Blu-ray Review: Force of Execution

Blu-ray Reviews, Reviews

Steven Seagal has been wrongly labeled when it comes to his DTV action film career. He’s no longer an action star; he’s easily the world’s funniest attempt at someone being an action star. Unfortunately no one else is on the joke as Seagal gets low budgets and interesting co-stars en route to embarrassing efforts for a paycheck. This time around it’s Force of Execution.

It’s a simple plot. Steven Seagal is a crime lord in the process of getting muscled out of his turf by a rival (Ving Rhames). Shenanigans ensue in their turf war, as they always do, but frankly it’s hard to really give a damn about a film like this. It’s just so bizarrely awful that it should’ve been a candidate for best comedy of 2013 … if only Seagal had wanted to intentionally be funny.

This is the usual sort of Seagal film that’s been made in the past decade plus with the arrival of the DVD market. It’s cheap and awful, with body and dialogue dubs for Seagal with such regularity that it almost becomes a game. Seagal is trying his hand with accents again, as well, so the comedy is fast and furious as this film is so awful that it seems like everyone is on the joke.

Everyone but Seagal, that is, who is deadly serious throughout the film. Everyone else in the film knows it’s awful, and Seagal is particularly dreadful in the film, and there’s an air that Rhames just wants to laugh whenever Seagal uses dialogue. It’s almost a game in and of itself to try and find the moments when the rest of the cast found the film so ridiculous that they nearly ruined a take; Seagal is amazing in his ability to act as if this is the most serious movie part in the history of cinema.

The film itself is just a piece of garbage. It’s a complete waste of time as a whole … but Seagal’s craziness is something else.

A generic making of is included and it’s nothing special.

Anchor Bay presents Force of Execution. Directed by Keoni Waxman. Written by Richard Beattie and Michael Black. Starring Ving Rhames, Steven Seagal, Danny Trejo. Running time: 99 minutes. Rated R. Released: December 17, 2013.