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Seagal on a Train....

This was pretty good actually, despite having some production problems(word has it that they were thinking of bringing Gary Busey's character back from Under Seige I-yeah, right-off the exploding Sub? Not likely...)But anyways, this worked well for me. I enjoyed Seagal, showed a bit of humour here in places, thought the train gave it a decent closed in setting, liked both Kurtwood Smith and Everett McGill doing what they do best. (Smith has played the worried Pentagon staffer before too, about the same way...) My impression of Bogosian was that he was a bit too wired at times in his portrayal but it worked just the same. Overall an enjoyable if not great action film, the sort Seagal should have made more of.**1/2 outta ****, nothing great, but alright.

Casey Ryback's back and don't mess with him!

I'm not sure if it was Under Siege or Under Siege 2 that made me a Steven Seagal fan. Sure, he's not the greatest actor, but he's great in action films. I realize Under Siege 2 is formulaic, but let's face it, the formula works. Sure, both Under Siege films had a female for Ryback to raise his concern, and an insider/traitor involved with the Pentagon, villains who can't quite kill him and unbelievable stunts. That's what action fans want. This one takes place on a train instead of a ship. He even gets thrown off the train and gets back on board. It's another roller-coaster ride and it does move fast. No boring moments in this one. Great villains that you can't wait 'til they get theirs! Kudos to the stunt men and Seagal for some rip roaring action and I have to salute director Geoff Murphy for a job well done. If you enjoy a good action film, this one's for you.

An outstanding tribute to American movie-making excellence.

Hi, I'm Chuck, a public relations spokesman for Universal studios, and I've got great news for all you Steven Segal fans. We are about to announce the making of a series of Under Siege films: Under Siege 4 thru to 37, after our good friends at Warner Bros. have completed Under Siege 3. What with, the story-line, scripting, casting, director, producer, editing, scoring all to be finalised; word has it fron Warner's that from go to whoa, this movie should be ready for release in 7 days.

Yes, I'm as mystified with the rest of you film connoisseurs as to why Segal has not won multiple Oscars for his very fine performances in past movies. Hey, if Titanic can win Best Picture, anything goes, right? Well, Edgar is really, really excited about this forthcoming project of an anthology of Under Siege films that details will be announced by way of a cover-story on Time magazine, courtesy of the goodwill from our colleagues at Warner's.

"Nobody Beats Me In The Kitchen." Hell Of A High-Speed Thriller From Start To Finish. Katherine Heigl Is HOT, HOT, HOT.

Steven Seagal plays Casey F---ing Ryback once again in this (literally) explosive and high-octane, high-speed thriller loaded with jaw-dropping action sequences and very cool eye candy (I'm talkin' girls now). Katherine Hiegl is drop-dead gorgeous. Pity she didn't get naked. The sex scene should have been longer. Anyway, Eric Bogosian (yea, that creepy dude who's now on "Law Ander Order: Criminal Intent") is the villain in this sequel. Hell, I would have preferred someone like Denzel Washington or an A-list actor as the baddie. But that probably would have upstaged Seagal, who's the focus of the movie. I give this sequel five stars because of Ms. Hiegl, the rest of the eye candy and the action sequences. This movie had something the first movie (which I didn't much care for) should have had: comic relief. The movie should have been rated PG-13 for some violence and mild language. "Nobody Beats Me In The Kitchen." All Aboard.

