Customer Reviews

Fire Down Below [VHS]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Good story line, excellent casting, action but not brutal like some of Segal's other movies, good music, some comedy, and even a love story. What more could you ask for? Makes for a very relaxing evening. Our whole family enjoyed it right down to the six year old who has watched it several times. By the way, your first person on this site who gave a review did not see the picture as Steven Segal did not sing in it but did play the guitar and rather well. If you are going to accept reviews they should at least see the movie rather than trying to be funny at someone else's expense.

If you like Steven Segal, you will love this movie. He is fabulous in it, and slams the really evil bad guys in their faces, the way they deserve to be slammed. He is dashing, handsome, and very sensitive to the nice people in the town he is visiting. He is caring and tries to help them. He also is a gentleman, besides meting out his special type of punishment, the way we all just LOVE to see. I love this movie.

If you have seen all of segal's stuff and want something a little different, I think you will like this. Of course they have segal doing a lot of stuff that he wouldn't be possibly able to do, but it is still better than watching orlando bloom or somebody ripping guys apart.

The story like I said is actually pretty good and a touching story with an old man and segal working on a nice lady's stairs makes this superior to most martial arts type movies story-lines. Not that I would call this a real kungfu movie or nothing, it plays a little more like a REAL amrican version of a jackie chan style movie, just a lot more drama.

Good explosions, good car chase, and some quality stephen segal action. If you thought exit wounds was decent at all, you will like this.

I have watched this movie three times. It has action, a very good plot, and humor. And believe it or not, it does get a little chilly in ol'kentuck, especially 1/4 mile below.

Steven Seagal is one of those actors with a totally winning personality... He is simply an authority figure, a killing machine with a heart of purest gold... I can't help it; I like the guy.

In 'Fire Down Below,' he is an outsider posing as a church sponsored carpenter while he works for the Environmental Protection Agency to stop a greedy coal baron from dumping extremely large quantities of toxic wastes in abandoned coal mines... Those dangerous chemicals could destroy the drinking water for thousands of miles and kill a bunch of people around the hills... Seagal gallantly promised not to leave the small town until the poison from the air, the streams and the earth is taken out...

Many thugs (with snakes, sticks, guns, and big trucks) are hired by the uncaring mining magnate to get rid of our action hero but Seagal remains virtually untouched...

'Fire Down Below' highlights new environmental message but fails to come up with the expectations... First, Seagal's amorous interest with the sad country woman seems artificial, used in the film to grant the 'new visitor' easy access to statements he might need... Second, the motion picture lacks the best villain whose prowess could equals Seagal's... Steven's character never really faces much of a challenge... In fact, the fight scenes are too short and extremely fast and easy...

If you are a fan of country music and you want to see Seagal playing guitar and singing, and you like to explore sweeping vistas with glorious sunsets, don't miss this movie!

'Fire Down Below', or as I like to call it 'On Deadly Ground Again' because both films have identical plots, stars Lord Steven as an undercover EPA agent out to stop an evil country singer, Kris Kristofferson, from dumping toxic waste in Kentucky. Now, before I go any further, would anyone actually care and/or notice if evil country singers were dumping toxic waste in Kentucky? I think not. Most of those buck-toothed, barefoot hillbillies wouldn't even notice.

But I digress, The Lord goes undercover as, get this, a freaking carpenter to smoke out these so-called evildoers. Seagal fixes at least fifty hillbilly's porches throughout the movie. He hooks up with some long-in-the-tooth broad who killed her brother but he doesn't care because Steven likes killing people too, so its a match made in heaven. His Majesty is totally sweet here, he kills everbody, snaps approximately ninety wrists, kills Randy Travis(thank god) and wails on a guitar. Totally sweet.

Steven Seagal is awesome.

With Fire Down Below you can start the speculation of whether Seagal is fatter now or then. This movie was such a bomb that Seagal didn't appear in theaters for some time after (save for a beefy cameo in My Giant, a bomb in its own right).

