The Patriot

Steven Seagal's The Patriot is a winner! Good action and music makes this film one his best in My opinion! The movie has a good story and I really like Steven Seagal being the hero especially in a movie like this! I recommend Steven Seagal fans check this one out soon!

You get a good portion of Steven Seagal environmental anxieties, and some breathless mountain views along with cow-boy scenes (or alternatively use parts of any remains of the HORSE WHISPERER). You then add a large piece of OUTBREAK virus or similar (attention it must be more lethal and at least Biohazard Level 4) wrapped around a fat Militia group leader. You add one teaspoon of martial arts, and a zip of explosions and gunfire for the taste. Add the classic red Indian herbs for the extra taste. Serve immediately. What is the name of the film you get ?: The Patriot. Perhaps the worst film of Steven Seagal. I am sure that Seagal tried to say something in this film except the usual I-am-a-cook (but-also-an-ex-seal) but his recipe was confusing and the taste was awful.

I think this movie is given a bad wrap because it does not have non-stop bone crunching action and because the villains are stereotyped and the plot lines are predictable and ridiculous. Anyways, Seagal is Dr Wesley McClaren, one of the best immunologists in the USA. But he works as more of a nature medicine practitioner in a small mid-western town. His best friend, Frank, is a cowboy style guy played by L Q James. McClaren also has a daughter and a father who is full blooded Indian and lives in an isolate cabin in the mountains. The arch villain here is the neo nazi white trash survivalist, Floyd Chisolm, played by Gailord Sartain. Chisolm is strangely able to get a hand on a super potent biological weapon, and assuming that the anti dote they have will keep them safe, he unleashes this stuff on his own townspeople. Immediately the army is alerted and seal off the place. So Seagal retreats to a super secret laboratory in the mountains (sick!)where he battles to find an anti dote. Not surprisingly the anti dote turns out to be a herb flower that indians has used for centuries. Not much action yet, and not much you will get until Chisolm gets desperate and sends his "soldiers" to kidnap Seagal and his daughter. Supposedly McClarens daughter is immune because she has native blood. Frank is killed in this process, leaving Seagal no choice but to put Chisolm out of his misery. This is done in a pretty interesting scene where Chisolm invites the kidnapped Seagal for a glass of Bordeaux wine. Seagal responds by talking calmly about what a piece of trash Chisolm is before breaking his wine class with his thumb and index finger and forcing the broken glass into the man's skull. Priceless! To end it off on a high note the army does not go house to house delivering anti dote in capsules or syringes, no, they sprinkle the flowers out from helicopters hovering the town. The director is Dean Semler, the man behind so diverse films as Bruce Almighty, Dead Calm, Young Guns and Cocktail. If it was not for Seagal and the director this would be a piece of trash too, but strangely, I liked it.

I must say, as the practitioner of an earth-based religion, that I was so totally enthralled with this movie, I was moved to tears at the end. Steven Seagal's acting style has changed over the years. He's gone from tough and ready hard core action to take an environmentally political stand on issues in which he believes. He is quoted here, at IMDb for having said the following... "Hollywood is a mercurial place where people are sort of (in the film business) a victim of their environment and how the environment changes. Movies that would be timely now, ten years from now would be passé and nobody would be interested in the subjects. All the movies that I have done I have not been in control of. Sometimes there is a contractual situation where you go to the studio and they kind of tell you which ones they want you to do. Be that as it may I have also been lucky in the sense that I have been able to make environmentally conscientious movies as well as politically conscientious movies. ABOVE THE LAW was a politically conscientious movie. ON DEADLY GROUND was environmentally conscientious so I want to keep making movies like that which are more geared with a certain entertainment value but also bring people forward into contemplation." Well, Mr. Seagal, you succeeded in accomplishing both, with "The Patriot." The action is fast enough to keep you involved in the plot. The plot is simple and easy to follow, concerning a "good old boy" with what seems like noble aspirations, until he releases a biological weapon deadly enough to kill off the entire US populace. Now, it's up to Dr. Wesley McClaren (Steven Seagal) to clean up the mess. Will he find the cure in time to save everyone he loves from annihilation? Watch it and see. Nice action and beautiful cinematography. Excellent footage of the mountains of the central northwest US. Strong acting ability demonstrated here through superb directing and some good fast-paced fight scenes. But beneath all that, you get the sense that Seagal's character loves the Earth and all Her greatness. He gives you the feeling that he respects Her and cherishes all that She is, and has to give. As a Pagan, I cannot help but feel a kinship of sorts with the lead character in this movie. "Kith and kin" means more than mere blood relations, you know. As this movie well demonstrates. It gets a 8.2/10 from.... the Fiend :.

