Submerged

Plot synopsis:
Chris Cody (Steven Seagal) is a top-ranked mercenary who took part in an undercover operation to stop a major terrorist strike on U.S. soil; a strike that the UN refused to believe was about to happen. Cody had to break a number of laws in order to do the job, and he's in a military prison.
At the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo, Uruguay, Secret Service agents are briefing the ambassador on a terrorist base when they suddenly go haywire and kill her, and then themselves. Later, in Washington DC, intelligence analyst Dr. Chappell (Christine Adams) concludes that some sort of mind control device must have been used. A Delta Force commando team is sent to Uruguay to investigate, but they are quickly ambushed and captured. Taken to the terrorist base, they are brainwashed by Dr. Adrian Lehder (Nick Brimble), a scientist who heads a secret CIA experiment in mind control, programming soldiers to become virtually unstoppable killing machines when they're given the right commands.
The Navy recruits Cody and his talented crew to take Chappell and special agent Fletcher (William Hope) with them in an effort to destroy the facility and take down Lehder. Cody is promised that in exchange, he and his crew will be freed and cleared of the alleged misconduct that they were accused of and receive $100,000 each. Suspicious, Cody quickly jettisons Fletcher, who turns out to be in league with Lehder. Fletcher tips off Lehder, and they quickly abandon Lehder's facility, leaving behind a few American prisoners as Trojan horses.
One team of Cody’s men commandeers a submarine, while the others secure the base and rescue the prisoners. The team fights its way past a tank, destroys the base, and escapes on the sub. But they end up stuck on the sub with some of the mind-controlled soldiers. After fighting off the soldiers and escaping from the sub, Cody and his crew realize that they must race to bring down Lehder before the rest of his soldiers claim them all.

Tags: brainwashing, suspenseful, comedy, murder, violence

Review:
Clever tricks such as close editing in the fight scenes so you can't actually see Seagal isn't doing anything very impressive, dark lighting to hide his jowls and breadth and loose clothing so as to not accentuate his less than athletic physique.Anyway, the movie involves Seagal and a ragtag group of ex navy bad-arses being pulled out of prison (There is some lame political cover-up after an operation gone wrong angle to explain their presence there) to go after an evil scientist who has developed a mind control device and hiding out with some vaguely motivated militants in Uruguay.
It is never made clear exactly why the hell the government is using a bunch of convicts for this mission- I thought perhaps they would have been selected as it was more likely they hadn't been got at by the mind control device when it had been established the US special forces had already been compromised this way but such explanation was not offered on screen- in other words if the script-writers for this movie actually put as much thought into the plot in writing the script as I did in watching it for a few minutes it was lost in the editing stage.
At least Seagal isn't playing an archaeologist, a scientist or an arch bishop or some equally unbelievable profession in this one.Although the movie is called Submerged very little of it actually set on a submarine.
The last section of this meandering and goofy storyline is set in some South American city (Yes I'm too lazy to look it up).The plot is meandering, is full of holes and makes little sense (I was quite frankly shocked) but the film is full of action and is never dull, even if it is because of unintentional laughs, of which there are many.
Seagal doesn't actually do much in the way of martial arts (Wonder why?) but there are plenty of goofy action sequences such as a Commando like sequence where Segal and friends take on a small army, complete with tanks and barely get hurt.
There is a large supporting cast to distract from Seagals non-acting, most of whom are dead by the end of the movie, including two Lock Stock and two Smoking Barrels alumni- Vinnie Jones, applying his usual cheerfully violent soccer hooligan type character that brings some much needed colour to the screen and Hatchet Harry.
Most of Seagal's team is forgettable, the only other ones I remember a few days after watching it are stiff faced woman and skinny Latino dude.In summation, if you want to watch a stupid, cheesy but on the whole entertaining(ly bad) action flick and laugh at the comedy institution that is Steven Seagal then Submerged is pure gold..
