Customer Reviews

Into the Sun

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I've seen every seagal movie. I've loved some, I've hated more. I wasn't going to rent this one because first reviews in seemes like it was pretty bad, but because I have my movie pass at blockbuster, and because since the stupid no more late fees thing there's like no movies to rent in stock anymore, I decided to try it. Turns out, it was actually ok. It wasn't great. As some other people mentioned there weren't a lot of fight scenes, but there were quite a few, some very reminiscient of out for justice.

The plot was fragmented, it was like the writers took an idea for a story, broke it down into a dozen seperate parts, wrote them on a piece of paper, tore the paper up into little pieces and put them in a box. Then somebody randomly pulled out pieces of the story and that's the order they decided to shoot it in. A LOT of it didn't flow very well, and a LOT of it didn't really make sense, you were like "huh" a lot of the time. Just like every seagal movie, they had to somehow squeeze in a story involving a love interest, a past CIA mission, Yakuza AND Tong (there's always an organized crime link), lots of shooting, a new rookie partnet, somebody close always gets killed, AND for some reason swordfighting.

And at least it appeared that he read all his lines in this one. It was an enjoyable movie, worth renting, but probably not worth buying unless you're a die hard seagal fan. I suppose if you weren't a fan, you probably wouldn't even be reading this anyways. I don't think you'll be disapointed, of course, you also won't be impressed! Hope this review helps.

While this video had its share of good action and fight scenes, it can be confusing in a number of ways, especially when trying to determine who belongs to what rival gang. The viewer must pay close attention at all times, or it will be difficult to follow the scenes. Overall, an entertaining movie, with believable characters and fairly good acting.

This is the first Steven Seagal movie I've ever seen, I bought it at Kmart for 5 dollars on sale. Normally, I wouldn't have bought this movie, but I was in the mood for an action movie (cheesy or otherwise) and for only 5 bucks it seemed like a good buy.
After reading the reviews and watching the movie, I must say that I don't have the buyer's remorse. It wasn't the best action movie I've ever seen, but it's a far cry from being the worst.
Although it was direct to video here in the states, it did show up in theaters abroad, and it's not low budget either. It's filmed rather well, has an okay story, and the acting is good.
While the villans in this movie are all overly cliched Japanesse Mob bosses and henchmen, and it doesn't really fit that Travis Hunter (Steven Seagal) seems to know everything about the Japanesse underworld even though he did grow up in Japan, the movie flows pretty well and (although a little sad) had a good ending.

Maybe it's just because this is the first Steven Seagal movie I've ever seen, so I can't compare it to his other movies, but I liked this movie, and I don't regret buying it. Heck, I can even see myself watching it again...

Now let's talk about the rating...
I usually don't agree with the MPAA's ratings, namely because they're always a bit off in my opinion. Yes, this movie is rated R and that is a proper rating due to the ammount of swearing & violence. However, on the back of the box, it also mentions nudity and sexual situations, which aren't that prevalant... It should've said "brief partial nudity" due to the fact that the only nudity you actually see depicts 2 women swimming topless in an oversized fish tank at a club, some 50 feet away from the camera for about 10 seconds.
Also, there's only one sex scene, and it's down right mild compared to the scenes you'd see in other R rated movies. Honestly, it's about 7 seconds long, showing Hunter and his fiancee kissing each other, then it shows the sun rise outside of their house, them waking up together, then it jumps to another scene.

The violence, while there aren't alot of fight scenes in this movie, is still enough for it to merit an R rating. And the F*** word is spoken many times throughout the movie.

Pros: A good action movie, can be a little corny at times, but still good.
Good acting.
Well coriographed fighting sequences.
Good musical score for the most part.
While the story & villans are slightly generic, you won't find yourself saying, "It's been done."


Cons: Camera has been sped up slightly to make the action appear more exciting, but it doesn't work...
The main bag guy, Kurado, is WAY too overly cliched. A young, arrogant, overly aggressive man, who makes Hunter's job alot easier by killing most of his own men!
Why does hunter know everything about the Japanesse underworld? I'm an Italian-American, and I don't know anything about the American underworld except for what I've seen in the movies...
On the cover, it shows Hunter walking away from an exploding area with a grenade launcher strapped to his back. (neither of which appear in the movie... No explotions, no grenade launcher.)

