Under Siege
Reviewed by Leigh Kimmel
Steven Segal stars as an ex-SEAL who must use his special skills to fight a rogue operative turned terrorist in Under Siege, another movie in the genre I am beginning to call "Post Cold-War Action-Adventure." In this sort of movie, like the James Bond films I mentioned, the peril comes not from the Soviet Union but from the forces that were created by one or the other side to fight the Cold War, now out of control.
In the case of Under Siege it is a crazy ex-CIA agent who is infuriated that he has been cut off and was supposed to be terminated by the CIA. He has decided to take over the battleship Missouri, using the captain's birthday as a pretext, and will deliver the nuclear weapons aboard it to a North Korean sub. He is almost successful, but is foiled by an ex-SEAL who was working as a cook under the protection of the captain in order to complete his twenty years and retire after having assaulted an officer who was responsible for getting his team killed in Panama.
There's plenty of action, but also hints of a new kind of manliness. Would John Wayne have had the patience to have put up with the spunky blonde centerfold or to teach her how to use weapons so that in the end she discovers a courage that she never knew she had?
I want to buy Under Siege in regular VHS format.
I want to buy Under Siege onDVD .
Take me back to the video list
Take me back to the bookstore entrance
Want to look for other titles of interest?
Review posted December 16, 1998