A worthy sequel to the excellent original

A deadly group of no-good terrorists lead by batty computer expert Travis Dane (delightfully essayed with lip-smacking sardonic élan by Eric Bogosian) hijack a speeding locomotive train so they can get their nasty hands on a lethal state-of-the-art weapons satellite. It's up to ex-Navy Seal and ace cook Casey Ryback (the ever-stoic Steven Seagal sans his trademark ponytail but sporting a sizable paunch) to stop them. Director Geoff Murphy, working from a blithely far-fetched and improbable script by Matt Reeves and Richard Hatem, relates the fun story at a ceaseless breakneck pace and stages the wild action set pieces with thrilling gusto. The brutal'n'bloody bone-breaking, body-blasting, and just flat-out sadistic violence includes copious gunplay, a little knife throwing, lots of vicious hand-to-hand combat, and a real corker of a no-holds-barred climactic physical confrontation between Ryback and coldblooded soldier of fortune Marcus Penn (Everett McGill in fine ferocious form). Seagal is his usual blank and emotionless self, but luckily the bang-up supporting cast of capable thespians compensates for his woodenness: Morris Chestnut contributes a likable turn as klutzy porter Bobby Zachs, the luscious Katherine Heigl is absolutely adorable as Ryback's spunky niece Sarah, plus there are neat performances by Andy Romano as the hard-nosed Admiral Bates, Nicx Mancuso as slimy chain-smoking sleazebag Tom Breaker, Kurtwood Smith as the no-nonsense General Cooper, and the always sexy Brenda Bakke as the enticing Captain Linda Gilder. Familiar character actors Peter Greene, Lincoln Kilpatrick and Jonathan Banks pop up as scuzzy mercenaries. Both Robbie Greenberg's glossy, dynamic cinematography and Basil Poledouris' stirring, majestic score are up to par. The surprisingly hokey special effects further add to the overall campy entertainment value. But it's this film's jaw-droppingly sincere sense of straight-faced outright absurdity that really makes the picture such an infectiously ludicrous hoot to watch.

Great action movie!

Classic Segal. Takes on the bad guys at incredible odds and wins while baking a cake! Great movie!

'Nobody beats me in the kitchen!"

Steven Seagal reprises his role as a one time SEAL team captain, a counter-terrorist expert who had to rely only on his personal skills in order to survive, and protect the hostages... He happens to be on the Grand Continental passenger train traveling from Denver to L.A... Seagal joins the only family he has, a 'cute kid' named Sarah (Katherine Heigl) after her parents died in a plane crash...

Seagal has an electrifying screen presence... Seeing him in action is similar to appreciating modern art...


The train is hijacked by a team of 'ugly men' with guns... Their chief, Travis Dane (Eric Bogosian), is a high-tech mastermind, who fakes his own death in order to gain control of a top-secret nuclear satellite... For this crazy technical genius, technology can be used for beauty or debasement, and 'until you plug it in, you just can't tell.'

Dane's henchman Penn (Everett McGill) is a soldier of fortune freak, whose relationship with his boss resurfaced during Desert Storm...

Morris Chestnut's focus is on humor and breath-taking sequences...

Geoff Murphy's film is incredibly entertaining, combining action, martial arts, and dark sense of humor...

Come on, cut Steve some slack

Okay, so this film is illogical, excessive and cartoonish. Lots of dead guys, plenty of explosions, numerous examples of Seagal's patented chop socky that looks like Japanese fan dancing. But gimme a break. What do you expect from a Steven Seagal film? Steven Seagal is a cartoon character, and if you disagree, watch his direct-to-video abortion THE PATRIOT, with its heavy-handed politics and bizarre ending that looks like AMERICAN BEAUTY meets OUTBREAK meets DANCES WITH WOLVES.This is perhaps one of my favorite Seagal flicks primarily because the writers and director saw fit to stop taking Stevie so seriously and just go for the jugular. It's a rip-roaring good time, if you ask me, made more delightful by the presence of Eric Bogosian, Everett McGill and Peter Greene among the cadre of villians. Everyone's having a blast chewing up scenery, and through it all, Seagal slinks about in his hip all-black suit, kicking ass and taking names. Every so often, we get to cut back to some secret military defense base where worried brass gaze at the radar screen, wring their hands and say, "Lord, help us all!" It's a hoot, gang! Pop a tub of popcorn and enjoy.

