Quick Thoughts; Under Siege

This past Saturday (9/12), over on my Discord channel, we did the weekly watch along and this time around the feature was Under Siege, starring Steven Seagal, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey and and Erika Elenaik. It's probably the most 'fun' of the peak-Segal films, as for one he actually has some decent 'character' moments, the whole of idea behind his character of Casey Ryback is that he's a complete bad-ass ex-Navy Seal who is serving as the ship's cook, and like many other action stars of the era, Segal actually delivered some one-liners with a bit of charm that gives the impression that hey, he could act a little bit.All the action scenes involving Seagal all showed him as the unstoppable stereotype he actually sees himself as, and comes across as being really dry, in particular one on one fight scenes.

The real star of the show is of course Tommy Lee Jones as Strannix, and I forgot how over-the-top and off the wall TLJ's performance is as Under Siege predates Batman Forever by a couple of years, and I'm firmly convinced now more than ever, that TLJ should have gotten a turn as The Joker. The ease he goes back and forth from serious to craze and back again is just remarkable, and you take his character as a true threat that under any other circumstances you know he would succeed. Gary Busey also delivers in his role of Commander Krill, his best scenes are his interactions with TLJ as there was some nice chemistry there. In terms of how they interacted in scenes with Seagal, it's hard to judge as amazingly, each had one scene with the 'lead', 

The actor who got the most screen time with Segal was Erika Elenaik who probably most people remember from her time on Baybatch. In Under Siege, Elenaik played Jordan Tate, a Playboy Playmate who basically got caught up in the middle of everything. Not only was she gorgeous to look at, but she had this way of just portraying that she can't believe the nonsense coming out of mouth of Segal's character. She kind of falls into that plucky side-kick role, but also provides a bit of comic relief at times when the film needs it as the tension of the plot builds up. 

Now there is something about Under Siege that bothers me to this day, and that's when we get to see Segal and TLJ's characters meet on screen, where there is thus realization they know each other. Yes as a Navy Seal, Casey Ryback would've been involved in some covert operations, as would Strannix, she he was an ex-CIA operative. However, the stuff Ryback's character would've been in involved in would have been Government sanctioned, while Strannix's missions would've been more 'under the table' as a driving point for his motivations was the fact the CIA tried to take him out when a operation was canceled. So the odds of them meeting or being aware of one another prior to the in-universe events of the story, does not come across as likely to me.