The level of ignorance of these people is astounding!!What you can find in the real Uruguay: people whose language is Spanish and whose accent is different from the rest of South America and only similar to the Argentinian accent; democracy; very little evidence of our Indian heritage; European looking people (we are mostly descendants of Spanish and Italian immigrants)What you will find in "submerged" Uruguay: people who speak Spanish with a totally different accent from ours, probably from Central America; people whose written language is sometimes Italian, sometimes another language (pay attention to submarine instructions, find the words "telefon" and "revolution"); a revolution going on; Mayan ruins (!!!); Viking looking men and Swedish looking women(!!!!!)So, just for the record, the country you'll see in submerged is not Uruguay (actually, it's Bulgaria), though for some reason the people involved in submerged thought it would be a good idea to say it takes place here.
And if you don't understand the Way in which Seagal rules, then you have no business renting his movies.Submerged is actually pretty good.
Hello Everyone:I have just rented and watched Steven Seagal's latest film entitled," Submerged." To tell you the truth Steven Seagal is not only the reason why this movie is so poor.
It really seemed as if nobody gave a damn with this flick as the disappointment just sets in and sinks really hard!!I know for a fact that Seagal's film," Ticker," was done rather quickly but ended up a good solid feature, which by the way starred not only Steven Seagal, but veteran actor Mr.Dennis Hopper and Mr.Tom Sizemore who did a great job, as these are clearly experienced actor's who know just what to do with a little bit and turn out a fine movie.And finally let us get to the acting.....
Every action hero is entitled to a dud so let us just forget about " Submerged," and make like it was never made.Now I am looking forward to September 2005's release of " Today You Die," and the December 2005 release of," Black Dawn." These two are expected to be much better films, more like his last grouping of movies.
Though I rented this movie because I am a Seagal fan, I found that Vinnie Jones played a pretty good role and B+ movie action lead Gary Daniels is totally under-utilized.
I like old movies of Steven Seagal, but i think that we are watching the end of his career.
Even if they have to use a lot of stunt doubles and trick photography.Just when I thought Seagal reinvented himself just like Jean Claude Van Damme, he had to ruin his reputation by making a horrible action movie.
Yesterday i was checking on the news when suddenly the reporter started to talk about a Steven Seagal's movie where he has to kill a bunch of terrorist which nationality is URUGUAYAN.
The talk-lines hit the bottom being just ridiculous, stupid, old, flat and unfitting (get your WHITE ass out of here!) Poor knowledge of geographical facts, bad directing, movie title, voice-over's, special effects (I could do the scene with the recon drone myself with a toy plane and my mobile-camera), editing have all been mentioned before in other comments.Where's the majestic ass-kicking aikido-action Steven became famous with?
He has not the slightest bit of pride left!The least thing he owes his fans is to be in shape and to do some serious fighting, plots have all more or less been secondary anyway.Just look at Kurt Russell in 'Soldier', he's the same age...Most people considered 'Out for a Kill' Seagal's worst one, I think 'Submerged' is it once and for all and will remain undisputed.
for the first time for a Seagal movie I didn't even finish watching but started to write this comment while listing to some of the noise still coming from the TV hoping to catch something exiting, but it never happened.OFAK offered at least lots of fighting and good credit music, that makes it good enough for me.
STEVEN SEAGAL's Direct-to-Video career since his last Theatrical bomb that was 'HALF PAST DEAD' 8 years ago has been pretty terrible, with the only half decent DTV release being 'BELLY OF THE BEAST' in a sea of awful trash, So my expectation were rock bottom going into this.SUBMERGED is not THAT bad, but it isn't THAT good either, in essence it's a rip-off of THE DIRTY DOZEN with STEVEN SEAGAL playing Mercenary Chris Cody being freed from Prison and reunited with his previously incarcerated team, but there is one catch, They have to take down a renegade Scientist who has created some sort of mind control technology which has turned American Soldiers into mind controlling killers.There's plenty of action throughout, especially in the last quarter with a very high body countCo-Starring B-Movie Martial Artist Gary Daniels in a minor role & Former Footballer turned Movie tough guy Vinnie Jones as one of the good guys.There really is no need to go into the acting on display, because this being a Seagal Flick - The Acting is neither here nor there, It's decently Directed by Anthony Hickox (who has dozens of B-Movies to his name) The Plot on the other hand is muddled and incoherent but I've come to expect that from Seagal.Pleasant enough trash, It's not up there with Seagal's best (Under Siege) but it won't go down among his worst (Flight of Fury,Into the Sun & Shadow Man) Keep your expectations low and if you're in the mood for some mindless action, then you should enjoy.*** out of *****.
