A Dangerous Man Blu-ray Review

Seagal Doing His Thing

Steven Seagal is A Dangerous Man. Originally released over a decade ago, the aging action star headlines this violent and pleasantly entertaining DTV flick. While a far cry from classics like Under Siege, the taut movie offers a respectably explosive blend of guns, girls and mobsters. A tad predictable, the action thriller won’t win any new fans over but Seagal’s fan-base should enjoy the mindless tale.

A Dangerous Man is surprisingly watchable with a bevy of heavy action set pieces and a deep cast of supporting characters, mostly Chinese and Russian gangs played by familiar character actors from film and television. You have to buy an older Seagal taking out well-armed men mostly with his fists to enjoy it, but his quipless persona is a refreshing change-up in the usual genre formula.

A Dangerous Man is a legitimate action movie with Steven Seagal mostly bringing the goods when needed

The one time action great plays Shane Daniels, a former Special Forces operative just released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Let’s be honest, Seagal does Seagal. He’s developed this persona over the years into a finely-tuned machine playing an unstoppable bad-ass. It’s the same character he’s been since the 1990s across many films.

Adrift after losing his wife while incarcerated, Shane tangles with corrupt cops and accidentally crosses the path of Chinese smugglers. Shane ends up rescuing Tia (Marlaina Mah) from the smugglers while also taking millions in cash from them. He befriends the Russian mob along the way. That sets up a deadly conflict involving the police, Chinese smugglers, and the Russians with him in the middle.

The biggest issue is the haphazard direction from Keoni Waxman. The director has made several DTV thrillers with Steven Seagal, so the actor must like working with Waxman. The film’s confused opening sets the stage for Shane’s former life but is awkwardly told, rushed for the sake of brevity.

We are introduced to Shane’s wife in a strange series of flashbacks. The confused storytelling and jumpy flash cuts provide a little titillation at the expense of a coherent story. Everything picks up once Shane is set loose and begins kicking ass.

Seagal does what he does best – playing a largely stoic action hero of few words who takes out men much younger and faster than him. The frequent gunplay and fight choreography in A Dangerous Man neatly works around Seagal’s physical limitations with quick edits and excellent stunt performers.

A Dangerous Man is a legitimate action movie with Steven Seagal mostly bringing the goods when needed. Don’t be fooled by its DTV pedigree. This is no China Salesman, a pathetic Seagal flick released a few years back which may have been no more than a money laundering vehicle. The budget here is mostly sunk into a cast of credible performers, including underrated character actor Jerry Wasserman.

Video

The complete and uncut A Dangerous Man runs 94 minutes, found on a BD-25 encoded in transparent AVC. The 1.78:1 HD presentation reflects a largely pristine DTV flick made in the late 2000s, struck from the original 2K digital intermediate. Clean digital filmmaking produces strong clarity and decent definition. No undue processing is evident and fine detail is abundantly clear.

There are no notable technical issues which weren’t already baked into the source material. The color grading is fairly primitive by today’s standards, leading to inconsistent flesh-tones and a few instances of crushed shadow delineation. A few scenic shots of Washington’s landscape are prettily filmed.

A Dangerous Man’s picture quality isn’t reference material but action fans should have no issues with its video.

Audio

It goes unlisted on the rear cover but this BD from Liberation Hall does indeed contain 5.1 DTS-HD MA audio. The loud, aggressive surround mix features a discrete sonic experience perfect for Seagal’s brand of martial arts and gun violence. Rear channels are constantly engaged as Seagal battles it out with various thugs, resulting in an expansive soundstage packed with bullets and crunchy punches. There’s a welcome LFE presence which adds some kick.

I felt it should be pointed out a few of Seagal’s scenes are mysteriously dubbed by someone else. Rumors of difficulties working with Seagal make me wonder if he was too lazy fixing some of his own dialogue in post-production and the filmmakers got another actor for the ADR replacement.

Optional English SDH subtitles play in a yellow font. A secondary stereo soundtrack in 2.0 PCM is offered. French and German dubs for A Dangerous Man exist but they are only found on foreign discs.

Extras

A Dangerous Man has a curious history on home video. The DTV action flick was put out by Paramount on DVD back when it was first released in the United States, but they skipped it on Blu-ray. The movie did see an initial BD release in foreign territories from other distributors, including Canada from Entertainment One. That Canadian BD had several cast interviews which are missing from this disc.

Independent label Liberation Hall finally puts A Dangerous Man out on Blu-ray here in the States after Paramount passed it over all those years ago. The disc is coded for all regions.

Making Of A Dangerous Man Featurette (07:18 in SD) – Participants in this breezy behind-the-scenes featurette includes Byron Lawson, Jesse Hutch, Marlaina Mah, and most importantly Steven Seagal.

A Dangerous Man Trailer (01:51 in HD)

Robocop: The Series Trailer (01:09 in SD)

Full disclosure: This Blu-ray was provided by the label for review. This has not impacted DoBlu’s editorial process. For information on how all reviews are handled, please visit DoBlu’s about us page for further information.

The following six screen shots serve as samples for our subscription-exclusive set of 54 full resolution, uncompressed HD screen shots grabbed directly from the Blu-ray: