User reviews

The second piece of Seagal action to come out this year, the second dire straight to video offering from him as well. While Belly Of The Beast had some enjoyment laughing at the over the top action this film is so painfully bad that it is almost upsetting. Now I have never been the biggest Seagal fan. Having said that I have enjoyed watching his earlier films. They were pure dumb and ultra violent films with an enjoyably pretentious moralistic attitude. Seagal had that kind of Italian American, Brooklyn tough guy thing going on, his kind of De Niro and Brando impersonation. Since Under Siege though, he has become the eco-Zen- Warrior with absolutely no personality. He was in decent shape as well, never the ripped muscle man like Arnie, Sly and Van Damme but a real man kind of size and he was very quick. The action scenes in those films were brutal and slick and we would see in full glory the aikido from Seagal. Nowadays Seagal, after one two many pies, is looking very withered and old and overweight. In modern Seagal fights the are film extremely tightly with the odd wide shot featuring his stunt double and is edited in such a way to hide the fact that he is just not quick enough anymore. Seagal looks tragically bloated and sweaty and almost repugnant. I cannot see how even the most ardent Seagal fan could be anything but devastated seeing him do films like this and looking the way he does. Somehow he still sells a movie but at this rate it won't be for long.

Out Of Reach is the worst Seagal film ever, and considering Ticker, Foreigner and Out For A Kill, that takes some doing. This is a film that even z grade action men like Lorenzo Lamas and Don Wilson would want scratched off their CV. The plot has Seagal as a former government agent who runs a animal shelter (oh my god, when will he realize he's not captain planet.). He then finds out that a young girl who he is pen pals with (isn't that a horrible picture, an old sweaty git having correspondence with a little girl) is kidnapped and sold as a slave, Seagal has to come out of retirement and stop the bad guys who are lead by Matt Schulze. The film despite being a reasonable 20 million dollar budget looks painfully cheap. The film is so lazily put to together and Seagal is so bad it beggars belief. There are so many signs that he can't be bothered and is past it, form constant doubling, lazy use of a stand in and several moments when he is clearly dubbed, probably because he whispers through the while film and you can't hear him. The only times you hear what Seagal is saying is when he is being dubbed. He really doesn't want to be their and being the big name of such a crappy little picture no-one would have told him to pull his finger out. Someone needs to slap him and tell him that for the money he his paid and that they plough into his movies his fans expect a lot more. He is currently the top earner and audience grabber of the straight to video action market but if he continues like this he will be overtaken by Van Damme and Lundgren and others below them. There are rumours his next film, Into The Sun is to be distributed to theaters by his beloved Warner Brothers but I really don't see it. It is tragic and says a lot about the industry that they could make the biggest pile of poo known to man and sell it simply by plastering his ugly mug on the front.

I watched this simply out of curiosity and merely because it was a Seagal film, these DTV stars release these films and although they are generally bad there has to be a certain minimal standard of enjoyment. Van Damme, Lundgren are keeping this up with their recent efforts, but Seagal who has the highest expectations must up his game or retire. He certainly is not convincing as a tough guy any more. *

After the semi-entertaining,back to basics approach of Belly of the Beast it appeared that Seagal was on a minor comeback.Then along comes out of reach to flush all that down the toilet.

Seagal is a retired agent(how many times can one man play a retired agent!!!)who crashes a human slavery ring in Poland headed by Matt(Transporter)Shultze.Get ready for some bone-breaking,gun-fighting,neck-breaking mania that never happens.Its not that it is totally boring,just unexceptional.

Out of reach is missing a lot of the trademarks that make up a Steven Seagal movie.Not a lot of hand to hand action.More gunfighting instead. The final Mano a Mano between Shultze and Seagal is just modest at best.Seagal actually takes a few hits.The setting seems like the same faceless location of his last three movies.

