This movie is available from www.amazon.com

Rating:

4.75

AKA: Yakuza

Year of release: 2005

Genre: action

Director: mink

Stunt director: Dicky Beer

Writers: Steven Seagal, Joe Halpin, Trevor Miller

Cinematography: Don Fauntleroy

Editor: Michael Duthie

Music: Stanley Clarke

Stars: Steven Seagal, Matthew Davis, Takao Osawa, Ken Lo, William Atherton, Munehisa Fujita, Eddie George, Daisuke Honda, Masat� Ibu, Chiaki Kuriyama

Rated R for violence, language and brief nudity

DVD Information

Company: Columbia

Format: widescreen

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Extras: trailers

Notes: Overpriced for what you get -- and the trailers annoyingly auto-play when you put in the disc.

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Into the Sun

Whoopitee-doo, it's yet another straight-to-video effort from the rotund monosyllabic ponytailed hawker of Mountain Dew and ramen noodles, Steven Seagal. His past couple of efforts like Belly of the Beast haven't been very good -- Into the Sun further reminds the viewer why Seagal isn't exactly box office gold nowadays. From start to finish, this is just a dull film that offers a few glimmers of hope during the running time, but unfortunately never delivers on them.

Into the Sun's flimsy plot has Seagal as a "black ops" CIA agent who is brought in to investigate the death of a Japanese businessman. Of course, our boy Steven is a master detective, and he soon discovers a plot by some renegade represenatives of the Yakuza and the Triads (led by Drunken Master II's Ken Lo) to take over the drug trade in Asia. Armed with a cool trenchcoat, an oversized sword, and a dumb-ass sidekick (Matthew Davis), Seagal sets out to deliver his own special brand of justice.

So, yeah, the plot isn't that great, but usually Seagal's movies aren't exactly Shakespeare. Even if most of his films seem like the script was written on a cocktail napkin, they usually deliver some solid action. Unfortunately, Into the Sun fails to do that. There's not enough action, and what's there isn't that great. As you might expect from a director named "mink", Into the Sun is a prime example of the MTV-style editing plaguing action movies lately. Even the fight between Seagal and Ken Lo (which, even though it's not exactly a "dream" fight, still holds some interest for martial arts movie fans) is tepid. Sure, we're dealing with two men who are probably far past their fighting prime -- but it would have been nice to actually see something, rather than the jumble of badly-matched shots and crappy techno music that was put on the screen.

Into the Sun does redeem itself a bit with the final fifteen minutes or so. Seagal goes old-school on a bunch of gangsters and there is some very satisfying bloodshed, with flying limbs, spurting blood and the like. However, by the time the end credits rolled (accompanied by Seagal's own band, which is actually not that bad) I was more than ready to be done with this movie. Long-time Seagal fans will still probably want to check Into the Sun out, but more casual (or discerning) viewers will probably want to put this on hold for the proverbial rainy day rental, unless you have the burning need to hear Steven Seagal say "I'm gonna kick your ass" in Japanese.