Force of Execution [Blu-Ray]

Director: Keoni Waxman

Cast: Steven Seagal, Ving Rhames, Danny Trejo, Bren Foster

Release Date: Now Available to own on Blu-Ray Combo Pack & DVD

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 5.5/10

Disc Rating: 7.5/10

 

Plot Summary:

“Force of Execution” is the story about a crime lord torn between his legacy and his desire to get out of the life of crime that has built his empire, when a new player to the scene tries to use the town anti-hero’s network to climb to power. The only friend the crime lord has is his assassin protégé who has troubles of his own. An epic battle of under bosses and crime lords. Only one will come out alive.

Welcome to a perfect example of big names being thrown together to catch people’s attention and the resulting film being a disappointment for the most part. We all know it happens, and we all know we are pulled in (most) every time. Many of us can refuse the pull of one name we have interest in, but when numerous names get thrown together, including Steven Seagal as an infamous crime boss, how could we possibly resist right?

While the film does bring some fun action sequences, and manages to be entertaining for a good portion of its runtime (just short of 100 minutes), it just isn’t a good film. The writing seems sloppy, all over the place and at times just confusing. It almost feels as if they wrote the script simply to fit around what they wanted certain actors to do, as opposed to casting the right fits for the roles. While there is a lot of star power here, most of the cast is at their lowest caliber, and either seem to over exaggerate the part (such as Ving Rhames) or else just run it through without what appears to be much conviction or effort at all (such as Steven Seagal, sporting a horrid and completely unnecessary accent), while a few members of the cast do a decent job (namely Bren Foster, and Danny Trejo isn’t horrible). Unfortunately, the film just doesn’t have enough going for it to justify making a point of watching.

Overall: ‘Force of Execution’ is an entertaining movie, and it certainly has some fun action sequences, but unfortunately those are really the only two things it has going for it. The odd pace, seemingly unnecessary excuses for action and the choppy and all over the place story and mediocre acting (aside from Foster) make this strive too far from decent to appreciate even with the star power involved, especially when none of the leads are anywhere near their best here and hardly seem at all interested in the film themselves. If there is nothing better on television, it might be fun to watch after a long day as it would not require little or no thought or concentration, but I honestly can’t say I would recommend anyone go out of their way in any way to check out this movie, even with the cast.

VIDEO:

The Blu-Ray release of ‘Force of Execution’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio.  The video presentation looks pretty good and no real faults could be seen within, aside from some minor artifacts and blurring during extremely fast movements. This is an overall very satisfactory video presentation on the Blu-Ray, especially considering the very likely low budget involved in the film’s production.

AUDIO:

The Blu-Ray release features a lossless 5.1 channel Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. This lossless soundtrack manages to keep most all of the dialogue in the center channel perfectly understandable, even during the more frenetic action sequences. At times it felt like the placement of some whizzing bullets and minor elements such as that were a bit off place from where they should have been, but for the most part this is a pretty decent and fun lossless 5.1 soundtrack.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The only special feature included on the Blu-Ray release of ‘Force of Execution’ is a featurette titled ‘Force of Execution: Behind the Story’ which features comments and input from the cast and crew regarding their involvement and a look behind the scenes of the film.

Film Rating: 5.5/10

Disc Rating: 7.5/10

‘Force of Execution’ is now available to own on Blu-Ray Combo Pack & DVD from Anchor Bay Entertainment.