Seagal is a little better here.He handles the fights okay.But the dubbing and the raspy voice make one question his health.Ida Nowakowska holds her own and does a pretty good acting job as the cop helping Seagal.Matt Schultze is the best thing Out of reach has going for it.He plays a nasty villain as usual with high potential.But ends up wasted and Ill used.

Good Idea undone by producers?Bad Director?Star?Who knows.It had some potential.Its mauled by one of those freeze-frame-feel good endings.

I paid nearly 4 bucks to rent this and I don't feel good.

Out of Reach (2004)

This is a bit of a disappointment. It's another Taken style action movie, without much action. There is a gun fight and as shown in the trailer a sword fight, but even that is pretty bland and uninteresting.

Seagal is William "Billy Ray" Lansing an ex-military, ex-government agent who now wanders around the woods of Alaska and writing to a 13 year old girl. Which is a tad disturbing, what he talks to her about in the letters is also a bit worrying too.

Seagal's hair in this movie is just silly. It's a jet black, strange-looking mullet. A lot of his dialogue is overdubbed by someone who is clearly not Seagal and there are many scenes that are clearly not Seagal in front of the camera as well, even something simple like walking around in the woods is a double.

This was a Franchise Pictures release... remember them??

The plot is ridiculous, we don't know why the feds want him dead after he refuses to rejoin them, he has no real reason to go to Poland, no panic written letter by the girl, he is just psychic. For the second movie in a row (after years of no love interest) Seagal's female partner is unrealistically attracted to him, and the scene where he operates on her to remove a bullet is laughable.

That said, I was never bored, even if I was laughing at the absurdity of the obvious double, the voice over or what was happening on screen.

All In all, Out Of Reach is a pretty entertaining entry in the filmography or Seagal. There's enough out-and-out silliness to keep you engaged.

I feel so ashamed...I watched this movie from beginning to end. What can I say? I'm an idiot. I could have spent the time doing something much more enjoyable, like blinding myself with toothpicks or drinking lit Sterno. But, no, I watched and I suffered.

Segal's acting was never passable and his movie scripts were always formulaic and tedious, but his mastery of Aiki-Jitsu made the movies great. Now, he relies on gun battles almost completely. I think it's because he has trouble lifting his arms. The use of a double was so apparent throughout the film one has to wonder if Segal spent more than a weekend in Poland working on this movie. They even had a double dubbing his lines. But, to his voice double's credit, he did do a superb job of getting Segal's voice exactly, perfectly wrong. Either he's so fat that he can't breath deeply enough to talk (can you say Orson Wells and Marlon Brando) or they couldn't keep the food out of his mouth long enough to record the tracks. Judging from his sweaty, greasy, bloated and just plain frightening close-ups, what time he spent in Poland was most likely spent at the blini stand. Really, he looks like a Mr. Potato Head that's been dipped in oil. I think he has become the evil clone of Elvis. A huge, disgusting mockery of the genre. Unlike Elvis, though, he never really had talent. His self-created persona of the "Special Ops Killer" turned Ghandi is wearing so thin that even Paris Hilton has more credibility. However, I'll bet Segal's breasts are bigger.

Another point... I don't understand going to another country to make a cheap movie. There isn't anything in this movie that isn't here in America. We have lots of nice buildings and plenty of lousy, unknown actors. But, it seems the really bad American movies have to be made in foreign countries. Perhaps his next movie can be filmed in Nauru or Tuvalu. Or, even better, how about in his backyard using his cell phone camera? Can't be any worse.

Here are a few title suggestions for his next movie:

1) Out of Breath 2) Out of Ideas 3) Out of Cheetos 4) Out of His Mind 4) Hard to Watch 5) Out to Lunch 6) The Fatriot 7) Belly of the Star 8) Box of Clementines 9) Today You Diet 10) Enormous Shadow Man 11) Heart Attack Force 12) Fat of Fury and, of course... 13) Marked for $1.99

We all know what the story line will be.