Unfortunately, this total stinker of a movie repeats all the previous mistakes from Steven Seagal's recent films.
I have never seen Steven Segal in something as dire as this garbage.The only thing going for the film was the gorgeous and sexy Christine Adams - a real treat for the eye - her mere presence in the movie being the only reason I saw this crap through to the bitter end.
I have never seen Steven Segal in something as dire as this garbage.The only thing going for the film was the gorgeous and sexy Christine Adams - a real treat for the eye - her mere presence in the movie being the only reason I saw this crap through to the bitter end.
I am a big Steven Segal fan and though, sure, virtually every movie the man has made is the same movie, still, Segal's ability to pull it off time and again, and indeed do it well, puts him at the top of the class of these types of action heroes.But this movie was a complete and total let-down, not only confusing as all get-out, but poorly filmed, written, and acted.
This looks like a movie someone got him out of some Home for Old Action Heroes to go film.
the idea not bad but the actors so much weak in acting really i didn't get any good time watching this crap,Steven wasn't all good as he used to be and the stuff from his team is so strange and not acting well i think and also i think it took some actions from matrix and the cold old way of talking Steven used is so much bad and not in his character so i really hope he stop make this cray not to eliminate his great history and loss more fans,and for real i did waste the time watching this movie as its really not worth any time to watch it even the bad guy wasn't so much good in his character,the woman was in his team i think she hasn't any work in movie as she just trying to be good and thats seems not.
I was kind of shocked that another Seagal movie would hit the video rack so soon after the modestly-entertaining Into the Sun a few mere months.I thought Maybe Seagal would take a small sabbatical and focus on finding a good script or acting gig.Heck,maybe even get the long-rumored Under Siege 3 going.Not a chance!If there ever was one,I am sure Submerged has sank all that wishful thinking.Note the Pun if you will.Submerged is a normal b-movie with a "plot" that combines the dirty dozen.Manchurian Canidate,and elements of Seagals best movie,Under Siege all thrown in the proverbial oven to emerge...Half baked.No!Quarter-baked if you ask me.Aside from a couple of cool Death scenes It is lame action all the way through.Seagal has just let himself go.Fellow B star Gary Daniels shows up as a bad guy.You would think that a better Mano a Mano would go down between Seagal and Gary.A cinematic opportunity blown!The plot holes begin to pile up until you start to throw the remote in disbelief at how fast this flounders.Oops.Another Pun.The one saving Grace here is the casting of Vinnie Jones of Snatch and Eurotrip.He is his usual self here.Growling and snarling all the way as Seagal's sniper.They could have made the movie about him.I suspect Vinnie could make a lot of bank if he entered the DTV action market as the headliner.Anthony Hickox does all he can with the resources he has.The movie looks pretty good.Hickox is probably one the few good directors Seagal has worked with since Exit wounds.He has come a long way since his Waxwork days,and deserves a major shot.But the script sinks all that ambition.Not another Pun.With Jones and Hickox embracing the cheese,one would think the same of the main star.Seagal looks and sounds comatose to here.It make you wonder how he signed on for this.That voice raspier and more dubbed than ever.At this rate of disappointment I don't know how Seagal could ever get back into the major limelight.If Into the Sun was the light shining through.The Submerged is one of the ever-increasing nails in the coffin of his Carrer.2/10.
Next, there were some pretty good fight scenes...however...only "2" of them involved Steven Seagal, one of which at the end is involved with a character who we had not even been introduced to at all in the movie!In summary, I am truly and deeply disappointed in this movie and would consider it the worst waste of money I have EVER spent in my life!
