Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,078
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 2, 2022 23:08:20 GMT -5
He makes Chuck Norris and Van Damme look like fantastic actors. He's got absolutely no range, and no humility to even really derive any humor out of that.
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Post by Wolf Hawkfield no1 NZ poster on Dec 2, 2022 23:25:01 GMT -5
As a connoisseur of cheesy action-spoitation, I have no idea what his appeal ever was. This video does a good job of summing it up.....
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tirtefaa
Unicron
If you wanna know the truth, you gotta dig up Johnny Booth.
Posts: 2,834
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Post by tirtefaa on Dec 2, 2022 23:27:27 GMT -5
I can't say I'm a huge fan, but his style of action movies were always rather ridiculous as far as over the top action schlock.
Marked for Death as an example, the final fight with the bad guy was a sword fight, where it is pathetically one sided. But he couldn't just win easily, he had to slice the guy's chest open, slice him down his face, gouge out his eyes, throw him through a wall, snap his spine over his knee, and then throw him off a ledge, impaling him on the bottom.
There's far better action stars, and Seagal was and will always at the bottom of that list, but I can't deny he was in multiple memorable dumb action movies. After he was in Under Siege, I think it was all downhill from there.
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Rave
El Dandy
Perpetually Bored
Posts: 8,111
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Post by Rave on Dec 2, 2022 23:38:43 GMT -5
His older stuff wasn't too bad, but once he became fat, hammy, and a producer, it all just went downhill.
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Post by jimmyjackezekiel on Dec 2, 2022 23:39:08 GMT -5
Even if you ignore his body of work, the man is a proven piece of garbage from countless sources.
He's been accused multiple times of bullying and sexual harassment by multiple people even in Hollywood. He married his second wife while still married to his first. The guy can't. freaking. stop. lying to try and make himself look good. and even at 70 and grossly overweight he tries to sell himself as some super badass action star.
He's just an asshole with none of the talent or the resume to even try to justify it. He's burned so many bridges in Hollywood he had to run away to Russia, and I would not be surprised if eventually they got sick of him too.
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Post by Kevin Hamilton on Dec 2, 2022 23:51:48 GMT -5
Dude's movies sucked and he was always fulla shit even in his heyday.
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Post by Hit Girl on Dec 3, 2022 1:27:09 GMT -5
Under Siege, Out for Justice and Hard to Kill are good movies, but the rest are shit, and he's always been a scumbag.
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Post by Clutchhausen on Dec 3, 2022 1:34:03 GMT -5
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chazraps
Wade Wilson
Better have my money when I come-a collect!
Posts: 27,966
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Post by chazraps on Dec 3, 2022 1:50:02 GMT -5
A good rule of thumb is that if the Seagal movie has more or less than 3 words in the title, you should avoid it. (Under Siege is the exception but deep down that's more of a Gary Busey movie)
In all seriousness, his appeal was that he was an action star but his choice of script to match his largely mysterious and unique appearance was pretty perfect to fill a niche that nobody else in his genre really had. Longhair, distinctly uniquely-shaped body, an intense squint when so many other action stars would have their eyes bug out - on top of that while the late-80s and early-90s saw Stallone, Norris and Arnold have their action fare lean more into conservative american tropes (and Van Damme would be apolitically batshit, even Universal Soldier which should have been seen as a sharp satirical critique on paper got elevated into massive insanity) Seagal's scripts were always of a left-leaning counterbalance.
That's not to say more liberal or conservative audiences leaned one way or another on stars, far from it. Rather, it was an undertone (which I'm using loosely as there's nothing really subtle about his films) in his films that none of his contemporaries could have really fit in had they been cast. 'Cliffhanger'-era Stallone couldn't have done 'On Deadly Ground.' 'Walker'-era Chuck Norris couldn't have done 'Fire Down Below.' Seagal knew what Seagal was and how to best Seagal it to the masses.
So yeah, if you want an example of his on-screen charisma played to his strengths, he looked his best in 'Out For Justice.'
