The turning point in Steven Seagal's career - after the decent Fire Down Below he made this, which was intended for theatres but ended up going straight to DVD, and he never really bounced back (though there have been flashes of return to form eg Exit Wounds).
This has two ideas, either which had the potential to form the basis of a good Seagal film and could even have worked in tandem: Seagal takes on Neo-Nazis and deals with a virus outbreak I quite liked that Seagal was down with the Native Indians and was a doctor with a daughter who wore glasses - these were all different sort of touches.
But the film is a mess. It takes what should have been a simple story and makes it confusing - the Nazis just surrender, inject themselves with a virus, go to court, spit on the judge, the virus spreads, they break out... It doesn't make sense. It's confusing.
Excitement is constantly drained - people stroll in and out of top secret facilities and sieges, there's no build, no rising tension, characters take time off for funerals.
Gailard Sartain is a hilarious fat and unscary bad guy. The film cries out for some CIA baddies and doesn't get it. Theres too much chasing after blood to get a virus cure... don't the militia have any other aims? Why start with the militia surrendering?
It looks pretty - nicely shot, handsome production values. The quality of acting is fine - LQ Jones is in it. But director Dean Semmler can't seem to get much pace going and it feels like something that was rewritten a lot.
NB The original novel was about a virus epidemic that wiped out most of the USA's population - that would've made a great, and different in a good way, Seagal film.
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