| Black Dawn (2006) Cast:Steven Seagal,Tamara Davies Steven Seagal returns as Jonathan Cold in this sequel to The Foreigner . (Of all the movies to make a sequel to...) This time the audience is wondering if Seagal is either a good guy or a bad guy and along the way he remains the only one who can stop Russian terrorists from getting a nuclear bomb in this undistinguished but tolerable action opus for Seagal, although serviceable the story is lukewarm and the overall process never works quite as well as it should. Black Dawn remains a vast improvement over Out For A Kill, Out Of Reach, The Foreigner,Submerged and Today You Die but remains inferior to Van Damme's Wake Of Death and Lundgren's Defender and Russian Specialist. The actionscenes are well staged, Seagal abandons his usual akidio (Thankfully, since he obviously can't do them without stuntmen) and the bland heroics are for the most part par for what you would expect from a straight to video actioner. I for one can't understand Seagal's appeal in the straight to video market, since most of his movies have been duds but somehow the overweight actionstar manages to churn out movies to a seemingly willing audience. At least Black Dawn is easier to watch than other Seagal stinkers, the movie itself leaves you really without an opinion and I for one can only offer faint praise on such mediocrity. So if you like Seagal, you'll probably find this enjoyable. I on the other hand had no real thoughts on it, except for the feeling of indifference. D.Alexander Gruszynski** |