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excellent viewing
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Having converted most of my old video collection to DVD I was thrilled to find this film gem in digital format. If you watch this in widescreen format, it really does the battle scene great justice; coupled with surround sound, you'll be gripped by the amazing cinematography. I would recommend the director's cut that includes scenes about the relationship between the lead character and his estranged wife and helps you to understand the motivation behind his decision. The run time is 183 minutes for the directors cut and 120 minutes for the cinema version. I was, however, disappointed by the lack of extras, which any fan of this classic would expect to be included. There's only a 20-minute interview with the director and other shot "making-of" vignettes.
Orin Boyd is a cop who works in Detroit's 21st precinct, and his attitude and rough means of enforcing the law always end up annoying the precinct captain, Frank Daniels. When terrorists try to kill the Vice President of the United States, Orin kills the terrorists. Even though Orin saved the Vice President's life, Frank doesn't like the way Orin did it, so Frank transfers Orin to the 15th precinct -- Detroit's worst precinct. Orin's new captain, former internal affairs officer Annette Mulcahy, knows of his reputation and tells him that she won't tolerate it, and she sends Orin to an anger management class where he meets Henry Wayne, the high-strung host of a local talk show called "Detroit AM." Despite this measure, Orin doesn't change his ways of doing his job, and it's not long before he comes across local drug dealer Latrell Walker and his fast-talking sidekick T. K. Johnson doing a shady deal with a man named Matt Montini. After a brief fight, Orin discovers that Montini has been working undercover trying to nail Walker, and Orin messed it up, a point that doesn't sit well with Montini's musclebound partner Useldinger. Not all of the cops of the 15th precinct give Orin a hard time. Sergeant Lewis Strutt steps in to cool things down when Orin gets in a fight with Useldinger, and George Clark is assigned to be Orin's partner. After Orin stumbles upon the theft of $5,000,000 worth of heroin from Piper Tech, a place where evidence is stored, Orin and George begin focusing their efforts on Latrell and T.K., and also Shaun Rollins, a man that Latrell has been visiting at the local jail. Orin asks Henry to do some digging on Latrell's background. What Henry discovers is that Latrell is not a drug dealer. Latrell is a computer expert and billionaire whose real name is Leon Rollins -- he's the brother of Shaun Rollins. Orin confronts Leon, who explains that a group of corrupt cops were in danger of losing one of their drug dealers, so the corrupt cops planted heroin on Shaun, setting Shaun up to take the rap so they wouldn't lose their dealer. Sergeant Lewis Strutt is the leader of the group of corrupt cops, who also include Montini and Useldinger, and Strutt and his gang are the ones who stole the heroin from Piper Tech. Leon and his friend Trish have been videotaping the corruption, hoping that it might help prove Shaun's innocence and get him out of jail. Orin meets with Annette at a parking lot and he gets in Annette's truck and tells Annette what's going on. When Montini and Useldinger and a bunch of their men show up and try to kill Orin and Annette, Annette screeches out of the parking lot with Orin still in her truck. Orin and Annette are chased, and Annette is killed in the chase when her truck slams into the back of a bigger truck, sending her into her windshield. Orin tells Frank that Strutt will be having a meeting at a warehouse in about an hour, to sell the heroin that was stolen from Piper Tech. Strutt plans to try to sell it to Leon and T. K., not knowing that Leon is working against him. Frank promises that he'll be there with some backup. Orin then goes to George's house and tells George what's going on. George agrees to help Orin bring Strutt and his gang down. But it may be someone higher up who is behind the whole thing.Read full review
This movie is about intense cop corruption, with a motive of drugs and the like. This is a brutal, gripping suspense thriller that has some powerful action sequences and violent fight scenes with the cool Steven Seagal playing the lead cop role. The sense of humour is hard core American and it’s very cleverly woven into the scenes. You’ll laugh if it’s your type of ‘hard man Yankee humour’- it’s ok, but I must admit to personally preferring the ‘James Bond’ type of humour more myself. Talk about zero tolerance though, regarding policing! Imagine a real world so corrupt, (Detroit’s worst precinct), that you can’t even trust yourself. Is America REALLY this ‘dog eat dog?’? All I know is that it really does make for great action packed entertainment right from the start to the finish! There’s nothing here we haven’t seen before. Bullet popping car chases and ‘die hard’ style scraps but it really is great stuff! DMX- the hip-hop star is just as good at acting (as anything else). Although I didn’t feel there was enough ‘girl power’ content depicted throughout in the fashion of the movie, I did quite enjoy this one somewhat. The film doesn't muck about, getting straight into exciting action right from the start, and Steven Seagal makes the movie a winner. Worth a look!Read full review
In the ilk of romeo must die and cradle to the grave exit wounds is a little eclipsed by the former films. It must be said that is share the same credentials, DMX, fast cars, money, action but seems to lack something. It has to be said that the something appears to be Jet Li. Seagal seem ill fitting and uncomfortable in the role. DMX is playing a softer and more emotional role that see him doing well in his acting. Eva Mendez makes a glorious if inconsequential appearance but all supporting actors do well which unfortunately brings the focus back to Mr Seagal. I'm actually a fan and was expecting a whole lot more. In his defence he had little to work with. A laughable plot is cut through as quickly as possible which makes the movie seem like cut together clips of others (with the actors replaced) which attempts to force gravity but only succeeds in being awkward. Saying that the clips of story range for thrilling to dire which averages out to OK for me. Could have been so much more with a little bit more thought to the intro and a performing Seagal we could have had another classic.Read full review
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