Ridiculously implausible dumb fun…
I’ve avoided this movie for ages.
Sure, the first and original Under Siege is great fun. But have you seen some of Seagal’s more recent stuff!? Also, in my view, most Hollywood blockbuster movie franchises rapidly deteriorate. Another reason I’ve avoided this for years.
But Teresa suggested we try it. So we did. And I have to confess, it was great – if utterly ridiculous – fun.
The train setting could’ve been humdrum. But the ‘Grand Continental’ is quite a train. With upper and lower decks, and large viewing windows, it passes through some terrific landscapes and locations – e.g. The Rocky Mountains, inc. a ghost town – which add to the charm of this otherwise potentially formulaicly gonzo follow-up to the formulaicly gonzo (but equally effective) original.
As in Under Siege, Ryback just happens to cross paths with malevolent über-villains, to their inevitable detriment. In this instance the plot-driving McGuffin involves a crazily powerful satellite weapon, launched at the movies start (allowing the movie to shoehorn in some suitably impressive Space shuttle launch footage).
I don’t always or often go in for plot synopses. Particularly so on cornball mainstream fodder. So you can look elsewhere for that.
Amongst the villains we have: the motor-mouth über nerd (Bogosian), and two noteworthy evil mofos (Everett McGill and Peter Greene*), plus a load of less notable cannon-fodder hoodlums. Charismatic villains are a necessary counterweight to movie ‘goodies’. And Under Siege 2 does well in this department.
*Zed, in Pulp Fiction!
The flat-footed govt and military folk – inc. such stalwarts as Nick Mancuso, Andy Romano and Dale Dye (reprising their characters from Under Siege) – are suitably remote and ineffectual functionaries. Leaving all the ‘meaningful’ on-the-spot problem-solving to ex-Navy SEAL Casey Ryback, the deadliest chef on the planet.
This sort of lone-male fantasy, in which an imperturbable and gruff-voiced bloke single-handedly defeats hordes of evil ne’erdowells, to the oohs and aahs of all – from grateful hostages to bodacious babes – is such a core trope of modern American cinema.
The frankly pornographic brutality and violence movies like this revel in is made permissible because it’s being doled out to hyper-evil villains. It’s a cartoon world. Simple, brutal, and… shamefully thrilling.
Very firmly part of that core of modern US culture that Zappa refers to as ‘dumb fun’.