Customer Reviews

Black Dawn

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Much like all of his movies,Lord Steven is retired/ undercover/ in hiding/ incognito/ or part of the CIA/ FBI/ Black Ops/ Special undercover group of your choice...
He must personally save the world and his partner/ student from the bad guys that are dealing in Nukes.
If this sounds derrogatory towards the movie it is not! I am a huge Seagal fan and own every movie he has released, I think the production and storyline of Black Dawn is more the caliber of his earlier movies and I quite enjoyed it. I am glad to see he is putting out a better product! But it would not matter because like all TRUE Seagal fans if he is in the movie, I will buy it no matter how bad. I would just like to see his movies return to the big screen where he belongs. If you are a fan buy this you will love it. If you are not a fan buy it anyway as it is a good movie and the plot/ story is good enough that the common action hero movie buffs will like it.

The Great One (who is also a producer here) takes up one of his worst films, namely sleep-inducing `The Foreigner,' and he does the same role that nobody seems to remember. One good news is that the sequel turns out more decent than the original, but that isn't saying much.

In `Black Dawn' Steven Seagal plays Jonathan Cold again, who is at first seen helping the brother of one bad arms dealer break out of jail, apparently working for the bad guys. Well, perhaps he should have, for in that case things might have been more interesting than this dull B action film.

Besides the obvious stunt doubles, the inept editing, and the chubby face of the star who seems to prefer to stay out of the `action scenes,' you will see CIA agent played by Tamara Davies, also former protégé of Cold. There is one so-so action involving a runaway garbage truck and some OK shoot-outs, but their terrible acting which occupies most of the second half of the film makes everything dull in the end. The idea of Chechen terrorists or nuke attack are reduced to nothing because of the hulk of the star who seems not to care.

What you see `in Black Dawn' is your former aikido sensei getting lazy in his work. That's a sad thing to see.

Seagal (Jonathan Cold) is trying to stop Chechen terrorists from deploying a plutonium bomb in the US. In the beginning it's unclear who's on whose team, and there were several scenes with forced suspense that didn't quite feel as tense as it was obviously planned for, but overall this movie is better than some of the latest Seagal flicks.
I'd recommend it for the die-hard fans, although do not expect to see him fighting. He breaks a hand, shoots a few people, and drives like a maniac, but other than that there is no hand-to-hand combat (that Seagal engages in. The other actors did fight, though--if that's a consolation). Overall, a nice movie. Definitely not a blockbuster, but also not a one star by any means.

In this sequel to "The Foreigner," Steven Seagal returns as freelance agent Jonathan Cold. This time his mission is to thwart a cell of Chechen terrorists scheming to detonate a nuke in Los Angeles. The story concept promises excitement but fails to deliver. Maybe Mr. Seagal believes he's getting "too old" for martial arts movies, or maybe he's decided to redirect his genre from action to suspense. Because, while Agent Cold is apparently not "too old" for his young female partner, the film is disappointingly short on action. Specifically, the trademark Aikido fighting moves that made Seagal famous. Cold defeats the Chechens with brainpower and firepower; not a bad thing, just not what this viewer was expecting. The interesting and somewhat convoluted plot can't really carry the film for fans of Seagal's former martial arts mayhem.

Remember when Steven Seagal was a hot property and his action films were decent? Well don't expect that in this wearisome retread. Seagal plays Jonathan Cold (thank God they didn't call him Jonathan Hott!), an agent for some deep dark secret covert organization with "four columns"? Tamara Davies is the requisite hottie agent who wonders what Seagal's up to and carries on like most female agents in these Romanian movies--makes one dumb move after another. The storyline (ho hum) centers on terrorists out to set off a nuclear bomb in downtown Los Angeles. Seagal is hardly seen during any of his few hand to hand combats, pretty much confirming that the beefy actor's stuntman did all the work, of which there is very little. A preposterous chase scene in a garbage truck is reminiscent of Roadrunner cartoons in its lunacy. Two stars for the hammy but effective performance from John Pyper Ferguson as the villain. At least he looks like he's having fun.

One of the better new Segal movies I have seen,I even bought this one. I agree however with all the other reviews, Lots of guns and bullets in this one but "Where is the martial arts, we all love lord Steven for?" I cast my vote for his best ever to "Under Seige" where our hero plays Casey Ryback, next to Gary Busey and Tommy Lee Jones.

This film actually reminded me quite a bit of Shadow Man (2006) though this film being released in 2005 predates that movie. Both films have kind of an eastern European, dark & shadowy espionage-quality to them and despite being fairly-well directed movies are rather slow & methodical without much action to them. However, there wasn't any obvious voice-dubbing in this flick as there was in Submerged (2005) or Attack Force (2006). But there was quite a bit of use of a stunt double and it was obvious at times though it didn't really detract from the movie too much. There was one scene in particular though that I noticed towards the end of the film where Seagal's stunt double is fighting some bad guys in a stairwell and the stunt double is wearing a light grey suit, but in the scene prior to it and following it Seagal's character is wearing a dark blue suit. That was pretty bad!

Unfortunately not much Aikido showcases in this movie, other than the work by the stunt double in a couple of scenes, you don't really see Seagal do much of anything other than shootouts and car chases. More and more of his more recent films are going this direction I've noticed. Less of the martial arts and more of the shootouts and car chases - disappointing. However, not a bad film overall, just a little slow and methodical for my taste.

Black Dawn is another direct to video release from Steven Seagal, which features the action star returning as Jonathan Cold, a deep cover agent involved with criminals, and an Eastern Block terrorist group seeking to construct and employ a nuclear device. While the terrorists commit a number of brutal robberies to raise the capital to fund their scheme, Cold teams with CIA agent Amanda Stuart (Tamara Davies), a former associate to try and stop them.

There's a high level of violence, and some good action sequences, and plenty of gunfire, explosions, and chase or two. Seagal breaks one wrist, but doesn't do much actual hand to hand combat. Those days are probably gone. For Seagal's fights, some funky editing is used at times, to give the appearance of battle, or perhaps it is ballet? Still, the plot holds together better than one might expect, unlike the first Jonathan Cold adventure, The Foreigner, which was rather a disjointed effort. Although the final action sequence involving a helicopter is a little weak, among Seagal's recent films, this is one of his better efforts.

It was painful to watch this one. The day that stunt doubles start doing your trademark fighting scenes, it's time to hang it up. I love his early movies. Seagal looked bloated and uncomfortable. Everything, including the opening credits, looked cheap, rushed and disjointed. The transition between scenes was rough and choppy. The only star in this one was the computer geek whose brief appearance was actually funny. Can't recommend it, sorry.

he has done better. to much gun play in this one. prefer some of his other movies to where there was one on one combat.