I have mixed feelings about this Seagal movie, but most of my negative vibes are due strictly to personal preferences and have little to do with the movie itself. Overall, the story itself is absolutely ludicrous…I mean, I get where they're trying/wanting to go with this but seriously can you at least intersperse **some** semblance of reality here? I'm all for "disengage your brain and just sit back and have fun" but this one not only PUSHED the boundaries, it flat went outside the boundaries. As a Steven Seagal "Watch Me Kick Some Butt" movie, it was great; if you're at the end of a horrible day at work (like I was), this will probably give you a big kick to sit back and watch it. If you're looking for a "good" movie, however, this isn't it. The story was just too over-the-top ridiculous to be entertaining even for a "disengage your brain" flick. There has to be a limit to how much utter non-believability a story can have and this surpassed that by a long shot. The plot holes weren't just "big enough to drive a truck through"; they were massive enough to fly one of those stealth bombers through. Totally idiotic, for the most part. On the plus side: the Seagal fights were actually pretty good. Morris Chestnutt made the film fun. It was **almost** action straight out of the gate. Someone mentioned that Seagal had remarked in an interview that was _"afraid he came off as looking depressed in the movie due to his recent divorce"_ but when has Steven Seagal ever looked happy? Seriously. He was as deadpan as he always is, and it didn't hurt a thing.

I have to give this film a fairly high score simply because it was action-packed, had some decent fight scenes, and kept my attention throughout. But on the flip side of the coin, I can't give it a "great" score because there was too much about it that was just a personal turn-off to me. Watch it, enjoy it, or don't enjoy it. Seagal has done better, but he's done worse.

Most certainly a lesser sequel, but maybe not quite so "lesser" as you might have heard, or as you might expect from prior experience with this sort of thing. It's basically the same story as the first with one form of mass-transit switched out for another, but that's not enough of a criticism to leave _Dark Territory_ dead in the water.

_Final rating:★★★ - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go_.

This might have been a little better had there not been the irritatingly hammy efforts throughout from Eric Bogosian as the tech wizard "Dane". He has managed to assemble a gang of cut-throat mercenaries under the command of "Penn" (Everett McGill) to commandeer a train that is carrying the communications equipment that can control a deadly satellite. After some quick threatening of the passengers, he has the operating codes and is demanding $1bn from the US government. What he hasn't counted on are the ninja skills of train porter "Bobby" (Morris Chestnut) - oh, and of former SEAL "Ryback" (Steven Seagal) who just happens to be on the train with his niece "Sarah" (Katherine Heigl). With the odds stacked heavily against them, these two have to work together if they are to thwart the cunning plans of their antagonist before he decimates Washington DC. It's a decently enough paced action thriller with loads of combat but little by way of characterisation or dialogue that's worth listening to. Trains tend to work quite well as the venues for hostage thrillers and this one goes some way to keep the action flowing before the ending we all know is coming. Not as good as the first one, but it's not awful.

_**One-man army on a train in the Colorado Rockies with Steven Seagal**_

On a train trip through the Rockies with his niece (Katherine Heigl), Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal) has to take on a band of ruthless terrorists who are using the train for a mobile headquarters as they hijack a destructive satellite weapon created by the head terrorist (Eric Bogosian). Everett McGill plays the lead heavy, looking like an evil Race Bannon.

“Under Siege 2: Dark Territory” (1995) is a worthy follow-up to the 1992 film; it may not be as good story-wise, but it has superior locations due to it taking place on a train traveling through the mountains as opposed to the more one-dimensional ship at sea. If you’re in the mood for a train flick that’s streamlined and filled with action you can’t go wrong. Sure, the action is sometimes implausible, but it helps if you view Ryback (Seagal) as a superhero without the gaudy costume in the manner of John McClane, Rambo or James Bond.

Comparing it to train thrillers, it’s not great like “Runaway Train” (1985), but it’s about on par with the horrific “Train” (2008), the Western “Breakheart Pass” (1975) and the realistic “Unstoppable” (2010).

Other than Heigl, the lovely Sandra Taylor and Brenda Bakke are featured on the feminine front.

The movie runs 1 hour, 40 minutes, and was shot mostly in the Colorado Rockies.

GRADE: B