Hard to believe, but it has been 10 years since former martial arts instructor Steven Seagal first erupted on the big screen with his successful debut film, “Above the Law,” which immediately established him as a movie action star with which to be reckoned. In the decade that has followed, he has made nearly a dozen films in which he has kicked more butts, broken more arms and smashed more faces than even he would probably care to remember.
Like any actor, Seagal is at his best when working with a sound script, strong director and solid supporting cast, which is why 1992’s “Under Siege,” directed by Andrew Davis and co-starring a whacked-out Tommy Lee Jones, remains the best film he has done in years.
“Fire Down Below,” which opened Friday, falls somewhere in the middle of Seagal’s resume. It’s certainly better than such recent clunkers as “The Glimmer Man” or “On Deadly Ground,” but it lacks the stripped-down quality and comic absurdity of his earlier efforts such as “Hard to Kill” and “Marked for Death.”
To Seagal’s credit, he tends to make films that at least perfunctorily address important political and/or environmental issues, in this case, the dumping of toxic waste in abandoned Appalachian coal mines, which eventually turns up in local drinking water.
In “Fire Down Below,” Seagal plays Jack Taggart, a beefy investigator for the Environmental Protection Agency, who is undercover in rural Kentucky posing as a volunteer handyman for a Christian relief organization, as he attempts to discover who is behind the rampant dumping.
It doesn’t take long for the local toughs–many of them sporting beer bellies and greasy hair–to egg Seagal on, telling him to “git outta heah, boy!” So Seagal responds by beating them half to death, a logical response for a handyman representing the church.
Slowly, but surely, as Seagal escapes 18-wheelers trying to flatten him and good old boys trying to pummel him, he eventually comes face to face with Mr. Big himself, who is, of course, just part of a much larger conspiracy to bring America down and make Seagal look bad.
There aren’t many surprises in “Fire Down Below,” except for the presence of a few very good actors (Harry Dean Stanton, Kris Kristofferson, Levon Helm) and a slew of country stars in cameo appearances (including Loretta Lynn’s twin daughters and singer Randy Travis, who looks to have a future as a movie heavy).
Seagal wrote many of the tunes on the soundtrack and even finds time to strum a guitar in the film at the town’s Saturday night hoedown. But don’t worry, fight fans, even before the song is done, the pony-tailed one is drawing blood.
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“Fire Down Below”
(star) (star)
