A Dangerous Man (2009) starring Steven Seagal, Mike Dopud, Marlaina Mah, Vitaly Kravchenko, Jesse Hutch, Terry Chen, Byron Mann, Byron Lawson directed by Keoni Waxman Movie Review

A Dangerous Man (2009)   3/53/53/53/53/5


Steven Seagal as Shane Daniels in A Dangerous Man (2009)

Dangerous Cliches

Loud, fast, violent and full of cliches, I could be talking about pretty much any of Steven Seagal's direct to video movies but in this case I am on about "A Dangerous Man". This is a movie which typifies Seagal's more recent movies because it is totally unoriginal with countless cliches from an innocent man released from prison to Russian Mafia and Chinese drug smugglers. But then that is what you expect from a Seagal movie and it delivers everything you expect from brutal violence to obligatory nudity of a pretty young woman. It doesn't make "A Dangerous Man" a good movie but satisfying if all you want is a typical Seagal movie.

Having served 6 years for a crime he didn't commit, former Special Forces soldier Shane Daniels (Steven Seagal - Kill Switch) is out of prison and walks straight into a load of trouble. Finding himself at the wrong place at the wrong time he witnesses a cop being gunned down by the Chinese mafia and when he intervenes he finds himself with a bag full of drug money, a girl who was kidnapped and the son of a Russian mobster who was also in the wrong place at the wrong time. Discovering the girl, Tia (Marlaina Mah), was kidnapped because her uncle, an accountant for the Chinese mafia, was trying to make it illegally into America, Shane finds himself helping rescue her Uncle with his new found Russian mafia friends.

Marlaina Mah as Tia in A Dangerous Man (2009)

So as I said "A Dangerous Man" is a typical Steven Seagal movie and when it comes to the story it is little more than a collection of cliches. These include Shane being ex-special forces and having served time for a crime he didn't commit and they go on to include both the Russian and Chinese mafia, drug smuggling, illegal immigrants and just for good measure dirty cops. None of it adds up to much other than Shane helps Tia rescue her Uncle with the help of the Russian mafia who pledge their loyalty to him because he saved the son of a Russian mob boss. But you get a sense that when "A Dangerous Man" was written it was done intentionally to be nothing more than cliches and derives some humour from being so cliche.

What that really means is that "A Dangerous Man" is all about the action and in typical fashion we have an early scene where two street punks try to mug Shane and of course he deals with them by kicking their butt in a very visual and brutal way. And that is one of the stand out things about "A Dangerous Man" because when it comes to action it is brutal with a lot of in your face violence which rather strangely makes it better than some of Seagal's other action movies which seem to play it safe.

On the subject of action and Seagal, well when it comes to quick hand work we definitely get to see Seagal fire out some chops and punches but again we often get over the shoulder shots and leg shots for a lot of the other action which makes you question whether again we have a double standing in for Seagal when it comes to kicks and action which requires a lot of movement. Don't get me wrong because the action is snappily edited and ends up exciting but you do wonder how much is Seagal.

Aside from that there isn't much else to say other than we have a lot of cliche characters from pretty young women to corny stereotypical bad guys and semi good guys when it comes to the Russians. What is amusing is when it comes to the obligatory moment of nudity because we have Seagal in prison thinking about his wife who he loves, what he remembers is her naked riding him whilst he sits there admiring her naked body. I'm sure a man missing his wife must have more romantic memories but they have to get the nudity in there somehow.

What this all boils down to is that "A Dangerous Man" is purely a stereotypical Steven Seagal movie with a storyline built from familiar cliches which are little more than a vehicle for violent action. It's not a good movie but when it comes to Seagal's direct to video movies at least it is entertaining.


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