![]() ![]() Seagal lumbers through the action, revealing to a curious Lester - and unwittingly to the rest of us - what it's like to be half dead. Wearing a hairpiece that looks like Pepe Le Pew, Mr. Seagal does turn up, the camera and cutting - and stunt doubles - are used to obscure the fact that his better days are behind him. Of course, Sascha is some kind of superundercover operative who will have to come clean with Nick while rallying his prison buddies to confront the high-tech commandos in their assault on Alcatraz. The film's title refers to a scene in which Sascha takes a bullet for Nick: Sascha is clinically dead before being brought back to life. Seagal, who is glimpsed so rarely that he often seems like a special guest star in his own movie. Even Ja Rule's music videos aren't this bleak here he shows a light touch, getting a handful of laughs in his scenes with Mr. ''Half Past Dead,'' which opens nationwide today, is shot in so much shadow and cobalt blue that the movie itself seems to be hiding from something, like audiences. (The justice admits to having given the death sentence and is now hanging around to witness the execution, which suggests that the screenwriter picked up his knowledge of American jurisprudence from ''Judge Judy.'') This corrupt official and his crew, the 49ers, parachute onto the refurbished Alcatraz and take a visiting Supreme Court justice hostage. ![]() ![]() A corrections official gone bad (Morris Chestnut) stages a - sigh - daring break-in to force a death-row inmate, Lester (Bruce Weitz), to reveal where he has hidden $200 million in gold before his impending execution. Seagal does send the rust from his joints flying after he humiliates a prison guard with his slow-motion martial arts - ''Dead'' takes another turn. ![]() Just when you think the movie is going to become another showdown in prison - and Mr. The two are busted and sent to the ''new Alcatraz'' after a fiery, blood-spattered arrest that leaves Metropolis, or Gotham City, or whatever nameless urban area, in shambles.īut wait - there's more. When Nick isn't schooling Sascha in hip-hop salutations - ''It's not all right, it's i'ight! Put a little thug in it'' - he is introducing his flabby and well-tanned partner to a mysterious big-cheese crime pooh-bah so they can all be knee-deep in Cheddar. Since pairing off with the rapper DMX in ''Exit Wounds'' brought him a few new fans, he is pairing off with another young star for ''Dead.'' This time around, it's the rap superstar Ja Rule, who plays Nick, the car-thief partner in crime to Mr. The Scottish band Nazareth supposedly took its name from this song.īut wait…there’s more! I’m throwing in this piece of trivia at no extra charge: two months after The Band released “Music from Big Pink,” The Beatles filmed a promo of “Hey Jude,” with Paul singing Take a load off Fanny/ Put it back on me in the song’s famous fade-out.Breaking a sweat in the underlighted, overplotted and accurately titled ''Half Past Dead,'' Steven Seagal, the Action Hero That Time Forgot, is grunting mightily to hold on to his dwindling audience. The song was released as a single and was included on The Band’s debut LP, “Music from Big Pink.” Although it only peaked at #63 on the charts, it’s listed as #41 on Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and was designated by The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as one of the 500 songs that shaped rock and roll. Adding to the song’s enigma, Robertson said the story and lyrics were partly influenced by various characters from the surrealistic movies of Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel. The song is certainly full of biblical allusions and iconic characters: the Devil, Miss Moses, Luke. Well, maybe it’s a holy place, after all – at least to musicians. Rather, he was paying homage to Nazareth, Pennsylvania, home of guitar maker C.F. In 1968, The Band sang about pulling into Nazareth, “feelin’ ’bout half past dead.” Robbie Robertson wrote that lyric for The Band’s most enduring song, “The Weight,” but he wasn’t referring to the Holy Land. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |