Into the Sun (2005)

I love this movie so much

I'll tell you why so serious

A Disappointing Continuation

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Why oh why do I subject myself to this. Will I ever learn?The fat one's recent output contains formulaic scripts, you know his partner and new bride will buy it. The trademark fight scenes will see Seagal flailing his hands about very fast, with a flabby middle where nothing happens and I am not talking about his waistline.If you want to see some mean Chinese gangsters and tough action go and seek out Michael Cimino's 'Year of the Dragon.'If you want to see a bad ass cop in Japan going after the Yakuza, then there is Ridley Scott's 'Black Rain.'Into The Sun has some neat location shooting in Thailand and Tokyo, a cameo from William Atherton to bring some proper acting chops. Seagal plays a CIA guy teamed up wit a rookie who investigate the death of governor of Tokyo and unravel a plot from a Yakuza upstart to form an alliance with a Chinese gangster.After some opening action scenes, nothing much happens as Seagal investigates and drives around and maybe threaten a few people. The rookie cop is just comic relief in the meantime.Only at the climax of the film you have some decent sword fights but even then that is done too fast. Its a lame Seagal action film and really since Under Siege 2 he has made too many of them.

CIA agent Travis Hunter(Steven Seagal)must thwart the efforts of young Yakuza(who have abandoned the "principles" of their ancestors in favor of monetary wealth and prestige)who have aligned themselves with Chinese Tongs in not only trafficking heroine, but monopolizing the trade. Kuroda(Takao Ôsawa)is the young Yakuza who wants to rest all the power from aging boss Ishikawa(Shôji Oki)and his second-in-command Kojima(Eve Masatoh). Travis purposely ignites a turf war in the hopes that Kuroda will be conquered before he gains too much control which could be dangerous for not only Japan, but America as well. But, ultimately, Travis will have a bone to pick with Kuroda after his lady love Nayako(Kanako Yamaguchi)and FBI partner Sean Mack(Matthew Davis)are targeted by the Yakuza and his thugs. While strong on plot, INTO THE SUN lacks enough real action which, I think, will not satiate the appropriate audience this is geared towards. It does have the bloody finale as Travis goes after Kuroda in his Tachikawa Village, with plenty of Yakuza scum for him to slice and dice with his Samurai sword. Davis is the partner who follows leads which implicate Kuroda, but at a heavy cost. William Atherton is Seagal's boss, stationed in Tokyo, his agent Block always trying to keep up with Hunter's whereabouts. There are only two scenes with Seagal engaged in hand-to-hand combat(including a market fight with a few hapless street punks)and one major shootout(at the beginning, which shows Seagal and former Tennessee running back Eddie George in a village with a job to take out some sort of shady character; this is puzzling in that it has nothing to do with anything else in the movie). The ending in Kuroda's village really is the only true action sequence of any true worth. Very mediocre when it could've been far more entertaining..a film which has plenty of Yakuza to kill, you'd think such a plot would provide Seagal with ample opportunities to carve up a body count. Alas, such is not the case..

My wife turned me on to Steven Seagal with Hard to Kill. I have since enjoyed Exit Wounds, Under Siege, Marked for Death, and others including The Glimmer Man.Lately he has been turning out 2 or 3 a year and he seems to be losing that punch in his earlier movies. That is evident in this film where he is involved in one minor scrape with some local punks in the first half. The rest of the time he is traveling and talking, and talking and traveling.Only after his fiancée (Kanako Yamaguchi) is killed does he swing into action with his magnificent swordplay. But, it's not enough action to keep you interested.

Steven Seagal plays yet another ex-CIA agent and this time he's got Tennessee Titans running back Eddie George with him......for about 5 minutes.In this one, the Japanese Yakuza plans to unite with the Chinese Triad and its up to Seagal to stop them. Sounds simple but it turns out to be very convoluted. First off they credit Eddie George as one of the stars of the movie and they kill him off before the opening credits...wtf? Its always nice to see William Atherton play the jackass because he does it so well. The movie rolls along and as usual Seagal mows everyone over with little resistance along with a female counterpart to save the day.......yawn.Every Seagal movie is the same these days, an ex-CIA agent that goes after an entire mob of ppl and methodically takes them out with little resistance and ends up saving the day. This time though, its the cultural difference thats confusing. At one point during the flick a bunch of punks gather round to attack Seagal, he points out that half are Chinese and the other are Japanese and 10 years ago that would have never happened. Now to us Americans, if you told us someone was Chinese but was really Japanese how the hell would we know the difference? So we're supposed to watch this and be able to point out who's Triad and who's Yakuza? I know the director/writer is supposed to establish an alliance but when the orginizations hate each other how are we supposed to know? Its a cookie cutter movie where Seagal beats up everyone with little trouble but the cultural impact is the river card to the other movies. in Out For A Kill he was against a Triad, simple enough. This time he's got two cultures to deal with and the storyline gets confusing, but by no means is it that bad of a movie. Another thing is Shawn gets killed and Seagal doesn't comment on it until the very end of the movie If you're a fan of the cultures then its worth the 5 bucks to see it, but if not then go see something else. The highlight of the movie is where Sensei asks which Kendo school Shawn went to and he answers UCLA.4 out of 10