A ho-hum drama thriller which uses OUTBREAK as the basis for its plot and wastes the martial arts talents of star Steven Seagal. Any fan looking for Seagal's usual brand of bone-breaking action will be sorely disappointed by the total lack of fighting in this movie. Action is limited to one or two brief sequences and the rest of this long, long film is taken up with moralising, Native American mythology, and plenty of uninteresting dialogue. Imagine the less-than-satisfying ON DEADLY GROUND: a movie full of action, let down by some boring environmental stuff. Now swap that ratio around: a movie full of boring mundaneness, with only a few moments of action. Now you'll realise how disappointing a film THE PATRIOT is for big man Seagal and why it's his weakest movie to date. The list of flaws is an endless one. The plot is silly and contrived, the in-your-face moralising is annoying and preachy. The production values make the film look cheap and poor editing in what few action scenes there are means that it all happens too fast to see what's going on. No arms or legs are broken and the only real bit of violence (aside from some shooting) is a satisfying death involving the jagged stem of a wine glass and a man's ear. The characters are one-dimensional and the acting poor, especially from the rather dull villains who don't even do the good thing by chewing the scenery. The only familiar performer is old-timer L. Q. Jones who is wasted in a nothing part as one of those old men Seagal likes to hang around with. As for Seagal, despite looking ridiculous (glasses + shoulder length bushy hair + bright red sweat don't go) in his most overweight performance, puts in his typically gruff yet friendly part and is the best actor in the film (so you know you're in trouble). Not sure what kind of market the producers of this tosh were hoping to aim at - as an action film it's totally hopeless, as an ecological thriller it's predictable and clichéd. Any way you look at it, THE PATRIOT is a film to be avoided at all costs.

Basically, this is a very good film. It is very different from Seagal's other films though, which unfortunately may turn off some of his fans. Unlike some of the other films, this does not feel like a 'Seagal vehicle'. You get to see plenty of the other characters as well and all of Mr. Seagal's actions are not the same as we've seen before. The concept of him being an 'intellectual' in something other than bombs and other weaponry is a nice change. Although there are some unrealistic parts to the film (some more obvious than others), in general you can let them slide since the film is fun to watch. It boils down to this: If you are looking for a classic Seagal action film, sorry, but you're going to be disappointed. Watch it anyway for the fun of it. If you're open to seeing Seagal without the action, it's well worth a look. I personally believe it is some of the best work he's done in quite a while.

The Patriot is getting a lot of bad reviews from fans because of its lack of action. But The Patriot is suppose to be a vehicle to show that Seagal can really act, and I am happy to report that the guy is a really good actor. The plot is about the outbreak of a deadly virus in a small town. I am a big fan of Steven Seagal and I like the way he has been picking his movies. Fire Down Below was better than his prior films "On Deadly Grounds" and "The Glimmer Man" because of its slick directing and editing, and his cameo in "My Giant" was hilarious. The Patriot ranks with "Above the Law", "Marked for Death", "Under Siege", "Fire Down Below" and "Executive Decision" as one of his best films. I personally can't wait till his film version of Genghis Khan comes out. I give this one a solid 9/10

Mr. Seagal must be seriously out of touch with his audience. People who go see his movies expect action, violence, stunts and martial-arts combat: what they get here instead are a lot of boring speeches and sequences teaching us that oriental/traditional remedies are better than western medicine, that biological warfare is a bad thing, that militia members are a bunch of overweight or underage weirdos in camouflage outfits, that native americans (especially their elder) are always wise and peaceful and so on. I thought "On Deadly Ground" and "The Glimmer Man" were bad, but compared to "The Patriot" they both look like serious contenders for an Oscar. There's more action in a Meg Ryan picture than in this film. No wonder this was released outside the USA first. I wouldn't be surprised if this sinks like a stone in USA theaters and then comes out quickly on video/cable. I admire Seagal's honesty: he looks sincere and desperate to convey his positive message to the audience, but judging from the overall quality of "The Patriot", he'll manage to reach only a few hundreds people and further alienate his fans. Maybe all the good bits were left on the cutting room floor: the trailers show a couple of scenes that are not in the theatrical release. But I don't think I'll be buying the Director's Cut, should it ever come out on video...

I've just seen the Patriot, released directly to Sky television in the UK I was expecting a really bad film, but I enjoyed it. Okay it may not be as action packed as his earlier movies but if you watch this film in its own right rather than an unofficial Under Seige part III then i think it stands up very well. As to someone's point that the action was just "tagged on" rubbish, I thought it was relevant to the story at that point.