It's not a job... It's an Adventure!
1992-10-08
$35.0M
102 min
A disgruntled ex-CIA operative, his assistant and their assembled group of terrorists seize a battleship with nuclear blackmail in mind. They've planned for every contingency but ignore the ship's cook, former Navy SEAL Casey Ryback—an error that could be fatal.
The fun kind of dumb, Under Siege is probably Segal's best work, and in my opinion the only reason people ever mention him in the same breath as the likes of Stallone, Schwarzenegger or Willis.
Final rating:★★★½ - I really liked it. Would strongly recommend you give it your time.
"Krill" (Gary Busey) is the rather narked XO on the battleship USS Missouri who sees the captain's impending birthday party as an opportunity to team up with "Strannix" (Tommy Lee Jones), seize the ship and extort a fortune from the American government. The girl (the very annoying "Jordan" - Erika Eleniak) coming from the cake he expected, the fact that the ship's cook is a former SEAL he did not - especially when this knife-wielding sailor starts to make his presence felt and a battle royal hots up. The scenario is pretty far-fetched, but to be fair to Steven Seagal as the chef with attitude, this is a fair action adventure film with plenty of combat, kitchen devil action and pyrotechnics to compensate for the pretty woeful dialogue and acting - especially from Busey - that only really works when the enthusiastic TLJ is letting loose the dogs of war. There's no jeopardy to speak of, the ending is never really in doubt - but I still find this, periodically, an enjoyable bit of machismo escapism that passes the time ok.