Well, I have to say I am very disappointed. Again. I'd like to start this commentary by saying that I'm myself a fan of Mr. Seagal and have followed his career in motion pictures since I first saw the superb "Above The Law" back in 1989. This information is just to clarify, that I'm not here to bash Seagal just because it seems to be the "hip" thing to do.

It's fair to say that Seagal's cv hasn't looked very impressive since "Under Siege" over ten years ago. It's been a slow downhill with a few exceptions like fairly enjoyable "US 2" and dumb but entertaining "Exit Wounds". With his Hong Kong influenced "Belly Of The Beast" outing I dared to expect something of a comeback for our beloved thespian, but "Out Of Reach" sends him right back where he was with the dreadful "The Foreigner" and even more horrible "Out For A Kill". You could sum this commentary with one sentence: no more polish action films. The production values of "OOR" are minimal, script has holes for trucks to go through and the acting. Oh lord, the acting. Through out the entire film it is just plain torture to watch. Let's face it - Seagal has never been exactly Oscar material, but he has had his moments. Not in this one. I just don't get why on earth they have to dub his voice with these totally moranic voice overs? And this time it happens a lot, even in the middle of the scene in where he has spoke with his own voice in the beginning.

Seagal has dropped some weight, but it is still a stretch to buy him as an action hero. His moves are slow (still the show them most of time in slow motion!!) and he uses stunt doubles a lot. Action in "OOR" is quite minimal and fairly up to basic standards even for a movie this scale. The brothel shoot out is OK, but the final duel between Seagal and Matt Schulze is a major let down. And while speaking of Mr. Schulze it should be noted that Seagal's acting really isn't the worse in "OOR". Schulze, who delivered good performances in "Blade 2" and "The Transporter" is totally lost with the role of Faisal The Ultimate Bad Guy. His pseudo sophisticated character is probably one of the most lame villains ever supplied with incredibly stale dialogue.

Like noted, the acting in whole is pure crap and it seems that many of the polish actors don't even know English - they just repeat what the director or who ever tells them to say. There really are no good performances in "OOR" except the small cameo of Nick Brimble and momentarily the girl who plays Seagal's pen pal. There are numerous just idiotic scenes like the one where the little girl is held captive in the basement of a castle where villains are having a big party. She is guarded by one of the villains and asks him something like "Why are you not invited to the party?" The bad guy totally loses it and screams: "Stop trying to get inside my head!" Whoa. Then there are the goofy scenes where Seagal wanderers in the forest "looking for injured animals". It is of course a beautiful concept, but the guy looks like a lost-in-the-woods member of a motorcycle gang. And the final still picture before the end credits start to roll. What the heck were they thinking in the editing room? "Wow, NOW this movie works like it should!"

I did my best to come up with even one positive thing about "OOR", but it just seems impossible. How can talented(?) people mess up this bad and what in heaven's name did Seagal see in this project that made him want to get into it? Is he proud of his Poland era of film making?

If you are a fan of Seagal you have to ask yourself a question: did you like him as the arrogant ass kicker from his Warner Brothers days or do you prefer this independent (no big studio wants to touch him with a ten foot pole?) filmmaker -version of him? If your heart beats for his neat ponytail wearing, black leather jacket and jeans -period then do your self a favor and leave "OOR" alone. As sad as it might seem.

This was a stink bomb. Please, let "Into The Sun" be better.

Does Seagal watch his own movies anymore? This was the WORST Seagal movie EVER! And I love Seagal. It lacked everything including action and acting. This movie went no where and made no sense. It jumps from scene to scene with no explanation at all about what happened. I cannot believe I sat through this waiting for it to get better....it never happened. DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME! A girl that writes codes in the Caviar? It goes to a building with phones that ring and give their entire plot away and Seagal just walks in to a dead guy on the phone after Seagal steals all the information he needs. I cannot say again....DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME!

