Seized | DVD (Lionsgate)
AKA: Rizk
Director: Isaac Florentine
Cast: Scott Adkins, Mario Van Peebles, Karlee Perez, Steven Elder, James P. Bennett, Matthew Garbacz, David Fernandez Jr., Justin Nesbitt, Luis Gatica
Running Time: 85 min.
By Paul Bramhall
Everyone’s favorite British martial artist Scott Adkins stars as a former special force’s agent who, after his wife was killed as part of a mission several years ago, is now a single parent to the child that their relationship left behind. After being out of the game for so long and attempting to live a peaceful life, forces conspire to drag him back in, as he finds himself at the mercy of his former employers when his kid is kidnapped by them. Will they be reunited? How many people is Adkins going to punch in the face? & most importantly of all, you may well be asking, didn’t you guys already review Legacy of Lies this year? The answer to the last one is yes, but in 2020 Adkins is clocking in the former special agent turned single parent schtick twice, and the second time is for Seized.
Seized is significant for action fans in that it reunites Adkins with director Isaac Florentine for the first time in 5 years, the last time they collaborated being on 2015’s Close Range. While their last effort was a serviceable cheapie, it was the decade spanning 2003 to 2013 when the pair could really do no wrong together, starting with Special Forces and wrapping with Ninja: Shadow of a Tear. Of course, it’d be a crime not to mention that the period also introduced the character of Boyka, the most complete fighter in the world, with 2006’s Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing and 2010’s Undisputed III: Redemption (roman numerals weren’t popular in the 00’s).
While Adkins struck gold with another partnership thanks to his work with British director Jesse V. Johnson in the preceding years (not to mention the wide variety of DTV action flicks he’s headlined from a range of directors), Florentine hasn’t been quite so prolific. Apart from the aforementioned Close Range, the only other movie he’s directed in the last 7 years is the Antonio Banderas actioner Acts of Vengeance, his last before Seized. While Acts of Vengeance didn’t commit any serious crimes, it also showed many of Florentine’s weaknesses as a director, particularly around handling dramatic material. He’s a director who needs a stripped-down narrative framework, the kind of which plenty of action scenes can be hung off to disguise his more prominent shortcomings, and Acts of Vengeance just didn’t have enough of them.
Thankfully, Seized has an ace up its sleeve, and that comes in the form of casting Mario Van Peebles as the villain that kidnaps Adkins son. Van Peebles is perhaps best known in action circles as the ‘Part Man. Part Machine. Total Weapon’ that was Solo, in the 1996 movie of the same name. It may have been almost 25 years ago, but there’s something tantalising about the prospect of a Boyka versus Solo showdown, even better that it’ll take place in Mexico. Much like Close Range, Florentine sticks to Mexico for his latest outing, so the change of scenery from Eastern Europe is a welcome one (add the fact that it’s also a son rather than a daughter, and Seized further differentiates itself from Legacy of Lies).
Seized marks the eighth time for Adkins and Florentine to work together, but it’s the first time that Adkins doesn’t need to resort to either an American or Russian accent for his character, his recent efforts proving that his native British accent doesn’t make him any less bankable. That doesn’t help though when you have a script that’s as torturous to listen to as the one from Richard Lowry, the writer and director of such classics as President Evil and Alien Overlords. The son, played by new kid on the block Matthew Garbacz, falls into the troubled youngster category, getting into fights at school and giving plenty of attitude to his father. Frankly, when he got kidnapped and thrown inside a gas chamber, I was kind of relieved.
Backed into a corner, criminal and live streaming maestro Van Peebles forces Adkins to don a bullet proof vest mounted with a chest-camera (live streamed to an appreciative audience of unsavoury characters) and arms him to the teeth, sending him on various missions to wipe out drug cartels and crime syndicates. Complete the missions, and Van Peebles gets to take over the turf which has been left without an owner, and Adkins gets his son back. However, neither of them may have realised how ruthless Adkins former special forces employers are, leading to attacks coming from all sides. Who’ll survive? That’s basically the plot for Seized, and fittingly it squeezes it into a lean 85 minute runtime, which mostly comprises of Adkins driving from location to location to shoot everyone, and in-between trying to figure out who has his son.
