Born to Raise Hell

Plot synopsis:
After 9/11, the United States government realized that narcotics were responsible for financing the majority of terrorist cells. That's why they created the International Drug Task Force (IDTF). The IDTF task forces are fully funded and overseen by the United States government. They took their top narcotics officers and created interdiction teams throughout Asia and Eastern Europe.
Bobby Samuels (Steven Seagal) heads an IDTF team in Bucharest, Romania. Six months ago, Bobby's partner was killed. Now, headquarters has sent him a new partner named Steve (D. Neil Mark). Steve's wife is eight months pregnant, and he’d really like to make it home to see the birth of his child.
Russian drug kingpin Dmitri (Dan Bădărău) has a wife (Silvia Stanciu) and a young son (Ștefan Iancu), both of whom he holds sacred, and they are not aware of his drug business. Recently, Dimitri has formed a drug dealing partnership with Costel (Darren Shahlavi), a Romanian man who runs the Roma Ace, one of the most popular clubs in Bucharest.
Costel and his men specialize in home invasions - they invade wealthy people's homes, steal whatever loot they can get, and kill the family. During each invasion, Costel himself rapes and kills the wife. And Costel owes Dimitri some money. Dimitri has threatened that Costel will die if he doesn't come up with the money.
Bobby and Steve are put on Costel's trail, and Bobby tries to get Dimitri to point them to Costel, but Dimitri is suspicious at first. After Bobby and Steve arrest Dimitri in an effort to get him to help them, Dimitri butts his head through a door window of their SUV, and accuses Bobby and Steve of brutality. Dimitri gets released, and Bobby and Steve continue their hunt for Costel.
One night while Dimitri is away from his mansion, Costel and his men break into the mansion, and Costel's right-hand man Dada (Zoltán Butuc) fatally shoots Dimitri's wife. Before Costel can kill Dimitri's son, Dimitri's men intervene, killing a couple of Costel's men as Costel and Dada escape.
Dimitri arrives at the mansion, learns what happened, and vows to make Costel and Dada pay. Dimitri's traumatized son describes his wife's shooter to him. Dimitri contacts Bobby, and offers to help Bobby find Costel, if Bobby will let Dimitri handle Dada himself. Bobby agrees, and he, Steve, and Dimitri set out to bring Costel and Dada down.

Tags: revenge, murder, violence

Review:
'BORN TO RAISE HELL': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five) Another generic Steven Seagal action film, in this one he plays an Interpol agent caught in the middle of a Russian and Gypsy street gang war in Eastern Europe.
When things get messy Axel is forced to resort to unconventional measures in order to get the job done.Like I said Seagal is credited for writing the script but it's basically just parts of a dozen other movies pieced together.
Yes, it's another low rent movie in which a great deal of could-have-been-good action scenes are spoiled by dizzyingly bad, sea-sickening cutting.Seagal has more of a hand in this than usual, having written and produced as well as starred (although, as is the norm for the actor these days, sometimes the hand isn't his own: the body and voice doubles are back in force).
This time around he's an imported American cop, wearing a flak jacket and leading a police squad through some grimy streets in scenes probably inspired by his own TV show, STEVEN SEAGAL: LAWMAN.
Along the way he contends with Brando-lookalike Russian mafia man Dimitri and a particularly vicious rapist/murderer gypsy.The supporting cast and locales are entirely Romanian, and a great deal of scenes take place in strip joints where women parade around in their next-to-nothings and Seagal glowers at anyone who comes close.
The movie develops a clear direction when a guy he captures on a routine drug bust makes a deal with him and tells him about a sadistic and somewhat psychotic drug dealer named Costel who finances his buys by breaking and entering the houses of young rich couples whom he has some sort of deep resentment for.
I thought the movie was a solid action film and worth watching if you like shoot 'em ups.
I've always thought that Seagal (and some other action stars of the like) practiced a kind of "slight-of-hand martial arts" aided by camera angles and editing.
Watching a Steven Seagal film is a bit like going to eat something you know is not really good for you and has passed it's sell by date, but somehow,you still can't resist taking a bite.
