Shadow Man

Plot synopsis:
Danny Hayes is an awkward child who is afraid of the dark and the regular target of a local bully named Eric. Eric teases Danny about his interest in Lianna, a pretty student. At home, Danny's mother chastises him for sleeping with the lights on. A mysterious entity comes out from under his bed; he introduces himself as the shadow man, and promises that he will never harm the person under whose bed he lives. The shadow man leaves the house.
The next day, Danny tries to tell his friend Peter about the shadow man, but Peter dismisses it. At school, Danny hears about a series of attacks on children; witnesses describe the attacker as a shadowy man. That night, the shadow man reiterates his promise and then leaves. Danny unsuccessfully tries to take a picture of him. The next day, Danny tries again to tell Peter, but Peter continues to dismiss it. Danny overhears that Lianna needs help in algebra, so he goes to her house to help. She is impressed that he would risk an attack by the shadow man just to help her.
Danny's "bravery" becomes the talk of the school, and he attracts a number of false friends. Peter, believing that Danny's story of the shadow man under his bed might be true, confronts Danny. Danny reacts dismissively toward Peter. Later, Danny challenges Eric to a fight. The shadow man arrives at the appointed time; Eric runs off, but Danny is not afraid of the shadow man. The shadow man begins to choke Danny. Danny is in shock, and demands to know why the shadow man is reneging on his promise of never harming him. The shadow man acknowledges the promise to never harm the person under whose bed he lives, but then states that he is a shadow man from someone else's bed.

Tags: violence

Review:
I always wonder if Steven Seagal reads the forums here.I think he does as his latest,Shadowman is actually an entertaining action movie that does not mock(most of the time)or insult the audiences Intelligence.
Did I just say that?The story is another matter.Yes he is Jack foster.Not a bad name this time.He is yet another CIA agent.Yes his daughter has been kidnapped by shady types.All in a eastern European area.What is a shadow man to do but kick some ass.Whats different here is that Seagal actually tries and succeeds in giving a decent turn here.He does most of his own fights.Gone is the raspy voice and Dubbing.The stunt doubles are kept to a minimum.He gets into quite a few scraps here that recall his early days glory.The only bad thing is they needed to get some better actors to back him up.With the exception of Eva Pope most of the Bad guys are what else?Clichés.I do remember when the villains were written good even for low-budget movies.The other problem is the most common plaguing DTV movies today.The Badly-done CGI.Its the same problem in the Detonator and Second in command.Director Michael Kunesch Keeps the movie rolling,gives it a nice look,but winds up a little uneven.He is the best since Anothony Hickox though.Production values are good.Its a few notches above Seagals latest work which was depressing me.What is good to see is that Seagal has woken up to the fact that we want the old-time Seagal action..
I will admit I enjoy watching Seagal films even though I usually disappointed.Overall this film gets a 2 for directing, 2 for editing, 2 for acting, 2 for plot, and 6 for the stunts..
It's fairly obvious to see, to non fans, that Steven Seagal over the last few years has seen a decline in film quality, since Exit Wounds, which itself briefly reversed a falling trend in the big guys, post Under Siege works.
Seagal films these days, ridiculously, are rated on his participation in fight scenes, his own dialogue, etc, which in a critical standpoint is really no way to rate a movie.
Alex Ferns, Imelda Staunton (surprisingly) and the lovely Eva Pope, all appear to give fine support.The plot is quite simple but as usual in some of these movies the storytelling is poor, with Seagal travelling from scene to scene with little indication as to why.
He'd really packed on the pounds since his glory days, but then I watched this film, during an action man rampage (Icidentally, Dolph Lundgren's The Russian Specialist was my clear winner) and boy was Seagal looking fat, old and horribly sweaty.Shadow Man has no plot to speak of, it's just a bunch of guys who turn up to get beaten up by Steven Seagal.
The former CIA agent Jack Foster (Steven Seagal) travels to Bucharest with his daughter Amanda (Skye Bennett) and his father-in-law George (Michael Elwyn) to spend vacations in Romania.
While trying to rescue his daughter, Jack is entwined in a network of traitors and criminals that are disputing the powerful biological weapon and he has to fight to survive."Shadow Man" is another messy and noisy movie of Steven Seagal.
