Under Siege 2: Dark Territory (1995) Directed by Geoff Murphy. With Steven Seagal, Eric Bogosian, Everett McGill, Katherine Heigl and Morris Chestnut.
Action-man Steven Seagal returns as Casey Ryback, the former Navy SEAL turned cook, in this busy, but uninspiring copycat sequel to Under Siege.
In terms of the plot, the well-worn Die Hard formula is rolled out once more for Seagal to demonstrate his adeptness in the field of casually beating the cream-cheese out of an assortment of comic strip bag guys. This time, the fun takes place on a train, which is hijacked by Eric Bogosian’s Travis, and his band of not-so merry men.
Director Geoff Murphy does a reasonably good job of handling the tempo, which to be fair, doesn’t stray too far from the well recognised blueprint of so many of these similarly themed offerings. The confined setting inside the train also suits the close-combat fighting style of Seagal.
Apart from the glaring issue that it’s not as good as the first Under Siege film, the overriding problem is that its all been seen and done far too many times now. There’s barely a moment that you won’t have seen coming a mile down the track, and when anything of significance does occur, it feels lukewarm, even in comparison to some of the other Die Hard clones. Of course, Seagal’s acting is the same one-note performance he always seems to give, but that’s no surprise. See Under Siege 2 if you must, but be warned, familiarity may breed contempt. 2.5/5
Gareth Rhodes Film Reviews 