Steven Seagal hits a new low

[Carlson2005]

The man who now hires a body double for his walking and sitting sequences obviously hasn't had much luck raising his profile in the UK with his music tour. The DVD boxed set of 8 of his Warner Bros films (from the days when his films briefly stopped at the cinema before heading for the video stores) has just been discounted to a masive... £4.99 (about $10) on Amazon.co.uk. That's 62p a movie. Looks like the bottom's fallen out of that particular market...

[Eric W.]

Wow.

[mkaroly]

Back when they were really popular, who would you say was the bigger box-office draw in Europe: Jean Claude or Seagal? Personally, I find Jean Claude films to be more fun to watch. A friend of mine from England did her grad school thesis on Jean Claude films and gay subtext...she told me about it and I went back and watched some of his films and busted out laughing because it's there if you look for it.

Seagal was quick and Jean Claude was dramatic...I guess that's why I've seen more of JC's films than SS stuff...

[Eric W.]

Back when they were really popular, who would you say was the bigger box-office draw in Europe: Jean Claude or Seagal? Personally, I find Jean Claude films to be more fun to watch. A friend of mine from England did her grad school thesis on Jean Claude films and gay subtext...she told me about it and I went back and watched some of his films and busted out laughing because it's there if you look for it.

Seagal was quick and Jean Claude was dramatic...I guess that's why I've seen more of JC's films than SS stuff...

I like Van Damme better myself. If only he hadn't done Street Fighter...

[AndyDursin]

Back when they were really popular, who would you say was the bigger box-office draw in Europe: Jean Claude or Seagal? Personally, I find Jean Claude films to be more fun to watch. A friend of mine from England did her grad school thesis on Jean Claude films and gay subtext...she told me about it and I went back and watched some of his films and busted out laughing because it's there if you look for it.

Seagal was quick and Jean Claude was dramatic...I guess that's why I've seen more of JC's films than SS stuff...

Good question Michael! I'm curious myself and have to say Van Damme's cinematic career was longer and he had a few more decent-grossing movies than Seagal, but on the other hand he never had anywhere near as big an individual hit as Seagal.

Seagal's big hit was UNDER SIEGE, which did $85 million back in the day and was his "crossover" success...I'd say he had a 4-year window when I was in high school where he was very popular, 1988-92 or thereabouts.

Once his ego got in the way with ON DEADLY GROUND and then UNDER SIEGE 2 came out (which was pretty good I felt) and underperformed, I think it was pretty much diminishing returns from then on.

Van Damme, meanwhile, had more consistent grossing films in the early '90s -- if you look at TIMECOP, UNIVERSAL SOLDIER, DOUBLE IMPACT, HARD TARGET, etc. -- they all did $30 million or more. Solid, never spectacular, but at least consistent.

From SUDDEN IMPACT on -- again a pretty decent film I thought, but a box-office underachiever -- it was diminishing returns and direct-to-video for him too. THE QUEST did only so-so and MAXIMUM RISK was pretty much the end of the line for him in terms of theatrical fare.

I'd say their careers are pretty much equal then, Seagal having the bigger solo hit but Van Damme probably out-doing him in terms of longevity and decent grossing theatrical films for that window where he was a viable big-screen draw.

Also, Trevor may know this, but I'm guessing Van Damme was much more of an international star -- all of his films seemed to have foreign investors being pumped into them.

[AndyDursin]

I also noticed from DEATH WARRANT to STREET FIGHTER that's a four year window where every Van Damme movie made $30+ million domestically (I'm sure he did well overseas too).

I never saw DEATH WARRANT but I just saw that David S. Goyer did the script and the reviews are decent. May have to add that to my Blockbuster quewe!

[Carlson2005]

They're both egomaniacs (JC always insisted on two first class tickets for travel, but would downgrade his wife's to economy and pocket the difference while travelling first class himself - what a guy), but of the two Van Damme will actually do the work. I wasn't joking about the doubles with Seagal - in the past he has not only used them for fight scenes, but also for 'strenuous walking' and certain sitting down shots. In at least one movie he's also refused to do any ADR work, so a voice double who sounded nothing like him was used. Even the poster images of him are just his head photoshopped on another actor's body - often laughably so, as in the case of Shadow Man, where it looks like a badly co-ordinated Balinese dancer...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/imag ... 3926&s=dvd

Incidentally, Death Warrant is pretty good, though I think it's a major achievement on the casting director's part to find that many extras who can play convicts who are even shorter than Jean-Claude!

[AndyDursin]

The DVD boxed set of 8 of his Warner Bros films (from the days when his films briefly stopped at the cinema before heading for the video stores) has just been discounted to a masive... £4.99 (about $10) on Amazon.co.uk. That's 62p a movie. Looks like the bottom's fallen out of that particular market...

I just read on one of the international forums I frequent that the Amazon UK price was a mistake, and they've even cancelled all the orders that were placed for it.

At 4.99 GBP that did sound too good to be true, hell even I would've picked it up!

[Carlson2005]

Hell, I was tempted, but it didn't have On Deadly Ground and at least three of them were cut by the UK censors, so I somehow managed to resist. The price is now back up to £43.39, and I guess Amazon have a lot of egg on their faces - it was their number 1 seller in DVD over the weekend!

[Jedbu]

UNDER SIEGE will always be Segal's best film. Why? Because he played someone close to human for once, and he had a great supporting cast to keep him on his toes. I've always liked EXECUTIVE DECISION for one sick reason: when I saw this film opening weekend, the audience actually cheered when Segal met his fate! That shows how much his popularity was already starting to slip. It's still a terrific movie, with David Suchet one of the better villains in recent years. Wouldn't he make a great Bond villain?

[Carlson2005]

Believe it or not, I saw Executive Decision as an in-flight movie - just one of a dozen or so wildly inappropriate films that they obviously only ran the first 15 minutes of before accepting (others include GoldenEye - three jet crashes and a helicopter explosion - The Hudsucker Proxy - two people falling from great heights to the sidewalk - and, most incredible of all, Fearless - and I don't mean the Jet Li one!). I'd rate Under Siege number two, though it's remarkable how little screen time Seagal has in that film. I've never checked, but it's apparently around only 37 minutes!

[Jedbu]

You mean you actually lived an AIRPLANE! experience-the scene where Barbara Billingsley is watching the inflight movie and the shot we see is of a jetliner crashing in flames??!! What a hoot! Now it would really be funny if you were on a plane bound for DC while watching EXECUTIVE DECISION. . .

And only 37 minutes of Segal in one of his movies? This is a bad thing? Of course having Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Busey and Patrick O'Neil around ain't bad, and ditto for some gratuitous nudity from Erika Elianiak. Whatever happened to her?

[Carlson2005]

You mean you actually lived an AIRPLANE! experience-the scene where Barbara Billingsley is watching the inflight movie and the shot we see is of a jetliner crashing in flames??!! What a hoot! Now it would really be funny if you were on a plane bound for DC while watching EXECUTIVE DECISION. . .

Just Los Angeles. I guess they figured anyone headed there was already used to feeling insecure or was just past caring.

some gratuitous nudity from Erika Elianiak. Whatever happened to her?

I've often asked the same question...