"John Alexander" (Steven Seagal) is an assassin who has been very successful with what he does for a living. So capable in fact, that he now believes that he needs to atone for the many bad things he has done over the course of his life. He gets this opportunity following a successful contract hit in Ukraine when he finds himself caught up in the middle of a situation involving a prostitute named "Nadia" (Adina Stetcu) and a murderous, sexual pervert with enormous influence who goes by the title of "the Boss" (Vinnie Jones). However, what he doesn't fully appreciate is just how influential "the Boss" actually is and because of that he becomes a target himself. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie actually started off pretty good. Unfortunately, it proceeded to get more and more unrealistic as the film progressed with several scenes involving both John Alexander and his friend "Chi" (Byron Mann) willingly throwing down their firearms in order to defeat their fully-armed opponents using only their martial arts skills. Naturally, I could understand this scenario if they were caught off-guard or if they had exhausted all of their ammunition while exchanging gunfire. But professionals don't go to a gunfight armed with just a knife or their bare knuckles. It just doesn't happen. That said, those who enjoy martial arts action for its own sake might really like this movie. But those who want a semblance of reality might be a bit disappointed. In any case, while it wasn't necessarily a bad film, it could have been better and for that reason I have rated it accordingly. Average.
Absolution
2015
Action / Adventure / Crime / Thriller
Absolution
2015
Action / Adventure / Crime / Thriller
Plot summary
When a contract killer (Steven Seagal) encounters a girl on the run from a dangerous mob boss (Vinnie Jones) with powerful political ties, running a human trafficking operation, he is torn between protecting the girl, and remaining loyal to the government agency that hired him.
Uploaded by: OTTO
April 24, 2015 at 03:43 AM
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Going to a Gunfight with Just a Knife
We're ghosts. Always ghosts.
This is a fairly straight forward Seagal film which opens with his Marlon Brando godfather character giving us his standard "I am a bad man " speech. Even though he kills bad guys, he needs to kill one more bad guy for "absolution" for killing all those other bad guys. It isn't hard to figure out 5 minutes into the film (or if you look at the cast) who the bad guy he has to kill.
Seagal revives his character Alexander (I think) from "A Good Man." There are flashback scenes to his wife who died, which were not part of any previous film. Seagal is joined by Chi played by Bryon Mann. To add to the confusion, he also plays Savon in the Seagal "True Justice" TV series, but there is no connection....I think. The most confusing thing about a Seagal film is keeping them separate in your mind.
Filmed in Bucharest, Romania Seagal and Chi take out a rich westernized Afghan who was going to deal stealth technology to the Iran. The subplot consists of The Boss (Vinnie Jones not Springsteen) abusing women on film. One woman escapes (Adina Stetcu) and lands in Seagal's lap with the expected Seagal film results.
Fighting consisted of slo-mo and speed up action to make Seagal look limber. It is comical to watch the lumbering Seagal go into stealth mode, moving around going "unseen". If you miss the Seagal, "I am a bad man" speech in the beginning, fear not, he loved it so much he gives it a second time. Plenty of bad acting.
Guide: F-bomb. No sex or nudity. Woman dressed scantily and abused. Some blood splatter. Minor grindhouse effects.
8 stars on the Seagal scale.
Steven Seagal Fan
Personally I like all Steven Seagal movies and this is one of his better ones in recent years. There are only a couple a few of his movies I haven't seen since I have only Netflix & Hulu at home and no expensive cable bill. I was in the military and met him once up in Alaska while we were to do some military training. I hope and wish he would come out with something big in the theaters like he did in the late eighties & early nineties. This one had a great plot and story line since human trafficking is a real problem in the world today. I wish I was recruited to hunt down human traffickers but I wouldn't want to just catch them and bring them to trial.....once we have solid proof and catch them red handed I would shoot them on site without any hesitation whatsoever. I'm not a republican/conservative/right and never will be but especially major crimes if they're caught red handed there should be no trial because the trial and all that is just a waste of money so just punish them right then and there.