Seagal reaches a new low in "Out of Reach" in which he plays a guy with a past (we don't know what exactly) who hangs out in a forest and looks for injured animals so he can heal them while communing with nature. He also corresponds via snail mail with a young girl in a Polish orphanage. When she is sold into slavery, Seagal has to travel to Poland where, of course, he gets to hang out with a babe, shoot it out with a bunch of heavies, and do some hokey martial arts stuff as well as try to act and conceal his big, fat gut. A sorry attempt at film making, "Out of Reach" has too many deficits to list here. Suffice it to say this B-flick is probably not worth your time and will probably be the last Seagal flick I'll be watching. (C-)

Out of Reach (2004) was another Seagal straight-to-video film. Originally this film was set to be directed by Ringo Lam. But during the production, Mr. Lam was frustrated by the bad script and tried to re-write the film. He was let go and another Hong Kong film maker Po Chieh Leung was brought on to helm the production. The film is pretty uneven and questionable at times but the director has managed to create a watchable film.

Steven Seagal stars as a retired federal agent who corresponds with a Eastern European girl. One day she stops writing and a bored Seagal decides to fly to Bulgaria to find out why his little pen pal has stopped writing. Whilst in country, he finds out that there's more than meets the eye and nothing is as it seems. The main villain is a very creepy individual who prefers the company of adolescent girls instead of women and likes to fence with his spineless lackeys for pleasure. Can Steven find the girl, polish off the bad guys and bring some rogue agents to justice or will the be Out of Reach!!??!

Not a bad film but it's marred by a lot of post production tinkering and looping (they couldn't even bring back Seagal to do his own dubbing). The last twenty minutes are the best in the film with a nice finale between Seagal and the sleazy scumbag.

Recommended for action fans.

When you go to see a Steven Seagal movie, do not look for Sir Laurence Olivier class performances. the scripts are not written by William Shakespeare or Ernest Hemingway. His character sees a problem and by dint of physical violence eliminates the problems. The good guy wins and the bad guys die. His movies are escapism, pure and simple. If you are looking for Oscar winning performances, you are in the wrong venue. During the hour and a half i watched this flick, I did not think about the bird flu, the war in Iraq, aids in Africa. I watched the movie. I enjoyed the movie. I do watch message flicks. This was not one of them. gGet a life London..He ain't john Gielgud...

This film begins with a retired CSA agent by the name of "William Lansing" (Steven Seagal) enjoying some peace and quiet in a wildlife refuge area with few outside distractions. However, when a young Polish orphan that he was sponsoring by the name of "Irena Morawska" (Ida Nowakowska) mysteriously stops writing to him, he becomes concerned and decides to travel to Poland to investigate the situation. To his dismay, he soon discovers that Irena has been kidnapped by a sophisticated network of human traffickers who know how to use their connections to remain hidden from the law. Additionally, it's also at this time that some former colleagues appear on the scene with a serious grudge to settle with him which then complicates things even further. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a rather strange crime-drama which suffered from an uneven plot and poor direction. To that extent, while I typically like Stevan Seagal films, I must say that I was somewhat disappointed with this particular one and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

Steven Seagal picks good topics and he takes good positions on them, but this film is like most of his others in failing on the level of craft. I don't know why this keeps happening to someone whose martial arts experience obviously taught him about the importance of precise execution and continuous refinement, but in any case this film is sloppy. Sometimes it's as simple as parallel action whose locations aren't clear, or too-familiar action scenes, or very slow staging of the obvious, like the initial seizure of the children. More importantly, it's careless or shallow thinking about the characters and their relationship to each other: the villains are pure psychopaths, the kids are pure innocence, the trafficking is simple kidnapping from a crooked orphanage - nothing beyond the matinée B-movie level of white/black hats is made concrete. There's something stubborn and unnecessary about Seagal staying on this mediocre level.

The rugged and chubby Steven Seagal is William Lansing, a caring ex- CIA agent who takes care of injured animals and sponsors an orphanage in Europe who also corresponds with one of the orphan's as a pen pal, Irena (Ida Nowakowska.)

