Born to Raise Hell (2010)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Fantastic!

A Masterpiece!

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

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. I am no expert on the film career of Mr.Seagal, but in everyone of his films that I have seen, he appears to play the same person. In this film Steve is transported to Eastern Europe to take on a Russian Drug Dealer called Dimitri and another gang led by a very unpleasant fellow called Costel. Dimitri is supplying drugs to Costel but it soon develops that these two fall out, with very unpleasant consequences to follow. The job for our hero becomes personal when Steve's partner is killed and the usual gun fights and fist fights ensue. 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.

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. The leader of this group is named Costel, in league with a former member of the Russian Special Forces, Dimitri, using women to mule dope to London, also a sick rapist pig who enjoys invading the homes of the Romanian rich to steal their money and sexually molest the wives of those they steal from. When Costel has a falling out with Dimitri (resulting in the murder of Dimitri's wife), the two will enter a war with Seagal's agent Samuel Axel allowed a chance to exploit this "rift"; Axel will gain an ally in Dimitri who has the kind of connections which enable him to find out the whereabouts of Costel.BORN TO RAISE HELL is yet another low-budget Romanian Seagal flick, with the star going through the motions, a little grumpier than he usually is in these kinds of action junk, at one point cursing out a cop under his command, Steve (D Neil Mark) when an arrest doesn't adhere to the proper procedures. Dan Badarau's Dimitri is a quiet, reserved Russian kingpin who only uses violence when he must, such as silencing a regular customer who blabs to Samuel about his drug trafficking and dealing on the Bucharest streets. Darren Shahlavi, on the other hand, as the hostile Costel, is a depraved, repulsive creep who enjoys raping, dealing, stealing, and killing. Seagal's screenplay is designed to make Costel as disturbed and twisted as possible so when his hero dismantles the heavy at the end, you hate the scumbag so greatly his demise is justified with the proper applause. Zoltan Butuc is Dada, Costel's cruel enforcer who is the triggerman that blew away Dimitri's lady. The movie has all the tired clichés, with drugs the typical excuse for Seagal's above-the-law narcotics officer to bash Costel's men into mush. The sound effects, when Seagal lands his arsenal of blows and martial arts techniques to subdue his opponents, make him sound superhuman. As usual, Seagal hurls men into furniture and glass, with bodies breaking and shattering whatever objects they are thrown into so that he looks like a million dollars. The same editing wizardry is applied so that Seagal appears to be unstoppable, such as when he takes apart a group of Dimitri's men outside a van during a stakeout, or the final hand-to-hand combat with Costel (more like hand-to-face as Costel is essentially a punching bag). Sadly, you can tell that some of Seagal's dubbing is through someone who attempts to impersonate the way he talks—the man can't even bother doing his own dubbing. These movies are just a means for extra income and jokers like me continue to rent this crap.

Seagal in Born to Raise Hell seems almost identical to Seagal as himself in his reality series. In some ways this might be a good thing. It means that the film acknowledges that there is no point in asking him to play act stereotypes anymore, like he did in his last film A Dangerous Man. Here he's just being himself. Something else which makes that a positive is the simple fact that the movie isn't really about him. It's more about a drug war between cops and Eastern European mafia. Seagal is just one cop out of a handful. 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. this movie implements a very miscalculated Goddardian style of cutting, and a severe overuse of slow motion. We don't need to see a guy ripping a bedroom apart for jewels at five frames per second. The last scene is kind of touching (at least for a Seagal movie). It was around that part when I realized that the movie is not really about Seagal. That and the fact that we only here his name about five times. I don't wanna mislead anyone however. Born to Raise Hell will probably do the job for whatever fan base the old man has left. He's done better, but he's also done way worse.

As anyone who has followed Seagal's career knows, some of his later movies have been less than fabulous. The reason for this, as far as I can see, is post-production editing. It appears that post-production editing in these movies has been done by inept morons who wouldn't know an action movie if it roundhouse kicked them in their minuscule balls, punched them hard on their weak chins, and then ripped out their tiny hearts.Anyway, BTRH has (thankfully) been released without having been neutered, and is a rock-solid action movie, with decent direction, plot and characters. The basic tale is an old one, but is well done. 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. I would have liked to have seen a little more back story of the main characters.