Fire Down Below starts as Environmental Protection Agency agent Jack Taggart (co-producer Steven Seagal) is told by his boss that his friend & colleague Frank Elkins (John Diehl) along with three other agents have been found dead, murdered by someone in a small coal mining Kentucky town (where everyone's front porch is broken) to cover up the continued dumping of 1000's of barrels of toxic waste into the mines which is contaminating the local eco system. When his boss ask's Jack to go into the town undercover to gain the people's trust & bring his friends killer's to justice he doesn't need to be asked twice, Jack goes undercover as a charity worker connected to the local Church carrying out small carpentry jobs for free for those who need it. It's not long before his asking too many questions gets Jack into trouble with the local bad guy's, the local police & rich millionaire Orin Hanner Sr. (Kris Kristofferson) who wants to keep his waste dumping a secret...
The feature film directorial debut of Felix Enriquez Alcala I have to admit that I was really disappointed in Fire Down Below, I've stuck with Seagal over the years because some of his earlier films were pretty good while some of his later ones are just plain hilarious & he made this for Warner Bros. when the films he appeared in still had decent budgets & actually opened theatrically. The script by Jeb Stuart & Philip Morton takes itself extremely seriously & even has Seagal's character make an impassioned speech about the environment that wouldn't be out of place in a Quincy (1976 - 1982) episode! This film foolishly tries to have a strong environmental message behind it which just falls flat on it's face, for a start this is one of the slowest Seagal action flicks I've seen & contains little in the way of excitement. The character's are horrible, the dialogue is terrible & Seagal gets to play the guitar, ouch. Then there's the end which is a bit of an anti climax as nothing really happens, sure there's a couple of brief fights but one would usually expect a large action set-piece where the hero & the villain finally meet, not here as Seagal simply arrests the bad guy's & that's it. I'm sorry but I don't want to see Seagal arrest people & do things 'by the book', no I want him to shoot everyone in sight, beat people up, crash cars, blow things up & generally cause lots of mayhem, I mean is that really too much to ask?
Director Alcala does OK but the story really drags, badly. I really can't think of another either duller or slower Seagal action flick. The few fights that are here are pretty cool since Seagal made this before he piled on the pounds, that pony tail still looks gay though as does the stupid looking multi coloured coat he wears in this. There's one shoot-out at the end & one mildly entertaining car chase as Seagal is menaced by a huge Mack semi truck while trying to mind his own business in his pick-up... The violence levels are low for a Seagal film, there's no gratuitous nudity either.
This probably had a decent budget & it's no surprise Seagal never made another film for Warner Bros. after they saw this & it convincingly bombed at the box-office. It's well made but forgettable & the action set-pieces are dull & nothing we haven't seen before. The acting sucks which is a shame as there's a good cast here including Harry Dean Stanton & Kris Kristofferson. I was just looking at Seagal's bio page on the IMDb & it states that his very humble sounding nicknames are, wait for it, Lord Steven & The Great One! Excuse me, Lord Steven no less! Who on Earth gave him these rather lofty sounding nicknames?
Fire Down Below is probably Seagal's worst big budget action film that he made for a big studio & is more of an environmental drama than straight action, look Steven just stick to what your good at like beating people up in a variety of painful looking ways & leave stuff like acting to the professionals. Personally I think this film sucks big time & apart from one half decent car chase is rubbish.
The feature film directorial debut of Felix Enriquez Alcala I have to admit that I was really disappointed in Fire Down Below, I've stuck with Seagal over the years because some of his earlier films were pretty good while some of his later ones are just plain hilarious & he made this for Warner Bros. when the films he appeared in still had decent budgets & actually opened theatrically. The script by Jeb Stuart & Philip Morton takes itself extremely seriously & even has Seagal's character make an impassioned speech about the environment that wouldn't be out of place in a Quincy (1976 - 1982) episode! This film foolishly tries to have a strong environmental message behind it which just falls flat on it's face, for a start this is one of the slowest Seagal action flicks I've seen & contains little in the way of excitement. The character's are horrible, the dialogue is terrible & Seagal gets to play the guitar, ouch. Then there's the end which is a bit of an anti climax as nothing really happens, sure there's a couple of brief fights but one would usually expect a large action set-piece where the hero & the villain finally meet, not here as Seagal simply arrests the bad guy's & that's it. I'm sorry but I don't want to see Seagal arrest people & do things 'by the book', no I want him to shoot everyone in sight, beat people up, crash cars, blow things up & generally cause lots of mayhem, I mean is that really too much to ask?
Director Alcala does OK but the story really drags, badly. I really can't think of another either duller or slower Seagal action flick. The few fights that are here are pretty cool since Seagal made this before he piled on the pounds, that pony tail still looks gay though as does the stupid looking multi coloured coat he wears in this. There's one shoot-out at the end & one mildly entertaining car chase as Seagal is menaced by a huge Mack semi truck while trying to mind his own business in his pick-up... The violence levels are low for a Seagal film, there's no gratuitous nudity either.
This probably had a decent budget & it's no surprise Seagal never made another film for Warner Bros. after they saw this & it convincingly bombed at the box-office. It's well made but forgettable & the action set-pieces are dull & nothing we haven't seen before. The acting sucks which is a shame as there's a good cast here including Harry Dean Stanton & Kris Kristofferson. I was just looking at Seagal's bio page on the IMDb & it states that his very humble sounding nicknames are, wait for it, Lord Steven & The Great One! Excuse me, Lord Steven no less! Who on Earth gave him these rather lofty sounding nicknames?
Fire Down Below is probably Seagal's worst big budget action film that he made for a big studio & is more of an environmental drama than straight action, look Steven just stick to what your good at like beating people up in a variety of painful looking ways & leave stuff like acting to the professionals. Personally I think this film sucks big time & apart from one half decent car chase is rubbish.