Shadow Man (2006)

Beautiful, moving film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

I have seen a few of the films from the leading actor, both the ones that made it to the cinema, and the ones made for TV and straight to DVD, and so far Under Siege is the only one worth mentioning, I was sure this film would be another I would find tedious. Basically Jack Foster aka The Shadow Man (Steven Seagal) is a widowed former CIA operative, he is travelling with his young daughter Amanda (Skye Bennett) to Europe for what they thought would be a relaxing getaway. However Jack is tricked by rogue CIA operatives into smuggling a deadly virus out of the United States, they kidnap Amanda following the completion of the mission. Jack slowly realises he is just a small pawn in a much bigger game, he vows to rescue his daughter and bring her back safe and sound, he will get vengeance upon those who crossed him, using his great skill of martial arts and weaponry, and he must also stop the extremely wicked plot to hijack the world. Also starring Eva Pope as Anya, Imelda Staunton as Ambassador Cochran, Vincent Riotta as Harry, Michael Elwyn as George, Garrick Hagon as Waters, EastEnders' Alex Ferns as Schmitt, Michael Fitzpatrick as Chambers and Elias Ferkin as Velos. 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. Poor!

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. It's obvious to blind Freddy that this was NOT Steven Seagal's voice and I just cannot fathom for the life of me why Steven Seagal's voice was dubbed. Was it because Steven Seagal was lazy put in minimal effort into this movie? Or was it because he doesn't sound like he used to? The movie itself is so forgettable I could not even tell you what the movie was about. I saw most of it by fast forwarding through the movie and then when I watched the laughable yet pathetic action sequences I was shaking my head in disgust at how bad they were.The one time box office champion shows that he has put very little to no effort here and it shows. Despite Steven Seagal's latest insipid and uninspiring effort, as his career limps on it's still amusing that his super sized stomach is now as big as his super sized ego. Seagal still hasn't lost his God complex and he continues to strut around the same way like he did in the prime of his career. Judging by this poor excuse for a movie, I can't see Steven Seagal's career ever being resurrected.Regardless of whether you were a Steven Seagal fan, or whether you still a loyal fan who has stuck by him through thick and thin, avoid this movie.1/10.

Not bad at all. I came into this with low expectations, but Steven never seems to let me down. The first and last scenes of the movie where he is interacting with his daughter are comical. He just doesn't know how to act around children and it shows. This deals with his daughter getting kidnapped, biological weapons of terror, and some Romanian gangs with police corruption aka a true Seagal story line. The man literally blows apart a watermelon INTERNALLY with his super move, which is foreshadowing at its finest. He is so badass in this movie, he shoots down a helicopter with a pistol and it explodes as if an atomic bomb went off! He even gets locked in a room and has to make his own shotgun out of metal pipes he rips out of walls, all MacGuyverish. He also makes household objects into bombs and more. There is a major love interest in this film. You can't tell if they love or hate each other most of the time. But you know that no lady can resist that ponytail. The ending is weird. It has a climax and then introduces the real bad guy type thing but it is already past the climax. I mean they I see what they went for but it is contrived. Then he is sitting at a picnic with his daughter and he's all, give that apple to that horse, and then cut to cheesy smiling still shot of Steven and end transmission. It is ludicrous, but oh so Steven. I am sure he wrote that scene himself. All in all, pretty good Seagal flick that you need to watch.

The film has nothing to do with the title. The plot is simple. His daughter is abducted and he is running around, beating the crap out of people to find his daughter. Seagal is slow, monotone, emotionless... he uses Tai Chi in fight scenes, extremely boring. Other actors are also bad, nothing special... just there for being paid. It's very interesting to see actress Imelda Staunton here... what a hell is she doing here?! In this straight do DVD crap? She is a good actress that deserves more better films. Seeing her and Seagal in scene... it was a pretty large fail... that was so unbearable... I bet she was disgusted by Seagal's "performance"... There's nothing special to say about this film... it's incredibly boring and impossible to watch. Do something better... for example go beat the crap out of your dog... much more fun.