Comeuppance Reviews Our old buddy Seagal plays Robert "Bobby" Samuels, an agent for the "IDTF", or International Drug Task Force, in Romania. When a psycho named Costel (Shahlavi) begins going around raping and killing people, not only does this upset Bobby, but it also tees off a criminal overlord named Dimitri (Badarau) whose toes Costel is stepping on. Despite initially being rivals because they're on opposite sides of the law, Bobby and Dimitri enter into an uneasy alliance so they can both achieve their aim: stop Costel. Will they accomplish  their goal, or will they succumb to the depression of Eastern Europe? Dare you find out...? In 1994, Motorhead, Ugly Kid Joe, and Ice-T all teamed up for the song "Born To Raise Hell", which featured on the soundtrack to the movie Airheads, released that same year. Presumably they weren't singing about Steven Seagal, but there are plenty of airheads in this run-of-the-mill latter-day Seagal DTV yawner. Perhaps Seagal himself is still bitter he wasn't invited to perform on the track, as he is a musician, don't'cha know. He's really got the blues. One minute he wants to be an Asian Martial Artist, the next minute a Black bluesman, the next minute a Southern "Lawman". Anyone but himself. Our working psychological theory for now is that Seagal is constantly running from his true self, which is why he constantly uses voice and body doubles as well. What he's running from, we don't know.  But he should run more often (we'll try to keep the fat jokes to a minimum, but no promises).As for the movie itself, it has that bleak Romanian DTV vibe regular viewers will recognize by now. To its credit, it doesn't hide the fact that it was shot in the land of Vlad the Impaler and pretend it's New York or something, but Seagal more closely resembles Count Chocula than anyone else more fearsome. Maybe his next movie will be a ghost story where he takes on the title role of Boo Berry. Born to Raise Hell just presents us with more depressing, soulless brutality served up as undemanding entertainment for less discerning viewers. Sure, it's all tempered by the fact that we can now gauge the BMI of Seagal's stuntman and Seagal himself is always shot with these bizarre shadows on his face, but none of this muck is really floating our boat as viewers. Seagal (or whoever is doing his ADR) is a bit more animated and less whispery this time around, but you'll still need the subtitles on the DVD if you want any hope of knowing what people are saying.It's loaded with those quick-cut editing effects that are inexplicably used by movie makers of the modern DTV era. Unless it's all a conspiracy by LensCrafters and Pearle Vision Centers working behind the scenes with them so we all need glasses after watching a few DTV's, there's no reason for them to exist. They're not cool, they're just annoying. The same could be said for the dumb dialogue said in this movie, and what Seagal says is not tough-sounding, and doesn't add to his image. It just makes him look like a cross between Eddie Munster and a walrus in an oversized leather coat. He ends most sentences with the words "boy" or "man". Evidently he is judging how mature you look, which is just creepy.  After the second half of the movie, it just spins its wheels, nothing noteworthy happens and you're mentally checked out and thinking about what you're going to be eating for dinner that night. Not unlike...well, you get it.While we appreciated the presence of fan favorite Shahlavi as the baddie, and perhaps the quick-and-silly fight/action scenes, we just thought it was typical crude oil from the Seagal spigot. Seagal fans may defend this one, as they are wont to do, but we just weren't feeling it.

zardoz-13 Despite its spurts of R-rated violence, "Born to Raise Hell" qualifies as a rather dull, but nicely packaged, foreign-based, action-thriller. Seagal plays another tight-lipped, one-dimensional narcotics policeman who goes through partners like sand does a sieve. You know that the partner is slated to die the moment that he reveals that his wife is pregnant. The action suffers from a predictable plot that tries to appear more sophisticated than it is. Director Lauro Chartrand directs this adequate exercise in suspense and tension as it if were a rock music video desinged for an attention deficient audience. He loves to freeze the action, insert a special effects graphic, and accelerate the pace in a frenzy, not unlike a montage to promote spontaneity. In other words, "Born to Raise Hell" looks as busy as hell. But again, little is going on. The chief villain is a sadistic fiend, but he does nothing that you have not already before seen. The most interesting character is a Russian mobster who lives by a sense of values. The Steven Seagal screenplay does not deviate from the conventions of the genre. Each character is established with some concern for credibility. A top-notch International Drug Task Force investigator targets criminals who traffic in drugs because terrorists obtain their financing through illicit drug sales. Seagal plays everything very low-key, dresses in black, and has a couple of awkward scenes with his high maintenance girl who is angry that he puts his job before her. A Russian gun runner enters the fray and deals with a rabid Gypsy who cannot restrain his villainy. He kills without a qualm. Indeed, most of the characters here were born to raise hell, but the hell that they raise isn't so exciting that it sets new standards for this kind of gritty shoot'em up. Chiefly, what is lacking is a sense of charisma. None of the characters are chummy and nobody has been kidnapped.