Overall, I think this movie was judged unfairly by others... Although it's no 5 star blockbuster, this is a decent action movie in my opinion, and worth the cheap price they're asking for it if you're in the mood for an action movie.

Overall rating: 3.8 Stars

I must like torture coz I continue to rent Seagal flicks as they come out. The last bunch of direct to video movies he did are seriously lacking. His "classic" films of the late 80s/early 90s were silly of course, but were fun. Now his films are just boring...really boring. I always knew Seagal could make a dumb movie, but not a boring one, let alone a long string of boring ones. Hell, I might just give up at this point. Plus you have to be suspicious of a film directed by someone calling themselves Mink. I'd think if you're gonna be referring to yourself by a single name, you'd better be cool enough to back it up. I don't recall any classic contributions to the film world from Mink, nor do I think we'll ever see any. And I really don't think Into The Sun is gonna make Mink a director to study in film class. Into The Sun has Seagal as a CIA agent living in Japan who's called upon to look into the assassination of a political figure. He finds that there's a new generation of Yakuza who are joining forces with the Chinese Tongs and.....oh, hell, who really cares? When have we ever cared about the plot of a Steven Seagal movie as long as he delivered the goods? Well, this time the plot is still irrelevant and he doesn't deliver the goods. Most of the film he wanders around Japan investigating the case. He talks to all these high profile Japanese figures who all seem to have the upmost respect for him. I don't know why, but it always bugged me when Seagal tries so hard in his films to be Japanese. He goes around speaking Japanese, and seems right at home with all customs and rituals. I've always found this annoying and silly with Seagal, coz I'm sure the Japanese probably hate the guy. Now I know Seagal is the first white guy to establish a martial arts school in Japan, so I know he actually is somewhat of the Real McCoy, but it still annoys me regardless coz it just seems so phony. There are a couple of fight scenes that go by rather quick, and they do look better than some of the fight scenes from his recent films. Some decent swordwork too, but it's just too little too late. Seagal, like usual, is totally sleepwalking through the film, even moreso that usual, but he can still woo the chick at least! Seagal highlights in this one include Steve ramming a guy's head into a soda machine as cans of soda come falling out, and stabbing a guy in the neck with a pair of chopsticks. I hate to sound redundant, but all in all it's boring.

Once again Segall is a renagade c.i.a. man who has retired. But they keep calling him back to duty. This time the governer of Japan gets killed. Segall goes in and starts to kill the Yakasua.
Alot of sub-titles in the movie which was shot overseas, so many of his co-stars are from Japan. Segall must not be credible in Hollwood any more. Its an o.k. movie I guess but, his flicks have taken a big downward turn in recent years. One note: if you have a home theater the dolby 5.1 soundtrack was quite good.

In Steven Seagal's A&E Biography, he was very upbeat about his (at that time) upcoming feature, "Into the Sun". He touted it as the movie he had always wanted to make, his triumphant return to Japan for a big-budget Yakuza vs Seagal movie...so I had high hopes...which were dashed soon after the film began.

The movie wasn't his worst, but it was not anywhere close to his best efforts, and isn't worth buying, in my opinion, as it doesn't bear repeated watching the way "Out For Justice" or "Hard To Kill" does.

Seagal kicks the tar out of a bunch of Japanese bad guys with the help of some Japanese good guys and a Samurai sword the size of a small man. Seagal also flexes his ability to speak Japanese in this film, something that I think is pretty cool. Either way, I really don't agree with most of the negative reviews on here. One thing though is this film does kind of pander to orientalism, and they show Seagal in Jap-mode drinking out of everything but a cup...but that's okay. Sword fights are awesome, and so is Steven Seagal. Five stars.

I like movies dealing with the Yakuza. This Steven Seagal vehicle is not bad. This is no BLACK RAIN but Seagal's strong silent type with an understanding for most things of Eastern origin, especially martial in nature, seem to work to the film's advantage. Having seen better days or not, this Seagal film is entertaining.

