uk cinemas listings

UK Cinemas

Cinema listings with film information and movie reviews

Entertainments Search:

Half Past Dead

A widowed undercover agent posing as a tough, international car thief is sentenced to the newly refurbished Alcatraz to maintain his cover.

Story

Sascha Petrosevitch (Steven Seagal) is an undercover FBI agent posing as an international car thief. When Sascha and his partner in crime Nick Frazier (Ja Rule) get busted by the Feds, Sascha agrees to serve time at the newly refurbished Alcatraz in order to keep his cover. The prison happens to house a criminal by the name of Lester (Bruce Weitz), who robbed an armored vehicle of some $200 million worth of gold that has never been recovered. A group of mercenaries calling themselves ''the 49ers'' decide it would be a good idea to break into the prison and somehow force Lester to divulge the booty's whereabouts. When their plan backfires, they begin taking hostages--including Justice June McPherson (Linda Thorson). To save the day, Sascha must rally the inmates against the commando force. Half Past Dead is a stock actioner complete with lame story, flashy stunts and lots of folks pointing guns at one another. It is also a typical Seagal pic, so if you have ever watched any--including the Under Siege movies--you've seen this one too.

Acting

Once again Seagal (Exit Wounds) is the archetypal defender, but instead of portraying a brooding silent hero, he simply comes across as bored. Or maybe this is just Seagal's rendition of what happens to a man after he flatlines for 22 minutes. Seagal's partner in crime, Nick, is played by rapper-turned-actor Ja Rule (The Fast and the Furious). The two actors barely have any chemistry and the ''brotherly'' relationship they talk about incessantly never comes through on screen. Morris Chestnut (Like Mike) plays Donny, aka 49er One, the leader of the mercenaries. It was a refreshing change to see Chestnut--who has played nice-guy roles in a throng of romantic comedies such as The Brothers, Two Can Play That Game and The Best Man--portraying a sociopath with absolutely no redeeming qualities. He does it charmingly well. As Chestnut's fellow commando 49er Six, Nia Peeples manages to create a character that, despite her tiny stature, is convincingly intimidating. Tony Plana is exceptional as the bad-ass prison warden El Fuego; it's too bad his character has such a small role in the film.

Direction

With this movie actor/screenwriter Don Michael Paul, who appeared in a bevy of little-known films in the late '80s and early 90's, makes his directorial debut. It's obvious that Paul put more focus and energy into the film's visuals than into the story. Half Past Dead's new Alcatraz setting is ultra slick, complete with state-of-the-art execution chambers, yet still retains the dark and gritty feel that a prison should. But while Paul has chosen all the ''right'' ingredients to build an action flick, he hasn't put enough thought into the story's logistics. In one scene, for example, Seagal parachutes out of a helicopter that's only about 200 feet above sea level. It's hard to buy into a stunt that is so far from plausible. Furthermore, the proliferation of buddy action movies has simply grown tiresome. Like its many predecessors, Half Past Dead tries to draw laughs and create chemistry by pairing two opposite characters, and while that worked for Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker in Rush Hour, it fails miserably between Seagal and Ja Rule. Viewers will only cringe when Nick tries to teach Sascha the Ebonics version of all right (''aight'').

Bottom Line

Half Past Dead is a paint-by-numbers action thriller that barely keeps the interest of star Steven Seagal. This one belongs six feet under.