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Mozenrath
FANatic
Foppery and Whim
Speedy Speed Boy
Posts: 121,078
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Post by Mozenrath on Dec 3, 2022 1:54:53 GMT -5
As a connoisseur of cheesy action-spoitation, I have no idea what his appeal ever was. This video does a good job of summing it up..... You know, watching this, I sort of get it, even if he's never been my thing. It hit me, though, that he feels like he fills a similar niche as Billy Jack.
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El Pollo Guerrera
Grimlock
His name has chicken in it, and he is good at makin' .gifs, so that's cool.
Status: Runner
Posts: 14,724
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Post by El Pollo Guerrera on Dec 3, 2022 1:58:47 GMT -5
His early movies were popular because the audience bought into his narrative of 'being real'. I knew dozens of guys who bought and rented his movies because of this. At the time period between '87 to the mid-90's, there were two big martial arts stars, Seagal and Van Damme, and there were always stories about Van Damme faking his fighting credentials to get into movies (and then "Monaco Forever" came out on video and that brought more rumours about his sexuality).
Of course, when the stories about Seagal started coming out about his behaviour behind-the-scenes, that's when the movies stopped being popular. First it was the die-hard martial arts fans talking about Gene Lebell, then rumours that he was written off "Executive Decision" because he was a jerk to the producers (actually heard someone say that this is why the movie was called "Executive Decision", as a dig to Seagal).
By then, Jackie Chan returned to US cinema screens and turned the whole thing upside down. Now THAT was real.
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Post by Non Banjoble Tokens on Dec 3, 2022 3:10:38 GMT -5
What does it take to change the essence of a man?
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Post by Clash, Never a Meter Maid on Dec 3, 2022 3:33:22 GMT -5
Out For Justice and Marked For Death are great but they're lower tier, like slightly better than American Ninja but not as good as Tango & Cash Honestly, Tango & Cash has a sense of “stupid fun” that blows today’s more serious mid-tier action stuff out the water.
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Post by Ryushinku on Dec 3, 2022 4:07:09 GMT -5
Using an unusual quick martial art style for the time in his films. Coming along at the right time on the eternal pendulum swing for action films between "silent stone-cold killer" and "relatable everyman fighting through getting his ass kicked". Having a Mysterious Background (tm) before it was shown to be a load of nonsense.
And to begin with, also very tall and lanky, very intimidating.
It just didn't take long at all before the waistline filled out and out, the hairline went back, and the laziness soared. He always had a terrible reputation for obnoxious jerkery behind the scenes, so when the films stopped being good (well, watchable, I think Under Siege is about the only honest good one), lots of people were very ready to pile on. That's without going now into the Mafia/Putin stuff, so, yeah.
But I think that's why he was popular. Right place, right time. Just not a very long place or time, and he's coasted to diminishing returns ever since.
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Post by mcmahonfan85 on Dec 3, 2022 4:24:49 GMT -5
i have nothing to add...other than this:
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Post by G✇JI☈A on Dec 3, 2022 4:57:16 GMT -5
Probably the most mainstream attention he got recently other than spoofs was in the movie “The Shallows” when the main character named an injured seagull Steven.
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Post by dirtyoldman on Dec 3, 2022 5:53:29 GMT -5
Out For Justice and Marked For Death are great but they're lower tier, like slightly better than American Ninja but not as good as Tango & Cash Woah woah, do not talk shit about American Ninja. Except numbers 3, 4 and 5.
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msc
Dennis Stamp
Posts: 4,449
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Post by msc on Dec 3, 2022 6:12:20 GMT -5
Yes, he was always rubbish. As a person and as a star. His best films always had better actors like Kurt Russell around to carry the slack.
Worse for him, he was around in the era of Stallone (a much better actor), Arnie (the most charismatic man in the world for a good 15 years) and later Jackie Chan (did his own stunts, made you believe in his characters).
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lucas_lee
Hank Scorpio
Heel turn is finished, now stripping away my personality
Posts: 6,706
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Post by lucas_lee on Dec 3, 2022 7:33:44 GMT -5
Just watch this dude rip on Seagal. Its really funny how Seagal has a pattern of whats in his movies.
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Post by Confused Mark Wahlberg on Dec 3, 2022 7:38:59 GMT -5
Seagal: "I just read the greatest script of all time" "Who wrote it?" Seagal: "I did"
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