What happened to Seagal? Instead of sticking to what he did best, he freed himself from Warner Bros. in order to focus on more character driven films with a positive message. Once again we find him trying to save the environment as he plays Jack Taggart, some kind of environmental agent with a shadowy past who comes to Kentucky to investigate toxic dumping by business mogul Kris Kristofferson.

Seagal also parades around the steamy hot Kentucky landscape clad in massive leather coats to hide the fact that he's enormous. In one scene, he sports a black leather coat with pink and yellow stripes. Nuff said. It's not clear if Seagal is having fun or if he's trying to do something new or what. One thing is clear: he's fat, and that's just a no-no for an action star.

The point of a Seagal film is to watch him beat the crap out of idiots dumb enough to think they can take him on. However, once again this film is lacking severely in that department. Further embarrassing himself, Seagal resorts to awful jump cuts and fast motion in order to pull off stunts he used to handle with ease back in the slimmer days of the early 90s. Once again, his money move is the shot to the crotch, including one creative bit where he kicks someone's leg so hard that it forces the guy to kick another hapless stooge where it counts. Ouch. He displays ridiculous marksmanship. He runs out of an exploding mine, not evoking images of Indiana Jones outrunning a boulder but rather a fat man chasing a Big Mac. He even has a, choke, gasp, romantic subplot involving a mentally disturbed mountain woman played by cutie Marg Helgenberger.

As if testing audiences, this film introduced us fully to the Seagal country music angle that has mystified me more than all of his Zen mumbo jumbo over the years. He plucks a guitar with glee, he sings and plays on half the soundtrack. Then he busts out lines about soothing ointments to help the villain through those tough times in prison with his new cellmate. We even get Harry Dean Stanton as the village idiot. What is going on here?

At the time, this was Seagal's worst film, in my opinion. However, he has gone beyond the call of duty with later efforts such as Half Past Dead and his personal nadir, Ticker. Seagal actually snapped out of his cheesecake stupor long enough to make Exit Wounds in 2001 (where a trimmer, ponytail less Steve returned to bankability). However, he tore that all up with the aforementioned turkeys and is now stuck in a straight to DVD limbo along with that other action has-been, Jean-Claude Van Damme.

This film is flat out bizarre. Recommended only for Seagal addicts, or connoisseurs of awful films.

This was as with all Steven Seagal movies top notch! So what if it didn't have as much "action-paction" as with other movies he's done. That is why I rate this so well. If all actors stayed with the same genre where would the comparison be? Many Actors such as Seagal choose movies that they can relate to on some level, to me, being a "tree hugger" myself, that makes this movie seem all the better!

AN EPA AGENT [STEVEN SEAGAL] GOES TO APPALACHIA IN AN EFFORT TO STOP SOME ILLEGAL TOXIC WASTE DUMPING. MOST OF THIS MOVIE IS POINTLESS. AS ALWAYS, SEAGAL IS THE HERO THAT OUTSMARTS THE VILLAINS EVERY STEP OF THE WAY. THE THING THAT ALMOST KILLED THIS MOVIE ENTIRELY IS ITS CORNY FIRST HOUR. BUT, IN THE SECOND HOUR, THINGS DO TEND TO GET A LOT BETTER. THIS IS WHERE SEAGAL BEGAN TO LOSE MOMENTUM. BUT, THIS AIN'T AS BAD AS SOME OF SEAGAL'S LATER MOVIES. THIS DEFINITELY AIN'T WORTH BUYING. BUT, IF YOU WANNA SEE THIS MOVIE, RENT IT OR WAIT FOR IT TO COME ON TV.

This is one of Stephen Seagal's best film since Under Siege because I like the way he gets the bad guys, breaking their noses, arms and other bones...etc. It's a great movie I would recommend this movie to anyone who likes bone crunching, nose breaking film then this one is for you.