Despite the punchy (excuse the pun) runtime, Seized often feels like a slog to get through. Florentine’s direction is pedestrian and the pacing has no sense of momentum, Adkins just kind of drives from location to location, partakes in some average shootouts, and throws some punches. It all feels rather perfunctory. In fairness, for me Seized already came with a red flag during the production stages. While the credits list long time Florentine and Adkins collaborator Larnell Stovall as the stunt coordinator (although there really isn’t any, and his name is notably missing from the IMDB page), the fight choreography itself is credited to Art Camacho.
Despite his longevity in the action industry, I’ve yet to be impressed with Camacho as either a director or a fight choreographer. I mean how can you trust someone who’s featured in more than one of both the Ring of Fire and Bloodfist franchises, and isn’t Don ‘The Dragon’ Wilson? Camacho’s directorial work (which he also usually choreographs) ranges from mediocre to unwatchable, from crap like Sci-Fighter to questionable sequels like Half Past Dead 2, and the action in them isn’t any better. While Adkins has spent the last 15 years working with top tier talent like J.J. Perry, Larnell Stovall, Tim Man, and Yuen Woo Ping, it didn’t exactly fill me with hope to see how his physicality was going to be utilised under the guidance of Camacho. In short, the answer is poorly.
The action in Seized is in fact primarily gunplay, and its standard stuff which has been seen hundreds of times before. Adkins gets to let loose a handful of times, each one of them frustratingly brief. A showdown in a restaurant kitchen against two assailants is noteworthy for the wince inducing finishing move that disposes one of them, and a rampage in a club has him fending off attackers from all sides (who are all interestingly dressed like the Blue Wiggle). The best action scenes involve Adkins again taking on a pair of attackers while his hands are tied behind his back, leaving him to unleash a kicking display clearly influenced by a similar fight pulled off by Donnie Yen in Tiger Cage 2, and in the final shootout he’s left to go toe to toe with former UFC fighter Uriah Hall.
But what of the showdown between Adkins and Van Peebles you’re probably thinking? Well, there isn’t one! Instead of giving us a 90’s DTV action hero versus a 2000’s DTV action hero, we watch Van Peebles ask Adkins to let him “walk away”, to which Adkins agrees, robbing Seized of a worthy final opponent to throwdown against. Even the son looks annoyed, who’s spent his time in captivity telling Van Peebles that once his dad gets here, he’ll kill him. Never listen to kids. Adkins spent the opening of the movie telling his son how violence doesn’t solve anything after he’d gotten into another fight at school, and letting his son’s kidnapper walk away is used as a valuable lesson to prove his point. Moments later the credits rolled, and I questioned why I’d just thrown away 85 minutes of my life.
Of course the answer to that question is simple – it’s an Adkins and Florentine movie! But if anything, Seized proves that for any action movie that relies on its star’s physicality, you need a trifactor of talent to make it work – director, star, and fight choreographer/action director. Florentine seems off the boil and rusty, Adkins looks like he could do with a holiday, and Camacho’s choreography fails to get the adrenaline pumping. If you’re a diehard Adkins fan, then there may be some enjoyment to gain from Seized with tempered expectations, for everyone else, don’t bother.
Paul Bramhall’s Rating: 4/10
Aww man! I was surprised to see a review a whole 2 months before the movie’s release, and then disappointed to see that it got the same score as “Legacy of Lies”.
I was certainly hoping for 1 more good Adkins flick this year. “Debt Collectors” was solid, but I’m afraid that may be the only good one in 2020. I also wanted to say “Ip Man 4″… but I guess that was technically last year. Between Ip Man 4, Triple Threat, and Abduction (no seriously Abduction is actually pretty fun, give it a watch), 2019 was definitely a better year for him.
He really deserves to be in better projects. You’d think someone as experienced as Isaac Florentine would know better than to pick C-grade action choreographers. Never heard of this Camacho dude before, but after reading about him, I understand why I haven’t.
Once again, I’m almost definitely going to give “Seized” a watch anyway (morbid curiosity and all) so I can form my own opinion on it. However I think your opinions generally line up with mine, Paul. I doubt I’ll receive it that much differently.