Steven Seagal made some good movies earlier back in his career such as UNDER SIEGE (1992) ABOVE THE LAW (1988) & MARKED FOR DEATH (1990) but that was a very long time ago.Since his last Theatrical Flop, The Rapper's in Alcatraz nonsense that was HALF PAST DEAD (2002) - Seagal's career as been in the Straight- to-DVD doldrums and has starred in 19 Movies in 8 years to date, but it's a case of quantity rather than quality I'm afraid.SHADOW MAN has Seagal playing an Intelligence Operative whose Daughter gets kidnapped and spends the rest of the movie trying to get her back, that's pretty much it, but SHADOW MAN has a needlessly confusing and overly complicated screenplay - There's far too many different sets of baddies (Cops,Americans,Romanian Mafia) and too many pointless scenes by half which add nothing to the story, it does become quite a chore to sit through.The Film is poorly directed by Michael Keusch - who went on to direct another couple of Seagal starred stinkers in FLIGHT OF FURY & ATTACK FORCE.It's very disjointed,The Screenplay is woeful - Seagal co-wrote and co-produced it himself so has to take a lot of the blame here.There's plenty of action, none of it very interesting and most of it poorly edited.The Acting is pretty awful, but I've come to expect that in a Seagal Flick - What Oscar Nominated British Actress Imelda Staunton in doing appearing in such mindless trash I really don't know.Filmed in Romania on the cheap - Not the worst Film I've ever seen,but Seagal DTV releases have become interchangeable, none are better or worse than the one before, but ALL are pretty dire - there hasn't been a really decent one since UNDER SIEGE 2, 15 years and 30 odd Films ago.I used to be a sucker for his Flicks, buying every release, but this is the last one I paid my hard earned money to buy - Make of that what you will.I was surprised to notice the Film is only 95 Minutes long, because it felt far far longer..
As far as they do, Shadow Man is pretty bad, but it does start off quite promisingly and it for me is not as bad as Out for a Kill, which is a serious contender for Seagal's worst film ever.
The film concerns about a shadowy CIA ex-agent (Steven Seagal) , he goes to Bucarest (Romania) and at airport his daughter is kidnapped after an explosion .
So if you don't mind that you never see "stevens" head/face in any stunt ( which includes anything with more action that jogging or crouching) nor worse effects then a 1950 movie "high speed" chase, then you might enjoy this movie.if you hate to see slowly moving vehicles through a shaking camera (which somehow is supposed to make it look more action/speed loaded...) i suggest not to waste your time with it.
Still this one shows he still has a good movie or two in him.Anyone following Steven Segal's career has seen a pretty painful drop in movie quality from him, this one is I hope, the beginning of a up swing.The Story is his usual "have to save a loved one and kill all the bad guys in the process" CIA related thing.
I watched this one sort of fondly during the fight scenes, thinking "well at least it is him this time not some padded up stunt double" It was a fun watch and left me hopeful that something good may still come out of Steven Segal.
Anyways Shadow Man is definitely an above average film in Steven's latest production thanks to good production quality, director and a better script than on average in these films.The plot is simple: Steven's character Jack is carrying micro cell containing a virus without knowing about it.
I'm not a demanding critic when it comes down to guys like Steven Seagal: The problem's just that I gotta keep it real - I didn't feel myself entertained during the film.
With support from Eva Pope and Imelda Staunton the usual direct-to-video standard goes up a notch for what is actually a very typical below-par Steven Seagal action film.
Although there's no doubts, Seagal goes about doing the little things while his stunt man cops a real workout, even at times doing the slow jog for the big guy.
{Steven Seagal Anonymous} This time around: Jack Foster (You know the guy I'm talking about) is an ex-cop on a mission to save his daughter from terrorists.
On the plus side, it looks like Seagal lay low on the stunt doubles this time around, and the climax is unintentionally funny.It's better than "Attack Force" but not as good as his DTV peak "Belly Of The Beast".One more thing: You can make some lame jokes at his expense with the title: He's a "Shadow" of his former self, or he casts a big "Shadow".