Pleasantly surprised

A competent, diverting action thriller. At its centre is the soft-spoken Steven Seagal, walking that fine line between gravitas and irony that boil-in-the-bag thrillers like this demand. As the one-card-short baddie we've a composite: Travis Dane, who's the mad scientist overlord and Everett McGill who's his hard-man chief of staff.Other required roles are picked up by Morris Chestnut (!) as a jive-talking porter and Katherine Heigl as Seagal's saucy, big-chested niece. All actors dispatch their tasks admirably, as do many of the smaller roles.The downsides come in some preposterously implausible loose ends, a generally silly premise and lots of cut-to-the-chase editing (often cut THROUGH the chase) for maximum exhilaration. Ridiculous, but Geoff Murphy keeps a solid grip on it - it's fairly even and always pacy. 5/10

Ughh

I love action movies, but this is an example of how to make a bad one.Pretty stamdard, military or law enforcement officer storms into hostage situation held by diabolical genius (nerd) and big, mean guy. Grrr!!! :)I didn't expect very much plot, but it could still be so much better. Penn hardly got half a scratch on Segal before he goes down. They spent about 6 times as many minutes hyping up the final fight than it's actual duration. Bad writer, bad. I didn't like Dane getting on the ladder, let alone his cruel dispersal of his life. And shooting a computer probably won't rewind information that has bent sent out of it.Good action, more like fair action actually. I don't like the bump from the Plothole. 3/10

Nobody does it better

Carly Simon may have been referring to James Bond in her 1977 hit, "Nobody Does It Better," but she could just as easily been referring to Seagal. Some people had the gall to say John Maclaine made Rambo look like a wimp when DIE HARD came out. Let me tell you, Rybeck makes Maclaine look as tough as a breakaway vase. The hostage storyline may be old, but watching Seagal handle all the bad guys so quickly and efficiently is more exciting than watching Maclaine jump off a building any day. The train wreck finale is much more exciting than Richard Kimble's train dodging in THE FUGITIVE. Rybeck actually jumps from car to car as each one blows up behind him on a bridge, and then grabs a ladder on a helicopter. Indiana Jones would've died trying that one. To reiterate, Seagal leaves every action star in the dust.

Movie Summary

Under Siege 2 offers a heavy dose of action and brings along a second helping without asking for it.It stars our quiet, yet deadly action star: Steven Seagal, in what he does best, and that's rack up body counts.As far as an action flick, this movie excels, but you can throw the plot and acting right out the window, which is typical in Seagal movies.It features Casey Ryback, ex-Navy SEAL demoted to cook and he's taking his niece on a trip on a super-fast train (one that can't be detected once going through dark territory). Along the way, the train is taken over by psychotic computer genius Travis Dane and his group of hired mercenaries/terrorists who soon enough are threatening Washington with threats of blowing up the Pentagon and disturbing a nuclear reactor, while in the meantime, Dane is getting $1 billion dollars for doing the job from a Middle East sponsor, but one can wonder how he intends to pay his hired group of mercs (lead by Penn) after the incident.Ryback is the only one who can stop them, as the movie turns into a predictable swarm of wrist-cracking and neck-snapping feast fit for a king. Penn (played by Everett McGill) is the only man who can last longer than 10 seconds in a fight with Ryback, and can match knife fighting to the end with the ex-Navy SEAL.There are several instances of "ill-logical" experiences in Under Siege. A few that come to mind are, "the train wreck", how can one individual such as Seagal run faster than a train coming at him at over 200 MPH through a crash? While this is the worst, there are others.Rating (ZERO to ****): **½ (2.5)

Coming Soon!

Hi, I'm an executive at Warner Brothers Studios and I thought I would let you know the great news. Steven Seagal has finally agreed to do Under Seige 3. (All we had to do was take him to IHOP to convince him.) This time, HE is the bad guy, having taken a McDonald's hostage and demanding that Big Macs be cooked faster and faster to keep up with his tremendous appetite. He is reportedly gaining another 40 pounds for the role, so he should be ready by next week. His training diet consists of bacon cheeseburgers, milkshakes, pancakes, ice cream, etc. Everything is being cooked with lard. Mr. Seagal is very serious about this role because it deals with something very important and dear to him: EATING. The action scenes will feature Mr. Seagal beating to death anyone who hinders his consumption of french fries and apple pie. Look for Under Seige 3: The Super Sizer in theatres for the summer of 2000!

