Force of Execution [2013] Review

Attrition (Seagal’s self-proclaimed ‘best film in 20 years’) wasn’t on Prime, so we’re watching Force of Execution instead.

Budget: ~$8,000,000

Gross worldwide: $87,122

The plot summary from Rotten Tomatoes goes, “A crime lord who sits atop a powerful underworld empire longs to go straight, putting his faith in his conflicted hit-man protégé [NB: who he cripples after making one mistake in fifteen years, an act which is apparently entirely forgivable by the protégé] as an ambitious young player plots his rise to power,” which is certainly one way of interpreting it. Strip club in the first two seconds of the trailer, which I believe is a new record. The film begins with a fat Seagal’s head and mumbly voice over, “Now, let me tell you a little bit about before your time [boy],” with big pauses between words and shaky camerawork. Seagal’s Stunt double(s) is (are) twice as thin as Seagal, with some grey hair [NB: It won Best Stunt Coordination in a Feature Length Drama.] Cuts (and transitions) on the action are mistimed. The unnecessary slo-mo is probably a major contributing factor to getting the film over 90 minutes. Seagal sits with 3 young girls, (I assume) trying to sound gangster-like but failing horribly, mumbles, “take my girls, give me a little break here” and, in the presence of a black person, mumbles, “shadow boy is good at what he do… him and I was gotta be good.” ‘Seagal’s girls’ are just getting naked out of focus on the background [NB: Not referenced in IMDb’s Parent’s Guide.] This scene is rounded off with the same shot of fat Seagal’s head, again.

What is up with the plot? First, there is someone else (Ice Man, played by Ving Rhames) doing martial arts, then a strip club and then a Seagal gun lecture (“here’s a- one of my… it’s one of my backups, my personal backups, isn’t that amazing?”) and finally the strip club again. And where has Seagal gone? Oh, yes, I forgot: his ten-minute-per-film limit is up.

Next, a little voodoo head, “this could be your future,” this is “his limp wrist-ed karate domination (is) accentuated by his knowledge of black magic;” apparently.

Ice: “Chitty chitty bang bang, crips and thangs baby.”

Seagal: “I’ll bring my neighbourhood with me, you can have this one.”

Ice: “I like you n***er.”

Seagal: *awkward laugh*

Obviously pained on veins bulging when the two scorpions’ deadly venom combine to heal the protégé’s hands… but only after they’ve been smashed up a bit more.

Everyone gathers round’ Seagal for a pep talk. It starts to get mind-numbing around this point. They’ve ended up in a dark tunnel with Hylander-esque green and red lights. Seagals’ face contorting in exasperation at having to fight again, whilst raising their slappy-hands, really catches you off guard. Round this scene off with the same shot of Seagal: the third time.

Force of Execution is a prequel to A Good Man, released the following year.

Purvboy88, on the 28 April 2014, said “This movie is another glimmering piece of art from the great Steven Seagal. Once again he has broken down the walls of racial discrimination by performing his non- offensive, non-pigment related rendition of black face… One scene in particular demonstrates his skill in pure acting. When sitting at a table talking with “ice man”, he says something with such a heavy slur that it is only intelligible when re-winded and viewed multiple times. I anticipate the following 2 movies in this trilogy with bates breath… Long live Seagal!”

Some IMDb trivia: Noel Gugliemi explained his frustrations on set about Steven Seagal in a recent interview, “no matter how many times I told him my name, he keeps calling me Hector! He is the Donald Trump of actors!”

Strange quote of the film: Alexander Coates (Seagal): You wanna redeem yourself? See I don’t wanna use the word “seppuku” – coz that has something to do with… folks who had honor. Which you don’t have. So why don’t you cut your motherfucking throat or I’ll do it for you.

Age Rating: It’s rated R18 in New Zealand (dispute there being no sex scenes at all) but PG12 in Japan!

Tagline: Don’t Break The Code. [NB: It made no sense in the context after Seagal said it. Additionally, why didn’t Seagal change the code on the safe?]

Conclusion: [Redacted] thinks it’s not worth the £2.50 and I agree. [Redacted] rates it at 2.5/10. I say 2/10. It’s 17% on Rotten Tomatoes and 4.4/10 on IMDb.