Looks like we might have to wait for “Accident Man 2” if we want to see something good from Scott Adkins again.
Sidenote: I’ve really been meaning to watch “Acts of Vengeance” but I’ve just been waiting for it to go on sale or something because I’m a cheapass. Looks like it might be a solid B thriller.
“I was certainly hoping for 1 more good Adkins flick this year.”
Trust me you weren’t the only one! Still at least with ‘Seized’ there’s no rambling on about those damn files! Some other notes that didn’t warrant a mention in the review –
1. It’s another Lionsgate special, but at least the DVD cover for this one doesn’t feature the infamous red stripe! (& can someone please alert Lionsgate to the existence of Blu-rays?)
2. Sticking with the DVD cover, like Adkins and Florentine’s last collaboration on ‘Close Range’, this one also features a helicopter that appears nowhere in the movie itself.
3. Former WWE wrestler Karlee Perez (who went by the name Maxine) stars as Van Peebles girlfriend, and gets an action scene so bad it wasn’t worth a mention.
Look forward to hearing your own take on it Dan!
As much as I prefer physical media, I have no interest in buying standard DVDs anymore. It’s a dated format that’s been superseded twice over. (They’re cheap as chips to manufacture though, and the install base is measureless, so I guess they’ll probably continue to be made.)
For B movies like this one, DVD is unfortunately still the only physical option most of the time. The HD version is then relegated to streaming-only. Streaming isn’t a perfect medium either (low bitrate and compression artifacts say “hello”); but, if you’re making me choose between a standard-definition DVD and a high-definition stream, then I’ll pick the HD stream every single time.
I’m actually sort of relieved I won’t have to risk any physical shelf space for this one. Lionsgate tends to price most of their B movie line on streaming services at $10/pop (to “own, that is), so I imagine this one will be the same. Which is about as much as I’d be willing to spend on it anyway.
Helicopters aren’t real things, are they? I thought they were just the cinematic equivalent of MS Word clipart that you can stick anywhere on your movie posters.
Art Camacho is an interesting guy. In interviews he seems like a nice guy who knows his craft, but you really have to seep through heaps of his filmography to find his good stuff like Jeff Wincott’s Last Man Standing, Cynthia Rothrock’s Sworn to Justice, and Gary Daniel’s Rage.
I learned about him from the DVD features of his 2001 effort Gangland with Costas Mandylor and Sasha Mitchell. Even though that wasn’t a good movie, I respect that he takes pride in his profession. It’s just a shame that he’s not as consistent as the likes of JJ Perry and Tim Man.
I’m a huge fan of ‘Rage’, but as with the other examples you mentioned, Camacho’s choreography very much fits into that mid-90’s American DTV action aesthetic. Watching those movies now, the practical effects and the setting of the era itself lends them a certain charm which is impossible not to enjoy.
But within a few years we got ‘The Matrix’, which showed what a Hong Kong choreographer could do with a bunch of non-martial artists, and it blew most of the American movies starring actual martial artists clean out of the water. The post-millenium era gave birth to choreographers like J.J. Perry, Larnell Stovall, and Tim Man, guys who upped the quality and complexity of western action movies, regardless of their DTV budgets.
The problem with Camacho is that his choreography hasn’t developed since the mid-90’s, and was already outdated in 2000. While it was impressive back then, now it just comes across as clunky and uninspired.
Thanks for the review. Bummed to hear it’s not very good, but unfortunately not that surprised… That last trailer left an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, probably because of the almost total lack of “money shots” that you’d think would be a given with any Adkins+Florentine collabo. Not a good sign when the button on your trailer is a shot of Scott doing a kick that has to use a close up insert shot to try and sell impact.
Larnell Stovall was definitely involved because he can be seen in the behind the scenes footage of the film doing the fight choreography at 0:18 in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJDI60AEQHg
As for the review…… GODDAMNIT PAUL ! 😀 literally you’ve been breaking my heart non-stop and early as hell with Scott’s movies this year, guess I’m really gonna have to lower my expectations going into this one 🙁 which is a huge shame, I was so hyped for this movie too 🙁 IT’S FREAKING ISAAC FLORENTINE AND SCOTT ADKINS ! how can it not be awesome ? but I’m very disappointed to hear it turn out this way, I was thinking this would be the return of the maestros of action cinema.