Steven Segal writes, executive produces, and stars in "Into the Sun." It is basically a film about the FBI's attempt to clean up terrorism by going after local gangsters in Tokyo that sell heroin by stuffing them into fish. Doesn't that make sense?? There was also something else in there about a "governor" getting assassinated, which was basically a subplot that was quickly wrapped up by Segal walking onto the crime scene and saying "get me some photos of this" and then pointing up to the video surveillance camera.
Anyway, Travis Hunter (Segal) spends the first half of the movie walking around finding places to eat and talking to Japanese gangsters about one particular thug, Kuroda (it's really action packed). On a side note, Kuroda has to be the worst villain ever in the history of cinema. He makes the job easy for Hunter by basically killing half the people that work for him: he shoots one guy in the head, stabs another one, and threatens to shoot his second-in-command just because he feels a little fussy. Plus, he is a horrible sword fighter, which makes it easy for Travis Hunter - a "master swordsman" - to kill him. (Why doesn't Kuroda just shoot Hunter?!) Also, in the first half of the film, Hunter (Segal) is persistent on mocking us with his fluency in Japanese. It is like he is saying, "Ha ha! You might be laughing at my slicked back V-shaped hair and my giant head, but I know Japanese and you - foolish American - have to read the subtitles." The second half of the film becomes a revenge narrative where Segal really goes after Kuroda. He kills him extra hard at the end. There is also a really touching scene with Hunter's fiancé, a Japanese woman at least twenty years younger. After he proposes, she cries, with tears gushing down her face, and tells Hunter: "I will follow you anywhere." And then she makes disgusting love with him. I just want you to know Segal, you don't need her. You have us, your audience. It is us that will follow you anywhere.

Anyway, the thing that really confused me was the title and the opening of the movie. This film opens with what apparently, in retrospect, seems like a scene from another movie of Steven's that was accidentally cut in. It shows Travis Hunter doing surveillance on some guys in a jungle, the "Golden Triangle, Myanmar Jungle" to be exact. Then the bad guys shoot at them. His partner gets shot fifteen times on the chopper while they escape. And Hunter says these reassuring words: "You're not going to die." Then they fly "into the sun," which probably explains the meaning to the title. His partner never shows up again. So I guess he died.

This film ends with a phone call from the FBI to Hunter ("We need you"), which I consider a threat by the FBI to make a sequel.

When it comes to a Steven Seagal film it can typically go one of two ways; either it blows beyond belief or it's so hilarious that we reference it for years to come. Into the Sun appeared to be extremely dull due to many reviews which forced us to keep it on the back burner into our no priority bin. When it came on tv this afternoon we figured this was the opportune time to finally see for ourselves, and we were very surprised. This movie was actually good yet hilarious at the same time. We were graced with Seagals legendary ponytail as it was at the end of it's career before a luscious head of Myers hair took over. This was one of the last films it could be seen in so that was a big star there.

Our hefty, leather trench coat sporting friend Seagal plays his usual destructive character as he tears through Japan with brute force. His name is Travis and returns to his Japan, where he was raised which confirms the Seagal being Dutch's dad theory, to bring down a drug ring one Chinaman at a time. Yeah it's been done a million times but never seems to get old. Naturally he rips through everyone using his sped up fighting action and a nice sword (2nd Dutch confirmation). The final scene is one to remember as limbs are loped off in record timing.

We were very pleased with this entry into the long obese list of Seagal flicks, and wonder why more didn't enjoy it. You could actually understand what he was saying as opposed to the inaudible dialogue with the stuff he puts out now. He evens speak some Japanese throughout the movie which is almost as hilarious as his Russian accent in Driven to Kill (review will be up this week). This is surely one Sid would have enjoyed many moons ago and feels it deserves the beloved Drive in Totals;

self inflicted finger chopping

XXXL Nights of the Roundtable trench coat

Ponytail/Myers hair combination (a very rare occurrence)

chopped off arm

3 broken arms

Sword Fu

Seagal Fu

dead Seagal Japanese fiance

and a thoroughly enjoyed addition the Sid's Seagal library