The cheese factor is high, as always, but we've got Seagal doing his own fight scene, minimal dubbing (it is present), and a good cast of villains added to the mix, meaning that he isn't moving up, but at least he's doing better then before.The Sensei portrays Jack Foster, a man desperate to reclaim his daughter after she is abducted for something he has unknowingly intercepted.When it comes to the lame DTV franchise, it's the Godfather, or at least Godfather part III..
I was a great fan ...but instead of giving us a Glimmer...(sic) of who he is and what he is capable of I AM AFRAID that this..is....oh so bad...very bad....the acting...from everyone...the...er...martial...whats???" OH I AM SO VERY IMPRESSED BY YOUR CHI WILL YOU GIVE ME LESSONS"....ER....Steve personal message promote your art but don't lower yourself to this no matter how tight your money is...AIKIDO this was very much not a demonstration of this effective system...your acting....i mean where you held at gunpoint??ans for the badly VERY BADLY cutting....er...camera angles??....i could go on...Fire down below...Glimmer man Out for Justice...Executive Decision...(yeah a bit part but great )....please give us a good film next or at least direct your biography....
Im a great fan of Steven Seagal and have hardly missed his any movie but unfortunately Shadow Man is a disgrace to his profile and I felt like stopping the movie in the middle and hit the sack.
Only thing I liked about this movie is Steven Seagal's few martial art moves which he does best all the time but overall action ain't that good esp he bringing helicopter down with his pistol.
Seagal use to be good Now he's producing the films himself Now they are VERY VERY BADWhy doesn't he retire and play some golf or whatever The movie flips from here to there and the music goes up and down A guy get shot in the first he have a hole in his jacket next time the jacket are as new and no blood on his shirt And so on And on Don't BUY THIS MOVIE ----------------- ----------------------- ----------- ---------------------------- ---------- -------------- ------------ ------------------------- ------- ----------- ---- ------------- ------ ------- ------------- ------ ---------- ---------- ------------.
Shadow Man is a film that is absolute rubbish with its involving story that could put one to sleep, poor action sequences, very poor direction, sloppy fight scenes, and a very overweight and poorly dubbed Steven Seagal who looked very lethargic and lazily plods his way throughout the movie.The big question here is why on earth is Steven Seagal's voice dubbed in this movie.
Steven Seagal:since he has made films,he was making films with a lot of surceases.But in the mean time,Steven is getting older,fatter,and even worst.When I first saw this movie,I thought it was not very good.But then I realized that wasn't very bad,in mather of fact,it was very good.The plot is better than many others of his movies.For example:in this movie all of fight scenes were not doubled(except the first one in the very beginning).Many films had these things(stunt doubles in most of his fights,stunts and action sequences.Just like Black Dawn,Submerged and so one.But in this one he looked more like the old steve that we have met years ago.But the age comes and it is inevitable..
Our LEGENDARY CULT hero is 50+ and still making kick ARS action flicks when the rest(Stallone,Arnie,Willis etc etc)have fallen by the wayside..Im sick to death of reading reviews which state..Seagals voice is dubbed, He's not doing his fight scenes etc..A movie is as good as its story,screenplay,director so forth.You put Tom Cruise in any of Seagals low budget flicks and the movies would be just the same!Remember he is no longer with the big Movie studio's of the 90's such as WARNER BROTHERS&FOX!SEAGALS first 10 films were with Warners and all ten are kick ARS movies..Nearly all of his low budget films are COLOMBIA TRI STAR..Just remember Colombia Tristar in the early 90's had the B-Grade action stars/Movies such as Lorenso Lamas,Brain Bosworth,Oliver Gruner,Dolph Lungren the list goes on..Whilst Seagal was with the big spending Warner Brothers so that should tell you why Seagals films today are not as huge as they once were,and to mention our hero is on the other side of 50 i think he is an ABOSLUTE LEGEND and we will not fully appreciate how superb his films are until the great man passes away.A perfect example is Exit Wounds..Hire the DVD and play the making of it.You will see how Seagal was made to do actions scenes that he struggled with..You can see him gasping for breath and in even one scene he has a leg brace on,i gather from pushing to hard in a particular scene.This proves that if you have a great team of filmmakers guiding you the movie will turn out brilliant as Exit Wound definitely