Product Description: Ex-CIA agent Jonathan Cold helps a terrorist group obtain a nuclear weapon leaving the CIA to wonder if Cold has become a traitor. Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure Rating: R Release Date: 3-APR-2007 Media Type: DVD
Segal revives the Jonathan Cold character, the Michael Myers hair, and the 70's pimp suit all in one movie! Black Dawn was made in 2005. For those of Sid's readers who are not Segal historians, this was right in the middle of his one foot off the cliff stage in his career. Meaning, he was on a self-destructive path that miraculously ended in Segal becoming the king of straight to DVD action rather than killing himself. The movies he did during this period were attrocious at best. He must have realized how horrific he looked on camera at this point because it was here that he started producing as well as staring in these flicks. Thankfully, Segal threw in the towel on looking presentable in his films, gained an extra 50 pounds(for a total gain of 195 since Out for Justice), grew out the Myers hair more, and gave us a classic in Pistol Whipped hopefully with more to come.
The tagline for Black Dawn is "It's always darkest before dawn." Sid's theory on this is that it had nothing to do with the movie. No, it must have symbolized a sad night when Segal arrived at his local Wendy's just after it closed. He probably got a Santa-like far away look in his eyes and contimplated life, arriving at the conclusion that he couldn't get his usual 80 nuggets and life just isnt fair. If Sid was forced to come up with a tagline for Black Dawn, it would either be "Steven Segal or the former Duran Duran rodie: Which guy's got it?" or maybe "Don't waste your time." This film was awful, and that's saying something considering Sid's love for Segal.
The movie started out well enough. Segal plays Jonathan Cold(awesome name) again. Aparently, this is a character from another Segal masterpiece. It had Segal as a rouge ex-CIA agent like he always is now in his movies. Except, after that it kind of got blurry. Sid remenbers a few former Duran Duran rodies, or maybe they were former Depeche Mode rodies. Either way. And there was an appearance by McGyver's Richard Dean Anderson's brother Richard Dean Anderson. There was also a terrible scene when Segal and the B Nicole Kidman were driving. It looked just like when people drove in movies in the 50's. You know, there was an obvious seperation between the background and the actors. Does this mean that there have been no technological advances in movies in 50 plus years? No, sadly it just means that 90% of the film's budget was wasted on Segal's dressing room Arby's spread, his robes, and massage oils. And believe us, the film suffered. What about the part at the end when Segal was throwing the Depeche Mode rodies' bomb into the water? It looked like plastic. The effects in this movie just could not have been worse. It even got to the point where Sid got tired of making of Segal. Well, except for his awful suit. It was an old-school brown pinstripe 56 long and portly at the same time with a crappy off-white shirt and an even crappier yellow tie. And it looked worse than it sounds. It was designed by the famous Burlington designer Knights of the Round Table. And it was topped off by a pair of Honchos. That was wonderful, the highlight of the movie.
Well, you know a movie is terrible when the highlight was Segal's $45 ensamble. It was that rare kind of film that was only 90 minutes long but it seemed to last forever. That's not a good thing. Segal, of course, has since made a major resurgence. But, this film might have been Segal's worst effort. He had only the begining stages of his now famous Myers hair and panda bear face. And he didn't even talk like he was an aging dude from the hood. You still couldn't understand what he was saying, but there wasn't a hint of ghetto slang. Very disappointing. In fact, in keeping the old Sid tradition, let's give this one a new title. Instead of Black Dawn, it's now Brown Pile.
"You're having a bad day." After spending some time watching Dolph Lundgren movies and Jean-Claude Van Damme titles, it was nice returning to a Steven Seagal film - "nice" meaning, I could pop the "Black Dawn" DVD into my player and enjoy the film whilst dividing my attention with ironing laundry, because there's little chance that Steven was going to do or say anything to surprise me. Fans of his have generally accepted this, since the man has proven himself a guy of repetitious plots and characters. However, it wasn't before long I looked up from my towels to become aware of a couple of things regarding the movie: first of all, it's one of Seagal's prettiest DTV releases I've ever seen, and secondly, there's almost nothing going on in it.
In a sequel to Seagal's maligned DTV-emerging flick "The Foreigner" (proving that it's possible to expand the franchise of absolutely anything, no matter how bad it starts), he returns as ex-CIA mercenary Jonathan Cold, who is hired by British arms-dealers to help sell parts of a nuclear bomb to a group of Chechen terrorist-martyrs planning to blow up Los Angeles. But after plans go awry and CIA agent/ former protégé Amanda Stuart (Tamara Davies, "Katherine") gets involved, Seagal must both flee assassination and stop the plot to destroy LA.
As said before, "Black Dawn" actually looks very good: award-winning lifetime cinematographer Alexander Gruszynski ("I Like It Like That") directs the movie with a decent flair for lighting and camera angles, so (with the exception of a couple of atrocious CGI-involving shots) the film manages to look like more than an $8 million production. Also in its favour is the cast, which is one of the better assemblies to be seen in a Seagal film: Tamara Davies, John Pyper-Ferguson ("Betraying Reason"), Julian Stone ("Loser"), and Nicholas Davidoff play their roles convincingly, and the rest of the cast is clearly making an effort as well.
I just wish that at some point, somebody had gone up to either Seagal or the director and reminded them that they were, in fact, supposed to be making an action movie. Much like "The Patriot", "Black Dawn" offers little satisfaction for action-lovers. The cover of the movie is deceiving: absolutely no martial arts are displayed, and about two of the three gunfights featured last less than thirty seconds. A decent car chase involving a big rig is the adrenaline highlight, but without any other intriguing life-ending antics, this otherwise-pretty film feels inexcusably bare for a Seagal-starring feature. The plot lacks the intensity to qualify as a thriller, and therefore, the movie is left both pretty and useless; no wonder writer Martin Wheeler has had trouble finding work.
This non-action aspect slays the film as a whole: a Steven Seagal movie without action is like a hamburger without the beef pattie, and no amount of decent acting or cinematography can make up for it in the end. In this sense, "Black Dawn" is the most disappointing of Seagal's recent offerings, because it had so many things going for it that his other flicks didn't, but these were apparently traded for Seagal's bread-and-butter - leaving this otherwise-promising flick duly emaciated. For devoted fans, only.
great i this a great deal, movie in great conditoin fast shipping. smiply great sevice
about the film/movie black dawn.......... This DVD film/movie has been sold in Singapore and I grabbed one copy and watched....hee hee and the story is basically about the stoppage of sale of the nuclear bomb which ended up been activated by timer where Seagal and his woman colleagues managed top get rid of the bomb by throwing into sea from helicopter and the explosion went off after several minutes and the whole story ended. Recommended to those whom are interested in this genre of film/movie.
Review by:
(Dr)Ang Poon Kah Rogue University Professor Certificate. Imagine entertainment for film/movie the Da Vinci code. Screenplay book for Da Vinci Code. (just like this indication) Red and blue paperback storybk for Da Vinci code. Syncast for Mystery of the Nile (just like this indication) Secrets of the past : Greece (just like this indication) United States of America (just like this indication) Zakkers film director.
ian johnson i think the movie was great not like he's usual movie a lot more of a story line
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tailipoe
Trevor