The orphanage is actually a front for a child sex trafficking ring run by Faisal (Matt Schulze) that kidnaps the teenage girl along with others to sell them to some Middle Eastern types it seems.

Seagal springs into action to rescue the girl. Of course as Seagal has put on some girth we get less action here, presumably not many fat stunt doubles around with martial arts expertise and we see Seagal using more brain power to solve riddles. Which presumably is the reason why he has a carpet on his head.

The plot is nonsense with lots of plot holes. At least Schulze takes it all seriously as the baddie and brings some style and menace as the villain. As an action film its boring and shows us a Seagal way past his glory days.

An American action thriller; Next stop Poland for Steven Seagal. The premise of the film is quite good - a martial arts master and former covert agent turned survivalist in America has lost touch with a young girl/pen pal from an orphanage in Poland. It transpires she has become a missing person. Seagal decides to investigate and track a human trafficking ring into which the young girl has unknowingly entered. "Out of Reach" bears some similarity to the film, "Taken", but it is a low budget production - badly dubbed, poorly edited. poor acting in parts. The story is directed in a style that resembles a fable rather than a feature film. As an action film, tension is at a low ebb and so the detective work becomes the main interest for the viewer. There is a memorable sword fight-off scene at the end: prey vs predator, protagonist vs antagonist, which is set in a white palace and this symbolising of purity as irony is impressive. This sequence is well directed and choreographed. For all its faults, and there are many in the storytelling, there is a heart to the film and an important subject.

I am being very generous here giving it a 5.... It was not great, but at the same time it was not terrible either..... It did have some good action scenes that were done by Seagal himself.

However the story line is typical, and the dubbing in his voice for added scenes (?) was just horrible and shows how low budget this movie is... I cant say much els about the movie, it was OK at best.... keep in mind I am basing this off his last few movies that were just horrible.... Foreigner, out for a kill etc etc... compared to those it was actually enjoyable. Its still not even close to his standard of movies like Out for Justice, Glimmer Man, Above the Law but we know what were getting from steven now and if this is all were getting then I thought it was actually OK.

I've watched this film many times now and somehow, despite it's many obvious shortcomings, I still very much enjoy it. This is one of those straight to DVD grade movies from Seagal's "Fat Steven" period. By this time he has become a huge whale, waddling from scene to scene, devoid of grace. Also he is unconvincingly overdubbed in many scenes throughout the film, for whatever reason. And yet for me, there is still plenty to enjoy. Firstly the director choreographs what action there is well, so that it is coherent, while still effectively disguising Seagals physical shortcomings, and in general I found the action scenes were shot with a pleasing artistic flourish. Secondly the locations are well chosen, providing the kind of exotic glamour that has been a mainstay of the James Bond franchise for decades. For example the industrial building where the children are taken is completely impractical and irrelevant for that purpose, but it makes for a fantastic B grade "Villain's lair". It's a huge hanger like shed and when the big doors rumble back it is impressive, unfortunately the villains abandon this promising location part way through, before any battle ensues. The wonderful white courtyard of the Politechnika Warszawska Main Building is not a credible residence for a human trafficker either, but to me, an indelibly memorable location. So wonderful in fact, that in my mind it makes up for any shortcomings in the climactic battle between the ponderous Seagal and the villain. The "Stalin building" used for the cocktail party scene and the University Library are further memorable locations to enjoy. Thirdly I also found the casting to be on the money, Matt Schulze is always an effective villain, the kids were appealing and the female police officer struck the right balance in projecting both attractive and competent. Many of the supporting actors didn't speak English well, maybe they don't act well either, but a Polish accent in a film set in Poland adds an authenticity that easily offsets that. The movie follows the Seagal tradition of presenting his character as a disillusioned servant of the military industrial complex, who has become a spiritual seeker, finding peace in communion with animals and nature. And also briefly introduces some facts around human trafficking, which is a real world issue, both are architypal Seagal traits, which I find endearing, provided they don't get out of hand and reach "On Deadly Ground" proportions… The script is not so great, but that is often not the deciding factor in the action movie genre. For me it is enough that the basic premise is sound, the vulnerable find a protector and are actually saved, rather than the hero just exacting empty revenge, as happens too often these days.

