Steven Seagal is a thief sent to prison - New Alcatraz - because actually he's an FBI agent secretly, and when a top level prisoner is going to be executed, some bad guys take over because they want to know where the prisoner has hidden is treasure, and Seagal has to save the day.
Die Hard in a prison - which is actually a great idea. But the script is murky and confusion for too long. Seagal's role is relatively limited. He drops out of the movie for great slabs - spends a lot of time sitting in a chair talking to people on radio. Was this when he started getting too heavy for action films?
The film brings in all these promising ideas and doesn't use them. Seagal is out for revenge against crime pin Richard Bremmer - great. But we only see Bremmer at the beginning. The death of Seagal's wife happens off screen.
Morris Chestnut is a very worth adversary. I loved seeing Stephen Cannell and Bruce Weitz (from Hill Street Blues) in the cast. There's some solid kick ass gals like Claudia Christian and Nia Peebles and a few decent twists - people shooting people who then turn out to be still alive. Action sequences were fine.
There's also a classic moment where Chestnut throws a Supreme Court judge out of a helicopter and Seagal jumps out of his helicopter to go rescue her. That sort of wackiness is a lot of fun and the film needed more of it.
There's a really good action movie in here - Seagal's quest for revenge, his relationship with convicted killer Weitz, it's all got the basis for something solid. But the film is too unfocused and stop-start and Seagal doesn't seem particularly interested. The stuff about Seagal dying then coming back - which inspired the movie - is barely used. Ja Rule, the black sidekick, really could've been taken out of the film.
I really didn't like the scene where Chestnut taunted Supreme Court judge Linda Thorson for her childlessness. That seemed particularly sadistic and mean. I know he was the baddy but it felt as though there was some other agenda going on.
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