Belly of the Beast (2003) (V)

User Rating:

4.4/10   

Director:

Siu-Tung Ching

Writer:

James Townsend (written by)

Release Date:

20 February 2004 (South Korea)

Genre:

Action

Tagline:

A Father's Rage Knows No Limit

Plot:

An ex-CIA agent's quest to find his kidnapped daughter leads him on a trail of political intrigue, corruption, danger and betrayal; he will stop at nothing to save her.

Plot Keywords:

CIA | Daughter | Handcuffs | Knife | Cellphone

Cast

Steven Seagal	...	Jake Hopper
Byron Mann	...	Sunti
Monica Lo	...	Lulu
Tom Wu	...	General Jantapan
Sara Malakul Lane	...	Jessica Hopper
Patrick Robinson	...	Leon Washington
Vincent Riotta	...	Fitch McQuaid
Norman Veeratum	...	Suthep
Elidh MacQueen	...	Sara Winthorpe
Chau Siu Tung	...	Kong
Kevork Malikyan	...	Fernand Zadir
Pongpat Wachirabunjong	...	Mongkol
Alastair Vardy	...	Security Guard #1
Andy Adam	...	Security Guard #2
Shahkrit Yamnarm	...	Brice (as Shahkritt Yamnarm)

MPAA:

Rated R for violence, language and brief nudity.

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

Canada | Hong Kong | UK

Language:

English | Thai

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Sweden:15 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:18 | Australia:MA | Germany:18 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Singapore:NC-16 | UK:15 | USA:R | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Bangkok, Thailand

Company:

Century Time (H.K.) Ltd.

Trivia:

Dedicated to 'Trevor Murray'.

Goofs:

Factual errors: The Thai have as strong touch-taboo - that's why they use the "wai" as a greeting instead of shaking hands or similar. Our Hero would know this, expert as he is in matters Thai, so he would not have touched the monk's hands after speaking with him. Also, he would have know to use the feminine greeting "Sawasdi Kaap-ka" when greeting Lulu in the bar, not the masculine "Sawasdi Kaap" being used for everyone else.

Quotes:

Bar Thug: Are you calling me a junior?
Jake Hopper: You look like a junior.

Movie Connections:

References The Matrix (1999)

Seagal should get in shape

Even though Steven Seagal has made movies who are much worse than this, this is still far from being his best work. I wonder if the whole movie was made just for self-ironical reasons (remember, Seagal fortunately has a lot of self-irony). The main problem is that Seagal is too fat too be a real action-star right now. Some of the fights in this movie still are pretty cool, but there are just something that isn't there. Maybe it's because some of the fights are so overdone so that everyone know that it isn't Mr.Seagal doing most of it anyway? The worst part about the fighting is the roundhouse kicks. Even though they're rather cool, they're as far from the typical Seagal fighting style that it's possible to be. And you never see Steven's face when these are performed..........................

The story is standard, but that's totally OK. No one cares too much about that anyway in a movie like this. This is in fact one of Seagal's best movies after "Exit Wounds". That doesn't mean that this one is any good, because some of the others are pure garbage.