a slow story arch and then its straight into the Segel action of the past. Is the plot horrible, no its actually pretty decent and there's no mumbling his lines are clear. Over all the dialogue didn't make me want to tear my ears off. The fight scenes are actually pretty good, He shows a short Katana in a wooden sheath and tells that its his preferred method of killing. I did see someone else mention that it looked like garbage and someone skipped on buying a better prop, also the same person had no idea what a Raptor Drone looked like with Hellfire Missiles as they showed one in the beginning of the movie. Obviously the design of the sword is for tactical field craft as you saw earlier in the beginning of the movie when he takes out a sentry it was tucked under his KIT that he was wearing. Overall this movie was hands down one of the best movies I have seen him in over the last five years. Great job, now off to finish the Trilogy.

brchthethird As a longtime Seagal fan, I've come to the realization that his glory days are long over and that I'll have to settle for whatever he puts out since he's been essentially banished to the direct-to-video market. It's had its ups and downs, with more downs than ups, but he's been able to generally maintain a consistent level of quality (for DTV) that's been on somewhat of an upswing in the past few years. I didn't exactly fawn over his last two films, but they were decent enough that I was anticipating what he'd do next. ABSOLUTION is that "next" project, and despite being a slight step back from his previous effort, it was at least watchable and has some elements to recommend it to fans. The plot, as if it really mattered, is quite simple: Seagal is given an assignment to take out an Afghan playboy who might sell weapons to Iran. However, things don't quite go as planned and he ends up rescuing a young woman from human traffickers who decide that they want their "property" back and come after him. First, the good. There were some decently staged and filmed fight scenes that weren't overly edited, even though there were several moments that were most likely stunt doubles. Byron Mann, a semi-frequent Seagal collaborator, plays his partner and actually gets most of the good, longer fights although the climactic fight scene in a club was mostly worth the time spent getting to it and Seagal gets to vary his style a little more than he had previously. I also noticed a few callbacks to previous films, like ABOVE THE LAW and MARKED FOR DEATH. If you're familiar with Seagal's filmography, you'll know when you see them. I also thought that addressing human trafficking in a low-budget B action movie was pretty cool, although it isn't really treated with much depth. The bad stuff is mostly complaints one could draw from any number of Seagal films. The plot really doesn't make much sense and serves as the glue that holds together several action set-pieces. I also thought the dialogue was particularly bad this time around, and most of the actors delivering it didn't do a great job. The standouts were Steven Seagal and Vinnie Jones, who plays the big bad boss. Speaking of Vinnie Jones, he has quite a charismatic screen presence and despite his limitations, he does well given the right material. Having a little more of him (he's only in a few scenes) would have made the film considerably more enjoyable. Lastly, as expected there isn't much character development to speak of, but what little there was felt like padding. There was a scene where Byron Mann and Steven Seagal reminisce about the past and how they came to be friends, which was nice, but all they end up using from that scene is a single piece of dialogue towards the end. It had no bearing whatsoever on the plot. There was also several flashbacks to Seagal and what appeared to be his wife. Again, divorced of context this had absolutely no bearing on the story and just served to extend the running time. Overall, I'd place this quite low in the pantheon of Seagal films. It isn't so bad as to be unwatchable, like ATTACK FORCE, but it doesn't quite have the charm of something like INTO THE SUN. Still, even though occupying a middle ground as far as Seagal's DTV output, fans will probably watch this no matter what.