I am not a huge Seagal fan, but I found Out Of Reach to be very entertaining, well filmed, and surprisingly compelling.

It is a clever thriller that calls to mind 1960's spy movies like The Ipcress File and Funeral In Berlin. Matt Schulze makes a terrifically sleazy villain, and the rest of the English/Polish Actors are excellent.

The movie is thin on Action - yes. But the set pieces and final sword fight are dazzling. Almost like Stanley Donen's Yakuza.

Last but not least, Seagal himself, turns in a somber yet plausible performance. It's like Clint Eastwood in the good old days, or Marlon Brando in the not-so-good recent days.

All this being said, the script, direction and production values are good. But most interesting to me, is the fact that another actor seems to have been dubbed in, instead of Seagal. If you listen carefully, you can hear that it's another Actor's voice. That alone should make this one for the Seagal collector.

Steven Seagal plays William Lansing who investigates the disappearance of several orphans in Poland. Agnieszka Wagner, an experienced TV actress, joins him as the Polish police woman Kasia Lato. She is ready to suffer, apparently, as she has Lansing cut a bullet from her shoulder the wild west way, although a hospital and doctors are nearby. The villain Faisal is portrayed by Matt Schulze at his most eccentric, from a black leather coat to a white fencing suit, doing meaningless things like burning a rose or drugging someone he already holds hostage, but always looking cool. Looking cool is really the point here, especially the duel in the white palace is as surreal as the ending of "2001 - a space odyssey". They must have said that if the script doesn't make any sense, we can at least make it look interesting. Something which worked extremely well is the child actors. The boy who helps Seagal as well the girl who communicates in a secret code are portrayed by very talented kids. Ask any director how annoying kids can destroy a movie, and he can probably tell you a story or two about that, but in this case, they both make an important, successful contribution.

You can accuse this movie of anything except mediocrity, and I actually enjoyed watching it enough to vote 6 of 10 here.

steve!steve!steve! what ever you do stay away from this "franchise productions".It was so painful watching this movie and hoping it would get better. guess what? it never did. the production, filming, story, it was terrible.run steve!run to the nearest American Production company you can,i know you can do a whole lot better. My 17 year old son and I just got finished watching your movie. We have always enjoyed watching your movies but feel this movie has put you at a low point. We were very disappointed and felt that it wasn't worth the money we spent to rent it. The plot was there but the filming was very poor. The voices didn't seem accurate and was very distracting. The story line didn't seem to make sense for us. We were very let down.

Segal with dead face, no acting visible - he just walks. Plot so rough that it hurts, irrational behavior and astonishing stupidity of the bad guys is obvious in that category of movie - i.e. when going to get the "good guy" why bother to put the bullet-proof vest on? Good guys are always in danger - when you get shot, never call an ambulance, even when you're a cop. And stereotypes - Polish cop MUST drink vodka! (Actually 98% of polish people don't drink vodka at all!). We were watching to the end to see, how a good film concept can be ruined by the bad scenario, no work on details and poor acting. Waste of time, unless you are HUGE fan of Segal.

The plot is like the movie: pretty neutral and not above standard, like almost every Seagal movie.

Clean settings - the white building is beautiful as a setting, a little highlight.

For the Seagal-fans, there is a bit of fighting in here, I think not enough for you guys. Seagal acts like always, somewhat 'unpersonal'.

All kinda standard things we'll see: typical bad-guy, in Poland everybody drinks :-( and there are a few one-liners (like "wrong answer").

Because I have a bit weakness for Seagal (he was like a small hero over ten years ago in his old movies).

So for that, I'll rate the movie ** out of ****