Vinnie Jones plays Henry, and still looks good in his fight scenes, Nick Brimble is Lehder, William Hope is Fletcher, and Alison King and the lovely Christine Adams play the female roles.This time our hero plays Chris Kody, the world's best mercenary – he must use his lethal weapons and fighting skills to stop a group of terrorists who have taken over a nuclear sub.For a straight-to-video film this is about average.
I have seen many bad Seagal movies that still were somewhat enjoyable, but this movie is just crap, and as experienced watched one will notice this immediately, especially the scene with the drone above the dam clearly reveals the budget and quality of this movie and my feeling was that I should stop watching the movie right there, everything beyond this scene just confirms this feeling.The acting is very bad, with Vinnie Jones probably being the worst of the bunch of good guys.
The plot is pathetic at best and more illogical than ever, on the other hand this is probably the best that can be made out of the following pieces:submarine - country referred to as Uruguay that does not look like Uruguay at all - mad scientists - mind control - S.S. and a bunch of mercenaries - Vinnie "The Ax" JonesIn the extra material on the DVD they also talk about atom bomb, seems that they had even more idea which, fortunately, did not make it into the movie.The rating on this site seems to be far too good.
Supporting actors help out especially Christine Adams, who is English but does a dead on American accent, and is believably good looking, intelligent and action oriented all at the same time.Seagal has one decent fight scene one terrible one but mostly stays in the dark occasionally trying to seem like he's "down with it." Director Hickox does some silly jump cutting to music early on then seems to forget he was going for any style at all by the end and shoots it bland like a TV show of old.
The movie has a good cast, with no fewer than 3 people who appeared in Guy Ritchie films, most notably Vinnie Jones, who is the best thing in the film.
Action veteran Gary Daniels appears, acts as badly as we know he can, and gets killed like a little bitch and after co-starring with another action superstar Dolph Lundgren, he has been thoroughly wasted in what should have been his best two movies.
Jones in fact revels as an action man and you can't help but feel that when he puts on his crazy face in his fights scenes, he is a bit too into it and probably landing a few punches on the poor old stunt guys or co-stars.Overall this is fairly polished and although not as crisp looking as Seagal's Into The Sun, looks better than some of his other efforts, while the amount of action is ample for genre lovers.
Seagal (the fat, boring walrus) is the leading man, followed by Vinnie Jones (who seems to play himself also in more upcoming films, he was better in Guy Ritchie films) and Nick Brimble (he is a good actor, but I don't understand how he get here?).
I suspect the die-hard Stevie fans will be disappointed in the lack of hand-to-hand stuff that Seagall does here, but as an action film I've seen far, far worse.It does appear, though, as if the heyday of Segall's fighting movies is over.
One of the best thing about watching films from this stage of Seagal's career is having a good laugh at the evident poorness on display.This ranges from mumbled (often re-looped by a different actor) lines from Mr Seagal, to cleverly shot action scenes that disguise the fact that Seagal was no where near it.Submerged scores on both these points and many others.
I would call it style over substance, but there is no style and even less substance.If you want a good laugh with a Seagal film then I suggest Into the Sun. Submereged (which is the worst name as they are in a sub for all of 10 minutes) is just a mess with only Vinnie Jones making it even close to being worth your valuable time.
Camera shots: The jumpy camera work was a cool feature to the movie.The actors: Steven Segal and Gary Daniels together in a film and they fight each other!
It's all about halting the brainwashing, ultimately, and Cody will do his very level best to stop all who wish to see this dangerous weapon sold to the highest bidder.If you were ever interested in what a Steven Seagal picture would be like directed by Anthony Hickox, then here it is, Submerged, which might disappoint those expecting an action thriller specifically set in a submarine.
He is in the movie, but it seems like the script was probably changed in a few spots to make it kind of a Seagal film.
I like Steven Seagal movies.
Steven Seagal is a good action/star since 1988.