Come on, baby, do the loco-motion !

You'd almost feel sorry for all those poor, poor movie-terrorists! Whenever they plot – in the utmost greatest detail, I may add – to hijack a big city skyscraper, an airport, a Navy battleship or a Grand Continental train, there's always some indestructible and outraged one man army hindering their mission and wiping them all out one by one. In the former two examples we're referring to Bruce Willis' mega-cool "Die Hard" movies and in the latter ones we're talking about Steven Seagal's rare cinematic highlights "Under Siege 1 & 2". Granted, "Under Siege" is a blatant rip-off of "Die Hard", but who cares because they're both extremely entertaining and they represent Seagal's only memorable action hero accomplishments. Personally, what entertains me most about this type of brainless cinema is the depiction of the bad guys. Preposterous popcorn action flicks are guaranteed to feature the coolest "baddies", and this particular movie sure ain't no exception! Seagal single-handedly combats against a totally unhinged NASA scientist and a small legion of steeled mercenaries that use pepper spray as breathe freshener, for crying out loud! The portrayals of the villainous characters, together with the copious amount of gratuitous & graphical scenes of violence, are definitely the elements that make "Under Siege 2" one of the most gratifying action films of the 90's. Casey Ryback's uncomfortable reunion with his estranged niece aboard the train from Denver to L.A. gets rudely interrupted when a bunch of terrorists take over the locomotive. Their leader is a disgruntled and *slightly* megalomaniac scientist who developed a hi-tech artillery satellite before the government ungratefully sacked him. He, Travis Dane, is backed up by mad dog mercenaries led by the stoic Marcus Penn (fantastic role of Everett McGill) and plotted a merciless revenge against Uncle Sam. He regains control over his satellite and demonstrates to enemy nations what exactly the device is capable of doing. One scene even suggests the total destruction of China. Yes, the whole country! Too bad, for the terrorists, Ryback is a chef outside of the kitchen as well, and together with the token black porter character, he fights back; eliminating one baddie at the time. "Under Siege 2" definitely gains from Geoff Murphy's competent directing skills. He reduces the one-liners and comical relief moments to an absolute minimum and comes up with new virulent action footage whenever the story threatens to get sentimental or overly talkative. Let's face it; the last thing anybody wants is watching Steven Seagal speech. The true action fanatics will love this film for its uncompromising and gritty violence. People get shot (at very close range), stabbed or neck-broken and really an awful lot of characters fall down from dazzling heights and land onto painfully hard places! You know, many of those "Ouch, that has got to hurt" moments. As stated before, the performances of the villainous characters form the main attraction in this movie. The more Eric Bogosian overacts the better and the hirelings excel at looking menacing. McGill is tremendous as the lead-psycho and receives excellent support from Peter Greene and Patrick Kilpatrick.

Blind Man's Bluff.

... Close your eyes and listen to all the explosions and the sound of limbs hitting flesh, and you may be happy. If you OPEN your eyes, however, that's when the implausibilities become much harder to ignore.A CD-Rom is crucial in some megalomaniac's plan to extort money and terrorise the world. I've no problem digesting that, I've seen it happen before in the movies; but when said CD is dropped ON A ROCKFACE and left undetected for who knows how long, it still works as it needs to!! Funny that, I don't dare to even put mine on the coffee-table if I want to be able to use it again...We see a shot of Seagal's large head within the cross-hairs of a sniper rifle... Game over, Casey? No way, within no time he's hiding under the train and explaining blithely that the bullet just 'grazed' him... However stupidly enjoyable the rest of the film was (and I suppose it has its moments) I could no longer in good conscience cheer for Mr. Ryback, he should have been dead by now, not completely impervious to harm so that he can continue with his rescue mission...A train is a poor environment in which to stage skilfully choreographed battles. On the boat you had galleys, walkways, etc; but here everything's a bit cramped. This means we spend a lot of time watching dough-boy (What?! He's a chef, that's all I meant... :-) ) on top of the speeding vessel, making his ungainly way from carriage to carriage... Here's a general rule; as soon as a terrorist so much as peeks their head outside, they're a dead man (or woman). If Seagal ever gets his hands on a baddie, just assume that Stevie wins the day, since a lot of the time things are so poorly directed and edited that it's hard to tell...Bogosian playing the 'tech-geek' villain does well. True he can't come close to matching the previous standard of Lee Jones or Busey, but that's to be expected. I have to admit, as hitherto mocking as I've been thus far, that there is still a strangely unaccountable thrill in seeing the big man in black bust up those with shadowy souls... Darkness very much the theme, then. If you can manage to turn off the overhead light of your brain for awhile, then you can still find some entertainment in this as long as you feel your way gently.

