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There are essentially two things required for the basis of a decent action movie: A respectable good guy and a respectable bad guy. Under Siege has both: Steven Seagal as the heroic chef/ex Navy Seal and Tommy Lee Jones as the psychotic '60s rocker.

The plot is concerned with head chef Casey Ryback (Seagal), who is on board the USS Missouri -- a battleship on its final tour of the Pacific -- and preparing dinner for the captain's birthday. The second-in-command (Busey), who has apparently put up with "A lot of his shit", later orders him to clear the area as they are now flying in dinner by a helicopter. Ryback refuses and decks the commander, though is restrained and locked in the meat locker, where it would seem he can no longer be of any trouble to the crew. Following on from this, a group of terrorists (led by Jones) take over the ship, planning to offload the nuclear warheads to their stolen North Korean submarine, where they will later sell them for profit in the Middle East.

Unfortunately for the terrorists, Ryback escapes from the freezer and has a few tricks up his sleeve. He is able to build bombs from scratch, pick off enemies with cooking knives, and break their necks with just one hand. He is an ex-Navy Seal trained in kicking arse, who soon adopts Playboy's Miss July 1989 (Erika Eleniak) as his sidekick and becomes the envy of everyone.

What makes Under Siege entertaining is its predictability. We, of course, all know that Seagal is eventually going to start owning the bad guys, but it's just a question of how and when. The formula has been repeated numerous times in action films (this is basically Die Hard on a boat), but in terms of the action itself, there are some decent scenes. Seagal stealth's around the ship, picking off enemies one by one with various weapons, much to the surprise of his big-breasted sidekick. "You're not a cook," she accuses; Seagal replies "Yeah... well, I also cook."

Although I do generally like this film, I don't think there are enough "Seagal moments" when you compare it to his earlier work. Critics tend to agree that this is his best film, in regards to its direction, villains, plot, etc., but I don't think it is my Seagal favourite. For a man who obviously has impressive martial arts skills, the final showdown is pretty anti-climatic, and there aren't enough hand-to-hand combats throughout to rank it above the significantly-brutal Out For Justice, in my personal opinion.

Seagal's screen presence in Under Siege is arguably forfeited for his co-stars, also. Busey, as the commanding officer, is hilarious, confidently dressing up in drag for the big murder scene; while Tommy Lee-Jones sets a trend as the deranged granddad rocker spitting out political slogans over the radio. Both are pretty menacing, overshadowing Seagal, but at least giving him something good to effectively work his ego against.

The film made over $156, 000, 000 worldwide at the box office at the time of its release, which also granted Seagal permission to star in the sequel Under Siege 2: Dark Territory. The latter, however, wasn't quite up to this.

(C) Andy Carrington, 2009.