In between all the action there was a tender moment between Steve and his girlfriend, however, as Mr.Seagal is not in the first flush of youth he might well be advised in the future to avoid love scenes with topless young women,as it looks a little unattractive.
Born to Raise Hell is basically the usual Steven Seagal movie under another name, but nevertheless, I enjoyed it..
I wish I could meet Steven Seagal, not only to ask for his autograph but also to sit down with him and discuss what's made his recent string of movies so disappointing for even a devoted fan like me.
I'm not so naïve to believe that Seagal is in total creative and technical control of each of his features, but perhaps I could convince him to take a more hands-on role in their production and perhaps aikido-chop the idiots who are truly responsible for the lackluster nature of some of these movies.The plot: An international drug task force operating out of Romania, headed by ex-Interpol agent Samuel Axel (Seagal), sets its sights on bringing down the operations of a deadly and sadistic gang of drug traffickers...People who don't like Steven Seagal by default are going to hate this movie.
Surprisingly, I found myself appreciating this: a supercilious Steven is still more fun to watch than the detached, bored-looking dope he played for a while in movies like FLIGHT OF FURY.
There aren't any other real technical snafus to be seen, but further post-production add-ins like nonstop slow motion, freeze-frame shots galore, and way too many time-killing collage scenes continue to have the movie feeling more like Seagal's trash pictures of yesteryear, moving him further and further away from the high standard he had achieved with URBAN JUSTICE.The action scenes are composed mostly of boring shootouts, but there are a couple hand-to-hand encounters which, while not too flashy, feature Seagal doing just about all of his own moves and getting some good aikido throws in.
Shahlavi had consistently delivered great physical performances in the past, and one of his most recent movies at the time - IP MAN 2, released on the same day as BORN TO RAISE HELL - featured him in some very good fights with Donnie Yen and Sammo Hung; in this one, however, he has one very brief fight halfway through the film before getting absolutely manhandled by Seagal during the climax.
Last evening I decided to play a bit of Russian roulette again watch one one Steven Seagal's direct to DVD movies that was given on W9.
Again there was nothing else worth watching and I did think the last one that I watched, The Keeper, was too bad (for a direct to DVD by Steven Seagal that is) so I thought let's watch it.This was not one of the better movies that I have watched to say the least.
After seeing A DANGEROUS MAN I almost said I'm through with Steven Seagal movies but then I decided to pick up this one in the hope Seagal could be redeemed, it turns out this film was one of his more solid DTV efforts aside from the fact that it was still flawed, it had the dubbing problem but not as much as his other films, Seagal's fight scenes were edited a bit fast although there were shots that showed him actually doing the fight scenes and Seagal wears a thick coat to hide his weight now I regarded that as one of his trademarks so I didn't really give that much thought.The best moments of the film were the shootouts, they were very well done and also pretty tense, something I haven't seen from a Seagal movie in a long time, the acting was surprisingly good this time even from Seagal himself but there are two other actors that stand out, Darren Shalavi who was ideal for the part of the villain and Dan Badaru who plays a Romanian gangster out to get revenge for the death of his wife and son.Also now that I thought about it, this film features a brief love scene between Steven Seagal and a woman possibly young enough to be his daughter but she does look legal and very attractive, after seeing that scene and remembering Seagal also wrote the script, I reckoned this is one of the interesting things about being a writer and an actor, you give your own character a story and a hot little number and you add a steamy love scene between the two of you, now that's a different kind of fantasizing right there only Seagal puts it down on paper and it gets put on film with him in the scene, "sigh" some guys have all the fun.Overall, its one of the better Steven Seagal DTV entries but it is way too flawed to measure up to the caliber of a Steven Seagal classic like UNDER SIEGE..
This gritty, modern classic is most definitely a truly worthy winner of just about every Academy award this year, "Best animated movie" possibly being the sole exception.Steven Seagal, toughest guy since Bruce Lees DNA was spliced with Mike Tysons, characterizes the deeply tormented soul of Interpol-veteran Bobby with a sheer brilliance that makes de Niro in Taxi Driver look like Forest Whitaker in Battlefield Earth.