Casey ******* Ryback

As Casey Ryback (the irresistibly stone-faced Seagal) attempts to heal old wounds with his niece following her father's death, the train he boards is chock full of terrorists whose aim is the destruction of Washington D.C., no less.Well, while these Seagal-films are never masterpieces, his older action films certainly delivered the goods in terms of what counts; ACTION. "Under Siege 2" gets down and dirty relatively fast, has lots of shoot-outs and bones breaking and some very impressive production values. Never slowing down too much and it gets way over the top in the end (a plus here, mind you!).As for performances; Seagal is his reliable old self and he doesn't disappoint in the action department. Everett McGill is a particularly nasty villain here and he pulls it off well and Eric Bogosian provides a few laughs as the film's main baddie. Plus, there's nice eye-candy courtesy of Katherine Heigl.For action fans; "Under Siege 2" is a no-brainer, highly recommended.

Typical Steve Seagal movie

The computer guy, Travis Dane, is the only reason to see this movie and he even gets kind of lame at the end. Seagal actually thought of something this guy didn't. Yeah right. Every one else in this movie plays a very forgetable role. Seagal included.

Seagal's best and one hell of an exciting ride

Since 2001 Seagal has been quite happy to let his film career crash and burn while sings the blues and does all his strange little things in his personal life (have you ever tasted his wine or his energy drink?). But there was a time in the 90s when his name guaranteed you an hour and a half of broken bones, severed limbs, bad guys in agonizing pain and a showdown with a head villain who stands no chance against the awesome hurricane force that is Steven Seagal.

I never really like the first Under Siege [Blu-ray]. I found it to be too low key and slow and after enjoying such brain-free fare as Marked for Death and Hard to Kill in my youth I had come to expect a tougher movie than the what we were given (though the tyrannical BBFC cut the film to shreds and denied me what I wanted to see). I was dismayed at the lousy 15-rating and not even Erika Eleniak's boobs could cheer me up (she's blonde-not my thing).

Flash forward to July 1995 and the awesome poster for Under Siege 2 started showing up in cinema lobbies. It featured the impassive one clinging to the side of a burning train hurtling through the countryside and featured, quite frankly, the best subtitle of any sequel ever 'Dark Territory'. This time it was rated 18 which meant I could look forward to all the blood and gore that the first Under Siege lacked. Obviously I couldn't see this film in the cinema, being only 15 and all, so I had to wait until the video came out in early 1996. By that point the BBFC (those people from the dark-ages again) had censored every last bit of red stuff to the point where it could be shown on the friggin' Disney Channel if it weren't for the swearing.

I would have to wait until 1999, when I bought the uncut US version on DVD, to see the film in it's entirety. And when I did it was like watching a brand new movie.

Casey Ryback, now the head chef of the Mile High Cafe in Denver, had retired from the Navy but still works for the government doing the odd secret mission here and there. When his brother is killed in a plane crash he takes his niece Sarah (the lurvley Katherine Hiegl) on a trip to LA on the Grand Continental, but that particular train just so happens to be hijacked by crazed computer genius Travis Dane and his band of menacing mercenaries featuring dead-eyed Everett McGill and the sleazy Peter Greene. He has a beef with the government and is only too happy to use his skills to blow the Pentagon off the face of the Earth and collect a nice paycheck from the Saudis.