was,i think Steven last No-1 Cinema Release!!Tell me what other actor before Seagal would hold his gun an inch away from his face when he shoots a gun(and might i say NO-1 AND I MEAN NO-1 SHOOTS A GUN LIKE SEAGAL) drop the magazine from head level when empty and reload with another one,Snap body parts,Gouge out eyes,And has the BEST on and off screen demena of any tuff guy actors ever seen..Quielty spoken yet with such a quick witt,then man is Brilliant with his one liners..We all judge to quickly on the movies he is making these days yet there are massive circumstances,,Any true Seagal fan would realise this!!I have followed his career since Nico-1988..I have every Poster and every Cardboard cut out of the great mans films until they all stopped with his straight to video releases..I wont hear a bad word about Seagal!He his is a Bloody icon a National Treasure and lifted the bar in action movies 2 fold when he arrived on the seen-1988..As for Shadowman...Brilliant!!Nothing more to be said with the low budget this movies has..The location this film was shot in is stunning and he is now working with people i gather he enjoys working with..He is looking happy and his fight scenes in this movie are really a throw back to the Big Studio days!!I could watch this movie time and time again and i'd reckon it would get better every time..The Granny with the Oozie going ballistic in the Whore House and a single shot by Seagal to the forehead is an Absolute classic, not to mention the Rick Flair fingers in the eyes to the Russian dude at end of the movie..FANTASTIC!Steven if you ever do happen to read any of these reviews i hope you read my one!Cause your true fans know what your all about and there is never a bad word to be said about you!Look forward to your up coming movies and how about coming Down Under and snapping some body parts down here?Cheers.
As others have stated, Shadow Man is a welcome return to form for Steven Seagal (who seems to be putting more effort into recent movies) but as usual with (most) d-t-v releases, it does have a rather jumbled plot, that detracts from what the big guy does best.
Then (in a terribly doubled after-thought) Seagal (or his double) is then seen to start brutally going one to one with the class (dubbing is evident, at this point as well) so i chalk this up to the film-makers wanting extra fights (strange, given that Seagal performs all the other stuff himself?) Some ropey C.G.I and obvious body doubles asside (although Seagal is never around on set enough, to make an entire movie, given that he puts out 3-4 of these movies a year) the movie is a good solid little action flick (the people behind Van Dammes 'Second In Command'...take note!)What Seagal now needs is to work with a decent director.
It's good to see him kicking ass again, but the surrounding material is beneath him, and regardless of his good work, these annoying tactics only serve to make Seagal 'the star' look bad.U.K fans will be keen to spot ex-soap regulars Eva Pope (Coronation Street) and Alex Ferris (Eastenders)......and remarkably (oscar nominated) Immelda Staunton(?)The bottom line is this, Shadow Man has all the good quality fight scenes that Seagal is famous for, but suffers from this inexplicable 'filler-syndrome' that infests most d-t-v's.
Seagal is completely out of shape and mumbles his way through, the casting of Staunton as the embassy leader is pointless, and it laughable seeing from Trevor from EastEnders putting on a bad American accent, I could not follow the wretched story of kidnap and international conspiracy with a virus, the special effects are awful, not even the fast fight and chase sequences can save it from being a complete waste of time, a crap action thriller.
Seagal seems happy to be in this movie and actually looks like he cares about the movie, the music is not that bad, the acting overall is OK, the plot seems to start going in an interesting direction, etc.
Shadow Man starts as ex CIA agent Jack Foster (Steven Seagal) arrives at a Romanian airport with his 8 year old daughter Amanda (Skye Bennett) in readiness for a holiday, however the holiday doesn't last long as a car bomb goes off & Amanda is kidnapped by a woman in a taxi.
Jack is now angrier than ever & kills lots of people as he searches for his daughter...This American, English & Romanian was directed by Michael Keusch & is yet another pretty bad straight-to-DVD low budget action film shot in Eastern Europe with Steven Seagal as some sort of CIA agent, soldier or other military or crime fighting Government official, his career now consists solely of this sort of production & he is still too fat.
"Shadow Man" is another one of Steven Seagal's direct-to-DVD action movies this time from 2006 where he was manufacturing these quickies with a worrying inconsistency.