I woulda been fine with a lotta gunplay in this movie, cause the firefights in Close Range and the way they transitioned into fisticuffs was really slick and cool with the way Florentine directed it, but here it sounds like it’s a waste.
Art Camacho ? :O I’ve literally never heard of the guy and after your review Paul, scares the fuck out of me lol 😀 I’m still excited for the movie, as after seeing Legacy of Lies I did largely agree with your review, a lotta the cons of the movie you saw, I saw too, but I feel I appreciated the pros a bit more after having lowered my expectations thankfully after reading your piece on it, most likely gonna do the same here with Seized, but yeah man this breaks my heart a lot more as Adrian Bol is someone Scott never worked with and I expected Legacy to be a 50/50 between utter trash and something potentially great, so when it turned out one way or another I wasn’t really surprised, but THIS ? yeah 🙁 this made my disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined *cries….
Still another great, honest review Paul, so glad you guys can get both early access to some of these films from such prolific filmmakers and still keep your reviews 100% un-biased and sincere. Cheers !
Time heals all wounds my friend. I hope that within a couple of months your heart is whole again and your tears are dry, just in time for ‘Seized’ to be released, then you can experience the heartache all over again. 🙂
Hey Paul came back to this review as my hype for this movie is undying and eternal before inevitable disappointment it seems 🙁 uummm I have a couple of questions sir, if it’s ok to ask:
1) How long are the action scenes in the movie on average compared to the previous Scott and Isaac collabs ? What’s the ratio (percentage-wise) between gunplay and Martial Arts ?
2) How’s the fight between Uriah Hall and Adkins ? as I know Larnell Stovall was most definitely involved with at least that fight as the choreographer.
3) In the trailer it looks like Mario Van Peebles stabs a guy in the throat, so is there still SOME action with our boi Van Peebles :O ?
4) The club scene sounds interesting (also looool I googled Blue Wiggle and then rewatched those parts of the trailer, they do look dressed like the guy lol) would you say it’s the highlight action sequence of the film ?
Thanks in advance 🙂
You’re interrupting me from writing a review of ‘The Doorman’, but since you asked nicely… 😛
1. Without it being an exact science I think this is always going to be somewhat subjective, but I’d put it at 75% gunplay 25% martial arts. Outside of the 2 ‘Undisputed’ movies which are kind of their own thing, I wouldn’t say the length of the action scenes stand out as being particularly different from their previous collaborations.
2. I’d rate it on par with the Adkins vs. Rhona Mitra fight from ‘Hard Target 2’.
3. A smidgen. If you want to see Van Peebles in action, stick with ‘Solo’.
4. Actually I’d say the action highlight is the face off against a pair of assailants in the restaurant kitchen scene, purely for the finishing move being so brutal.
GODDAMN PAUL ! You already got The Doorman, I fucking told you folks ! ahahahahahaha 😀 Thanks for the reply sir ! sad to hear the gunplay/martial arts ratio as well as that Uriah Hall vs Scott fight being Rhona Mitra levels bad from HT 2, good luck on your review for The Doorman sir, can’t wait to see how much you can possibly tear that one apart 😀
Finally had a chance to see this film ! I’m sorry Paul but HARD DISAGREE ! I fucking loved this movie, this is on par with if not even better than Close Range with Adkins/Florentine(certainly better than Acts of Vengeance or jesus christ, Sofia).
