Into the Sun

At the time of its release in 2005, Into the Sun was touted as being a return to Seagal’s roots: a solid action film with some good fights. Unfortunately it’s just another straight to video dud in almost every way. It’s nearly 30 minutes into the film before the first fight scene, and the story is so incredibly stupid that it’s not worth the wait.

Seagal is an ex-special ops guy (but when isn’t he?) who has retired and is selling swords in Japan. When the Chinese triads start moving in to Japan and battling for turf with Japan’s yakuza, Homeland Security turns to Seagal for help.

Seagal is saddled with an inexperienced partner who is a complete idiot and who seems to exist only as a reason for Seagal to extract bloody vengeance later. His partner gets himself killed when Seagal sends him out on his own to get him out of the way so Seagal can have some time for romance.

Yes, romance. Seagal romances a girl young enough to be his daughter. They have about as much chemistry as a kick in the groin but that won’t stop them from having a love scene. Be prepared for some lovin’ Seagal-style, and be grateful that he keeps his shirt on. Mostly the relationship exists just to give Seagal even more reason to extract bloody vengeance later on. Sensing a pattern here?

You should also be prepared for more of the same sloppy slapfights and obvious stunt doubles, much like most of the man’s straight to video work.  The final showdown isn’t half bad if you can forgive it for being a Kill Bill ripoff. It’s rather gory and features dismemberment and a goodly amount of spurting blood. You’ll also learn that a crime scene can be cleaned up by spraying blue goo all over it. I have no idea how this removes DNA from a blood-soaked scene but the local police seemed very impressed.

As if all this wasn’t enough, the film closes out with one of Seagal’s own songs. Yes, that’s him singing in the credits. “I’ll be in the ocean, I live in the sky, don’t you cry, I’ll never die.” I really want to insert a pie joke here.

In the end the film collapses under the weight of the limp story, and there simply isn’t enough action to keep most people interested. It’s worth seeing if you’re a diehard Seagal fan or simply want to laugh at how lame much of the film is, but I wouldn’t recommend it to most people.