Luckily for Ryback, he was momentarily absent when the hostages were rounded up as he nipped into the kitchen to bake a cake. He teams up with naive porter Bobby Zachs (Morris Chestnut, bringing life to an otherwise ordinary sidekick role) and begins his skulking, lurking mission through the shadows and voids of the train to pull the brake and free the hostages. Do these nasty people really think that they stand a chance against Ryback's awesome power and apparent invincibility? Sit back and watch them get annihilated with a variety of improvised mêlée weapons and other gruesome tools.

The train is a better setting than the boat. This time instead of a plain black backdrop we've got lots of pretty scenery and the constant forward motion of the loco gives the movie a nice momentum. Basil Poledouris' score soars miles above Gary Chang's bland notes of the first one and it honestly ends up being one of the best scores ever and a perfect example of how action music ought to be. And don't worry about this one being slow as the first. Under Siege 2 is edited so quickly that coherence is almost lost. You have to pay quick attention and perhaps watch the film a few times just to catch everything.

The comic-book nature of the plot, the cliffhanger feel of the ever-escalating mayhem and cartoonish villains might normally result in a campy movie but Under Siege 2 is as hardcore and sadistic and mean-spirited as the come. That's probably the reason the BBFC chose to cut it, claiming that it featured 'gloating and pervasive violence'. Well, I never found it to be that evil, just entertaining. Which is why I don't like narrow-minded institutions telling me what I can and cannot watch.

No one could possibly have a bad time watching this film (unless it's the UK version) and if you've had enough of Shane Meadows doing pretentious black and white stuff or Keira Knightely in a frock to last you a lifetime then the brainless and breathtaking action of Under Siege 2 is just what you need.

The Blu Ray features a 1.85:1 1080p transfer that is a vast improvement on the DVD. The sky is bluer the explosions are more colorful and the depth of the photography has a lot more clarity. Unfortunately Warner have only given us a regular Dolby Digital soundtrack, which is strange since they gave Eraser [Blu-ray], The Gauntlet [Blu-ray] and Outbreak [Blu-ray] brand new Dolby TrueHD remasters. A real shame, but the sound design of the film is lively enough to satisfy anyway. Only a bunch of trailers are included as extras.

Seagal accidentally ends up on a train full of terrorists and has to save the world

Yes, the earthquake beam from space (heck, the whole story line and all of the villains too) are totally unbelievable. Frankly, if you can find a "believable" action movie, I have a beach house in Arizona you might want to buy. Yes, the production values were not the finest.But -- if you like watching the hero exterminate the bad guys, few do it with the style of Seagal. Like Jet Li (yeah, I am old enough to remember Bruce Lee the original, and Chuck Norris), he is one of the few action heroes who is a real martial arts guy, and he moves so fast and fluidly it is hard for the eye to follow, but fascinating to watch. This is brainless entertainment, full of hilariously cheesy B-movie one-liners you can laugh at ("Assumption is the mother of all f-ups!"), often bad acting, a story line you could describe in one sentence, and zero character development.There are worse ways to spend 90 minutes. Believability is for films that take themselves seriously. Seagal is more like stand-up comic straight man meets Aikido ace. At least he handles a handgun like someone who has actually fired one.

Action Packed Movie!

Our hero in this movie Casey Ryback(played by Seagal) is going to take a vacation with his neice on a scenic trainride.An evil
band of terrorists led by Eric Bognosian hijack the train.You
will want to note that the villain in this movie is not nearly as evil as Tommy Lee Jones in the 1st Under Seige.They are trying
to gain control of a satellite that can cause earthquakes on earth.Ryback begins dealing out misery and justice to the forces of evil on the train. He has a feirce battle with a menacing looking mercenary on the train.There is action galore in this
movie as well as an exciting finish to this movie. This is as
exciting movie that you will enjoy watching.