flakpanther People who are going out of their way to say how bad this movie is, or making sarcastic posts about Seagal being extremely overweight, are missing the point. Yes, Seagal is making a straight to video movie in 2010, it's going to be objectively bad. However, 1: The movie must be judged in the context of his recent output, not compared to a super high-budget picture like Under Siege while Seagal was probably the #2 action star in the world, and 2: the only people who are likely to see this are committed Seagal fans anyway.Contrary to lazy stereotypes, Seagal's recent output (excluding Machete, post-2002's Half Past Dead, which I believe was his last in theater release) has been mixed, leaning towards bad and really bad. Still, there were some standouts in that context (I'm thinking of 2007's Pistol Whipped, but I haven't watched most of his movies since 2002), and to be blunt, a lot of his movies before that weren't really much good either (Glimmer Man in particular was godawful and objectively worse than Born to Raise Hell). Also worth noting is that according to IMDb, this film cost about $10 million while Half Past Dead had a budget of only $13 million, which considering it was filmed in California, as opposed to Romania, is surely not that much more. I'm all for gratuitous ridicule of Seagal, but if you're even considering watching this movie you bear some responsibility for his output.BTRH was actually better than I expected. The "avid fart" camera-work mentioned by an earlier reviewer is in full effect and somewhat annoying but you get used to it pretty quickly. The film quality itself is surprisingly high for a recent Seagal film, it's not overly dark and the visuals are crisp. Seagal is given credit for writing the script and his girlfriend is young enough to be his granddaughter (don't worry, Seagal doesn't take off his shirt), and there are a few cringe-inducing lines praising himself that are showing off Steven Seagal's personal insecurities. Even so, the dialogue is generally not bad (except with his girlfriend, where it's off the charts unbelievably bad). There's even one character who's intentionally funny. The acting in general is also of a quality one would expect from a decent movie, although as an earlier reviewer pointed out, Seagal is hardly acting at all. Indeed, he's the single weakest link in the whole movie; not because he's a terrible actor but because his character was basically unnecessary in the first place. He could have been replaced with anyone or no one. Without spoiling anything, the ending, and Seagal's role in it, is also jaw-droppingly terrible, although since the plot is very uneven throughout this doesn't affect the film as much as it should.All this leads up to an interesting conclusion: Seagal is not making the same movie over and over again, not really. What he (accidentally?) wrote was a movie that could potentially have raised a lot of interesting questions about a visceral response to torture, stereotypes of a Gypsy criminal in Romania (the worst criminal is a Gypsy), and the US's international drug war. Instead he's tried to fit this film, complete by itself, into the straitjacket of a Seagal beatdown film and it's disappointing (to the film's credit, Seagal is not constantly on screen and this allows other characters to develop, though I suspect this was more the result of poor pacing on the writer's part than good writing). What this movie needed most was an editor for the script.As far as Seagal's actual beatdowns, they're fairly good, if a little overly one-sided even for Seagal. Stunt doubles are employed for a lot of neck-down shots of Seagal fight scenes, but that's all the more disappointing because despite Seagal's weight and age, he is also shown to be personally capable of credible aikido moves. Seagal is definitely overweight but not the walking corpse he was in some recent films, so there's that.Finally, there's the matter of language. The film is virtually entirely in English. I have never been to Romania but I'm pretty sure Romanians don't speak English to each other in their own homes. Considering every actor portraying a Romanian was Romanian with one exception, it would have made sense, and added to the believability, if they just spoke Romanian to each other and used subtitles. Seagal (who's spending so much time in that country anyway he might as well learn the language himself) could just have the good fortune of only encountering people who also speak English.BTRH is not a good film, but neither is it a complete crapfest. If you're a fan of Seagal, don't miss it.

Hellmant 'BORN TO RAISE HELL': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five) Another generic Steven Seagal action film, in this one he plays an Interpol agent caught in the middle of a Russian and Gypsy street gang war in Eastern Europe. Seagal also wrote the script while veteran stuntman and actor Lauro Chartrand makes his directorial debut. Another up and coming martial arts star Darren Shahlavi co-stars as the movie's villain. The action scenes are decent but the story is tired and dull. If you're an action junkie and or Seagal fan you probably won't be disappointed though.Seagal stars as Samuel Axel, an Interpol agent recently put on assignment in Eastern Europe. He's also breaking in a new partner, a rookie named Steve (D. Neil Mark) who's also expecting a child. The two are a part of a special task force investigating gun and dope smugglers in the Balkans. Their prime interests are a Gypsy gang leader named Costel (Shahlavi) and a Russian gang leader called Dimitri (Dan Badarau, who shares a striking resemblance with Marlon Brando). When things get messy Axel is forced to resort to unconventional measures in order to get the job done.Like I said Seagal is credited for writing the script but it's basically just parts of a dozen other movies pieced together. The story is irrelevant and about as forgettable as they come. The action scenes are entertaining none the less. A much better fight scene could have been choreographed between Seagal and Shahlavi though. What we get is routine and could have been filmed with anyone opposite Seagal. What a waste of talent! Still the movie was made for just $10 million and say what you will about Seagal's career but his movies continue to be profitable successes. This is just one of many that will soon blur in with all the others but during the 90 minutes I spent watching it it was mildly entertaining.Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://youtu.be/Ie33IbZzmi0