Firstly the story, I love the simplicity and straight-forwardness of this film, this is what I missed from Legacy of Lies, this kind of no-bullshit straight to the point approach that was missing there, you get a good setup, establishing a solid, if yet generic(but so is the rest of this film and others in Adkins/Florentine collabs) relationship between Scott and Garbacz and I certainly felt a lot more for the kid here than in Legacy of Lies, I dunno why but here he genuinely felt like a kid in his early teen years, I know a lot of kids like that, and I loved the Ginger Ninja Trickster cameo in the youtube video he was watching to learn how to fight. Then Adkins himself, bring his usual charisma and when necessary badass growl – while Rico Lowry’s script isn’t anything Oscar-worthy, it does have some standout badass one liners and comebacks, such as: when Van Peebles’ character teases Scott about him being rusty after being out of the game for a while, to which Scott replies “The only thing rusty is gonna be the nail I’ll bang into your coffin if one of your men touches my son” that legit got a good chuckle of excitement and an air of coolness from the character. Also Van Peebles, MY GOD (Note: this is my first time seeing Van Peebles on screen) WHAT A PRESENCE, fucking charm, swagger, coolness, yet also something very human behind his eyes that he’s able to convey at all times, you even somewhat sympathize with him by the end, overall story and performances are way better than I expected.
Most importantly tho, THE ACTION, yo ngl it is usual kinetic, exciting, badassery from Florentine and Adkins, granted Art Camacho’s (and prolly Larnell Stovall’s) choreography this time around is a little more succinct and short than the longer, more elaborate fights of Tim Man or Jeremy Marinas in Close Range, but they’re no less adrenaline-fueled and hardcore, the kitchen fight as Paul said is definitely a standout, I thought both finishers to both assailants was quite awesome and brutal, with the overall fight with them having this really cool dynamic between a faster more limber opponent and a bigger heavy, like a shorter version of Kiss of the Dragon fight with Raffaeli and….. that…other….guy. The club scene is an awesome mix of CQC combat and some pretty damn nice gun-fu towards the end, the “tied hands” fight is some of the most creative kicks and grappling I’ve seen this year, truly awesome scene that is very hype, the only disappointment is the final fight with Uriah Hall as it’s wayy too short but in a negative way this time as this film coulda used a real capstone action sequence to truly overshadow any fight scene that came before, as it stood it’s a bit like John Wick were the movie’s action quality peaks during the middle or so and the finale is tad underwhelming, still entertaining tho. Lastly, THE GUNFIGHTS – they are EXTREMELY WELL-HELMED, here’s why: what I always hate about gunfights in film(especially DTV action film gunfights, due to budget mostly) is how it’s always usually “shot of the guy shooting, another shot of a guy getting shot, shot of a guy shooting, shot of a guy getting shot” IT’S NEVER IN THE SAME FRAME, here tho ? Papa Florentine, uses the same framing, compository concept he applies to fights in gunfights, long, brisk takes where Adkins fires, takes cover, people get shot and fire back and dynamically move from one place to another. Does it sound basic ? yes of course, but because of the observational perspective of following Adkins as he clearly hits targets, reloads and even gets injured and by maintaining framing and continuity it allows for clarity and energy to flow within these shootouts, making them very exciting. Also helps that the film has an air of John Wick-esque Tactical realism: Adkins reloads often, takes cover wheneve he can, fires in semi-auto with assault rifles, and full auto with SMGs and it all feels like it has just as much thought and choreography put into it as the fight scenes, very cool.
Overall – 7.5/10 really enjoyed this ! had a blast !
Hey Andrew, thanks for chiming in with your comments. Happy you got to check this one out, and even happier that you enjoyed it considerably more than I did! Agree with you on that one-liner, I only wish Adkins had followed up on his promise, because as you mention the finale kind of flounders. Even with expectations set accordingly I still feel like it’s a missed opportunity to have Adkins and Van Peebles face off, but not being a fan of Camacho’s dated choreography style, I’m ok with it not being in this movie. Great comparison to ‘John Wick’ in the way that both productions structures suffer from similar issues.
I rated ‘Undisputed 2: Last Man Standing’ a 7.5/10, so I’ll remain steadfast on my opinion of ‘Seized’, but definitely look forward to hearing what others think about the latest Adkins & Florentine collaboration!
