Any film with Steven Seagal in it could be a big action flop and I wouldn’t really care. This isn’t a snoozer though it’s actually quite a good story.

Jack Taggart (Steven Seagal) is an undercover EPA on a little of a revenge mission to a little town in the midst of old coal mining areas in country Kentucky. One of Jacks best buddies has been killed investigating in this town before. Jack rolls into town as the new handyman from the local mission. Tell you what he’s the best-dressed handyman I’ve ever seen. But that leather jacket looks like a masterpiece on him. J

Jack comes to investigate the dumping of toxic waste and has some trouble getting information from the locals who all fear for their life. The bad guys certainly have a hold on everyone in this town and the headman from out of town certainly has a hold on his lackey’s who cop a beating or two from old Stevey who seems to be able to handle any number of thugs at once.

Of course there is also the compulsory heroine Sarah Kellog (Marg Helgenberger) who comes to the aid of the ravishing Jack Taggart.

I won’t tell you the crux of the film but without ruining everything, as I’m sure you guessed anyway that the good guy gets the girl in the end!

So How Does This Transfer Hold Up?

VIDEO
The 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen transfer is markedly good. Being a generic Steven Seagal action movie I wasn’t expecting too much from this transfer but was pleasantly surprised.

Shadow detail is good with nice deep blacks. There are some very slight instances of grain but something you would have to look hard for.

There were some distracting scenes with ailiasing and some edge enhancement.

The colour palette was beautiful. The images were sharp and the colours match perfectly. There was no oversaturation but the colours were still realistic and vibrant.

Only some minor film artefacts.

The colour and photography in this film was great and made it so much more of a pleasant film to watch.

AUDIO
The Dolby 5.1 audio track was also pleasing. Dialogue was always crystal clear although Steve does have a tendency to mumble sometimes, I could always understand him.

The surrounds and the bass channel both worked consistently during the film and gave a good multi dimensional feeling.

There were no sync problems.

The Musical Score from Nick Glennie-Smith is reasonable and I guess fits the film but is certainly not memorable and I have heard much better from him.

EXTRAS
None

Overall I really enjoyed this film and not just on perve level either. It was certainly not in the realm of most action films and is accompanied by a really good plot.