Seagal portrays the inner demons his characters are struggling with in such a subtle and ingenious way that it baffles the mind how such a performance could go unnoticed.With absolute classic gold dialogue like: "You're not supposed to hit a guy when im holding him" "You know, trust is not one of my more spectacular attributes" "You should be chasing terrorists over in Afghanistan, not here." "Already done that, now im over here having fun" "You see why I hate eating out?" Also, the Russian guy: "Midgets are a little short.
As a screenwriter, Seagal chooses to write him self out rather than in, and subsequently we spend more time with the mafia.The fight scenes come with a crunchy sound mix, and they allow us to see more Seagal than Stunt man, but they reek of bad editing.
the people who direct movies like Born to Raise Hell are not qualified for anything except music videos.
If you have seen any Steven Seagal movie before you don't have to see "Born to raise hell".
I also suggest you consider joining me in never wasting good sleep on a bad Seagal movie.
And it's great to see Mr. Seagal do what he does best (battering, maiming and killing) without the over-the-top slowmo fight scenes, or utterly unconvincing stand-ins (another post-production stupidity, designed to add a few seconds to the running time).I watched The Expendables the day after watching BTRH, and BTRH was, in my opinion, a better movie.An aside: this movie, and a few other of Seagal's movies, really would have benefited from being a little longer.
or a bakeryThese gangsters and mafia members deserve to get shot and killed and arrested for being as stupid as they are.If they didn't all dress the same and walk around like clones of each other in other movies - they would live longer.I wasn't expecting some massive major story development in a Steven Segal movie - but this is so rehashed from so many other movies - it puts a damper on the entire genre of action.An action movie could be real fun and entertaining and funny and everything else at the same time - these have become so drab because casting and locations is almost entirely the same for hundreds of films like this.The blame relies more on them than on his limited acting and story telling.The director and producer is at fault - more than the headlining star.I'm sick of seeing strippers and strip bars for no other reason than to throw in some hot chicks and do a 5 minute strip show because the story lacks originality.I'm sick of seeing bad guys dress in black leather jackets with slicked back hair and sunglasses - when they can dress in jeans, t-shirt and runners and be even more threatening..
People who are going out of their way to say how bad this movie is, or making sarcastic posts about Seagal being extremely overweight, are missing the point.
However, 1: The movie must be judged in the context of his recent output, not compared to a super high-budget picture like Under Siege while Seagal was probably the #2 action star in the world, and 2: the only people who are likely to see this are committed Seagal fans anyway.Contrary to lazy stereotypes, Seagal's recent output (excluding Machete, post-2002's Half Past Dead, which I believe was his last in theater release) has been mixed, leaning towards bad and really bad.
Still, there were some standouts in that context (I'm thinking of 2007's Pistol Whipped, but I haven't watched most of his movies since 2002), and to be blunt, a lot of his movies before that weren't really much good either (Glimmer Man in particular was godawful and objectively worse than Born to Raise Hell).
Steamroller Productions/Voltage Pictures have been cranking out these low-budget, time-killers quickly and because I've been watching Seagal's movies since I was a kid, I can't resist renting them, when they pop up at the video store.Born To Raise Hell is not an improvement over Seagal's recent DVD releases but it does have its good points.
In Born To Raise Hell a balcony blows up sending two guys to their death and as far as stunts go it looks okay.If you didn't like the look of Seagal's previous DVD efforts, then this movie will not win you over.
As expected in these type of films Seagal's partner is killed, making his mission more personal.I'd also like to mention Seagal's body double again.
I go into this review admittedly having not watched a lot of Seagal's DTV stuff, which there are hundreds of, but I have watched a few as well as all his theatrical releases so I think I'm pretty clued up on what to expect by now.And for the most part, Born to Raise Hell fulfills the expectations you have of a Seagal movie - Seagal plays his usual role as a cop or some other sort of government/military official, some bad guys pop up, Seagal chases them down and deals with them.
Usually, this combination of factors leads to a good watch where you can just sit and enjoy without thinking too much, but there are a few things that pull this film down from the usual Seagal standards.Firstly, the cinematography and camera work is pretty terrible - unnecessary shaky camera and slow motion effects, freeze frames on really ridiculous moments (such as one on the main villain's face in the middle of raping a woman), the lot.
