Leofwine_draca Another day, another straight-to-DVD release from fading action star Steven Seagal, whose career has discovered a new lease of life in a string of cheaply made, inexplicably popular DVD B-movies that exploit the ageing star's presence as a one-time ass-whupper of the big screen. Surprisingly enough, SUBMERGED is actually a decent Seagal movie, standing head and shoulders above his other recent offerings and definitely up there with the likes of OUT FOR A KILL, BELLY OF THE BEAST, and MERCENARY FOR JUSTICE. The film has a great cast for once and strong direction from WAXWORK's Anthony Hickox that makes it far better than it has any right to be.When this film was being produced, word had it that it would be an underwater monster flick in which Seagal fought a biological mutant creature – wrong. Instead the plot is action-focused, detailing groups of soldiers, bodyguards, and special forces agents in a running battle with a scientist who has developed a drug that turns normal people into killing machines. Shades of THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE and a dozen other mind-control flicks here but director Hickox wisely chooses to focus on the action rather than the clichéd plot machinations. The result is an action-packed movie that fulfils its quotient of shoot-outs, wild car chases, and big explosions.Seagal himself takes more of a back seat than usual, typically hiding in the shadows while somebody else's voices dubs over him. He takes part in a couple of action scenes, shooting a shotgun that never needs to be reloaded and tackling a hulking bodyguard in a good ol' fashioned fight scene that looks like it should have been in UNDER SIEGE 2. This is a Seagal who doesn't really care too much anymore, happy to pretend he's black (he tells somebody to move their "white ass"!) and reference his older films – there's a quote about making a phone call to "touch" someone that's lifted from ON DEADLY GROUND. The good news is that, where Seagal fails, the other cast members step in to make this an entertaining experience – and none other than Vinnie Jones is this flick's biggest selling point.Jones is stereotyped as a tough British SAS veteran who retains the 'football hooligan' persona we all know and love from countless other films with him in. Jones brings life and character to the movie and takes part in the best action scenes. One violent fist fight is a highlight and recalls his glory days as he beats down a zombie-brained soldier and continues to pummel him to death. The film immediately becomes better whenever Jones is around and he's impossible to dislike. The rest of the cast also seem to have fun, although I could have done without the black female sidekick played by Christine Adams; her expression doesn't change even once throughout the film and she's even worse than Seagal himself.The film has quite a few different bad guys and most of them are familiar. The mad, Nazi-style scientist is played by Nick Brimble, who was the Creature in FRANKENSTEIN UNBOUND but who is most recognisable these days from his turn as a villain in ITV's EMMERDALE! Brimble chews the scenery with relish and you know he's enjoying himself. Also about is William Hope, best known as the ineffectual Lieutenant Gorman in ALIENS; Hope hasn't changed too much over the years and his slimy, weaselly villain is good fun here. Finally, lower down in the cast list is Brit martial artist Gary Daniels as a brainwashed soldier who battles Seagal in the kitchen in a knife fight that recalls the glory days of UNDER SIEGE. Daniels is hardly in the film but he's nevertheless a solid addition to the proceedings.The film has plenty of fun action, but there are three really strong moments. The first is the assault on the compound, in which Seagal and his squad hold off an entire army (including a tank) in a pyrotechnic display of cool effects and a disregard for realism. Next the scene on the sub in which the brainwashed bad guys turn on the heroes is actually very suspenseful and effective, although sadly it is over far too soon. Finally, the ending really delivers what action fans have been waiting for. There's a decent shoot-out at an opera of all places, then all hell breaks loose as Seagal goes ape, smashes up a car, and beats up the bad guys for the last time. My favourite scene has a broken helicopter whizzing around a square, knocking the heck out of the scenery and proving to be one of my favourite 'helicopter' scenes in a film EVER. Better than many a big-budget production, Hickox really gets his money's worth out of this one. So, SUBMERGED is a cheesy B-movie for sure, but a darned entertaining one at that and one for the collection.

leo-cardozo Do you really think that we have GOATS in Uruguay, or JUNGLES, or TERRORISTS, or even natives????? This movie is utterly insulting for my country.The writers of this movie didn't even bother in looking where Uruguay was. For all of you who doesn't, it's located between Brazil and Argentina. This movie was forbidden in my country because it shows something ENTIRELY DIFFERENT than realityWe don't have GOATS, we have COWS, we don't have JUNGLES, we have MEADOWS, we don't have TERRORIST or DICTATORS or Nazis or anything like that, in fact, we are the most DEMOCRAT country in Latin America.We don't even have NATIVES, the ENTIRE population are Europeans or descendants of Europeans. And our costumes are not as shown in this awful movie (as if we were Peruvians or Bolivians).

KHayes666 I can accept DTV movies for what they are, low budget with a plot full of holes. But what saves this one was the supporting cast rather than the overall effort by Seagal.A no goodnik militant named Hilan is working with an evil doctor (played brilliantly by Nick Brimble) to come up with a mind control device. After its completed they use their device to assassinate a US ambassador and its up to Seagal and his troops to save the day. Thats where it comes down to the supporting cast, Vinnie Jones is the man in his role, Nick Brimble played his role even better. Hell Raicho Vasilev....a veteran stunt man makes a vanity appearance as one of Seagal's troops. Hell even William Hope from Aliens is in this one. Add in a bunch of unknowns and its really not that bad.You can overlook the plot holes such as since when is Uruguay armed with terrorists up the wazoo? The movie appeared to be about Seagal trapped on a sub, but he was only on it for about 15 minutes or so, talk about false advertising. Didn't know you can simply walk on to an opera stage and not get attacked by security either. Again, all this can be overlooked if you're a fan of the Seagal movies to begin with, but the cast is what keeps it watchable. If you don't like the plot, at least stick around to see what Vinnie Jones says or does next.The highlight of the movie is when Henry absolutely beats the crap out of Plowand, very brutal.6 out of 10

jim miskell Where do I start, I mean seriously within the first 5 minutes we see a spy plane flying at an altitude of 100 feet (which gets spotted!) that is made of cardboard, a bunch of crack marines landing in a field and being ambushed by some terrorists hidden under a couple of bushes 10 feet away from them. A suicide bomber in South America?!?!? A cast made up of British Soap Opera characters from Emmerdale Farm and Coronation Street, Vinnie Jones putting his worst performance in since he cupped Gazza's balls when he played for Wimbledon, a script so clichéd and full of lame lines that it's like it was written on napkin on the way to the set in tomato ketchup! On to Seagal, F**k me what a show he puts on, over weight, DUBBED!, Black Ghetto speaking, awful awful fights that I'm fair sure he had a stunt man for. There is one ace thing though, Seagals hair piece which puts in a mesmerising performance and definitely should be up for an Oscar in a best supporting role! And to be honest, he films called Submerged but they spend barely anytime on a Sub!!!!!!!!!!! What a waste of 2 quid!