Oh yeah dude, the finale where Adkins and Peebles AT LEAST don’t fight was bullshit -_- I was just as angry as you were and you were so right in the review(something tells me they did that for a sequel tho), but yeah I thought it was a really good outing from Florentine and Adkins, slightly better than Close Range, which I’d put at a solid 7, this didn’t have as impressive of an opening as Close Range’s brilliant, badass one-take through the cartel compound, but I felt it was stronger in others regards. I think it was definitely reading your review that helped a lot with lowering expectations with this movie and thus ended up being more enjoyable, but I certainly would be surprised if anyone classes this as the worst of Florentine yet, that honor belongs to “Assassin’s Bullet”, watch that and then Seized will seem like fucking Godfather afterwards 😀 but yeah, I also saw Crazy Samurai Musashi, less impressed with that one but I’m mostly waiting for Hydra now 🙂
I made sure to watch the film and then read your review, and as always you’re spot on, Paul!
This Adkins-Florentine reunion is a disappointment, a mash up of 12 ROUNDS and COMMANDO that’s nearer to CLOSE RANGE than the magnificent NINJA: SHADOW OF A TEAR. I know CLOSE RANGE seems to have a lot of fans, but I ain’t one of them:-)
You hit the nail (non-rusty) on the head when you say outside of a pure fight-based set up, Florentine flounders, if you’ll forgive the alliteration. While I’ll always be grateful to him for putting Adkins on the map, it’s Jesse Johnson who’s truly expanded Scott’s dynamic range while still utilizing his awesome martial abilities effectively.
And Jeeeesus, don’t get me started on the plot! So…a fearsome Cartel Head with his own private army wants to take out the competition, and his brilliant plan is to get ONE man, give him a bulletproof SUV, a cache of automatic weapons and have him go guns-a-blazing into a restaurant, a nightclub and a heavily fortified compound, 3 areas where a Cartel Head would be armed with the sort of security detail that would put sitting President’s to shame? Yeah I know John Wick re-invigorated the One Man Army but you better have the action chops of a Stahelski or Evans to pull it off, and sadly Florentine doesn’t. Christ, at least watch SICARIO or binge watch a season of NARCOS before you set your action in South American Cartel land.
Van Peebles was entertaining, Scott’s kitchen fight and “legs only” take-down was cool, but as you said, even at 85 mins, this movie dragged.
And finally, after WELCOME TO SUDDEN DEATH, LEGACY OF LIES and now SEIZED, I’d like to call a moratorium on “child in peril” plots in action movies. High School and Puberty are traumatic enough.
I’m inclined to agree with Andrew in that I enjoyed Seized more than I though I would. It’s not great, but I had a better time than with Legacy of Lies.
One had to wonder why Larnell Stovall only did the stunts and not the fights. Did he have the same problems as with Welcome to Sudden Death? As far as Art Camacho stepping up to the plate goes, I though he did well with the fight scenes. They weren’t as kinetic as Florentine’s usual output, but it’s his best work and reminded me of Last Man Standing and Sworn to Justice.
The former Maxine from WWE was not impressive. I imagined she was hired for her action chops, but her fight scene was really poor. I was surprised at how well Mario Van Peebles did in his fight though.
I’m torn with the ending. After everything he put Scott Adkins through, Van Peebles shouldn’t have been able to walk free, but I kind of like how Scott said that “he knows that I can kill him whenever I want.”
All in all, it could have been better, but I’m not sorry I rented it.
Just finished watching it, and I agree it’s a decent movie. Not great, but definitely watchable. I’d rate it at least a 5/10. A 6/10 would maybe even be in order if the fight choreography was a bit better, and also if the first half of the movie wasn’t filmed in complete darkness (I had a hard time seeing what the hell was going on).
The ending feels right somehow. We may not get to see Van Peeble’s ass get kicked, but it seems more thematically appropriate this way, and there’s enough “auxiliary fighting” going on right up until that point that I didn’t feel robbed of anything.
What stuck out like a sore thumb to me, was how President Trump’s 2016 campaign slogan was not-so-subtly referenced toward the end (two of his slogans crammed into one, actually). I’m not really sure what to make of that. Even if it was inserted purely for humor, it comes off as oddly specific and doesn’t fit the rest of the movie.
All I know right now is that I’m going to try and use the expression ‘auxiliary fighting’ in one of my next reviews. 🙂
Yay another fellow Andrew liked it 🙂 nice !