There usually is always a little bit of dubbing in Seagal DTV flicks and it's fine but there's just way too much here.The other main criticism is the other characters - one of whom, a Russian drug lord living in Romania, is originally pursued by Seagal and his team but then Seagal sees fit to make a deal with this drug lord who has killed or ordered the killing of multiple people throughout the film, in order to pursue the main drug lord villain.
According to the film's logic it's OK because the other drug lord does home invasions where he murders people and rapes the women while the other one isn't as bad.There is also one of the most cringeworthy scenes I've seen in a Seagal movie yet, where the overweight, ageing Seagal "makes love" with his young Romanian girlfriend.
The shoddy camera-work with Seagal wearing clothes while his girlfriend is basically naked and quick cuts to make it look like they're having sex but not really just makes this scene unintentionally hilarious.Overall, Born to Raise Hell is a less than passable Seagal DTV flick.
Don't get me wrong, it's still enjoyable to watch, and Seagal's usual action sequences with martial arts are as good as what you'd expect from the guy's DTV movies.
It could have done with less of the (as VERN calls them) "Avid Fart" technique (of jump-cuts, speed-ed up, slowed down shots)Seagal was OK (extremely foul-mouthed, i might add) but (and as usual, with these Eastern European releases) he only had about 70% screen time (as the rest was filled up, with either semi-naked female dancers, "Avid Fart" stuff, or other character plots)The dubbing (as previously mentioned) is rife throughout (not as bad as ATTACK FORCE, but almost near enough) The doubles are also there, in the movies 4 (or so) fight scenes, not particularly noticeable, but for nearly every shot of Seagal fighting, there's another 'Below the neckline' or 'From behind' to match it.
The fight scenes also consist of a lot of fast (close-up) edits also.The plot is (like i previously stated) wafer-thin....which consists of Seagal leading a strike force police unit in Romania...getting the drop on some drug dealers, who rat out an even bigger criminal (not to mention psychopath) to get a lighter sentence.
Born to Raise Hell is set in Romania where tough American narcotics cop Robert 'Bobby' Samuels (Steven Seagal) works for the International Drug Task Force in an effort to stop the flow of illegal drugs & the revenues created by it funding terrorism.
As Samules & the task force close in on them Dimitri & Costel start to turn on each other in order to save themselves & things get personal, eventually Dimitri & Samules form an uneasy partnership to take Costel & his gang down for good...Directed by Lauro Chartrand this Easten European set crime thriller not only starred Seagal but he also produced & wrote the thing as well, I have to say I found Born to Raise Hell a throughly dull way to spend 90 minutes.
All the usual low budget Seagal ingredients of recent times are present & correct, a cool sounding but meaningless title, a tough cop character, a few European bad guy's & lots of slow motion during the fight scenes.
There isn't much of a cohesive story, Seagal just sort of wanders around & crosses paths with the two dealers every so often, the film has no real purpose & secondary character's are poor of the clichéd bad guy with a gun type.
Also isn't Seagal's character supposed to be the good guy cop?
The dialogue is poor, the pacing is poor with various lame shoot-outs to pad the time out & it's throughly predictable & unoriginal.As usual for most Seagal films these days Born to Raise Hell went straight to video but even that is too good for it, the film looks pretty drab as well with dark lighting & dull locations although I will say there are some really hot women in this so I suppose I can give it another star for that.
There's no great thinking behind it & the makers just seem to have thought 'we haven't had any slow motion shots in a while so lets just put one here' without much regard to the scene in question.The IMDb says Born to Raise Hell had a budget of about $10,000,000 which is total crap, there's no way this cost that much.
The acting is poor, Seagal mumbles his way through the film as usual while everyone else is just bad.Born to Raise Hell is yet another crappy low budget European Seagal film with nothing to recommend it, a lack of decent action or a decent story really kill it.
Steven Seagal (who also wrote and helped produce the film) stars as the head of The International Drug Task Force, in Bucharest, Romania, who wants revenge against the thieves who murdered his partner and the man's wife in cold blood.