MovieChat Forums > The Glimmer Man (1996) Discussion > The beginning of Seagal's Failure

The beginning of Seagal's Failure

posted 16 years ago by jackson-219
14 replies | jump to latest

At this point in 96' I was a 15 year old boy who loved Seagal's movies with only On Deadly Ground being the one stumble in his otherwise cheap fun action films. Even though Under Siege 2 wasn't really a big hit or accepted among fans, which I personally never understood as US 2 was pretty damn action packed, The Glimmer Man was a complete shock upon my viewing in the fall of 96. In US 2 Seagal was still a lean fighting machine, in GM he's a overweight slumbering version of his former self. As I understand Seagal was going through a bad divorce and maybe that's what caused his weight gain. But in all honestly I think Seagal owed his loyal fans more than what Glimmer Man had to offer. They tried to throw in Keenan Wayans but this isn't an action comedy nor a partner movie and for the most part outside of about 2 or 3 comedic moments Wayans is playing the straight guy here, which isn't a good thing. Also, the film is way too dark to try to play in comedic moments. It would have been better if the producers made a flatout Bad Boys 1 style action comedy where they gave Seagal a chance to stretch his range. Decent actioner but below average from Seagal's earlier films.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] 16 years ago

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[–] spookyrat1 10 years ago

Totally agree ... the beginning of the end of his run of cinema release films. And it's kinda hard trying to convince an audience they're watching an action comedy that involves serial killers and Russian terrorists. Looking back now, one of the funny things is seeing long time JAG admiral AJ, playing Cole's chief adversary.🐭

[–] jhtg 10 years ago

fire down below is his worst film.

[–] Sam_Fisher_Agent_47 9 years ago

In my opinion, it's "The Patriot".

_________________________________
Steven Seagal Fan Club President

[–] Sam_Fisher_Agent_47 9 years ago

I actually like this movie. In my opinions it's one of those movies that's meant to be more action-comedy, than just action. That's probably why you don't like it, it's not 100% towards what you were expecting it to be.

Think of other black cop/white cop partner movies and this is just another one of them. I guess people took Steven Seagal more seriously back then which is why it didn't deliver on the comedy level too much.

_________________________________
Steven Seagal Fan Club President

[–] Jamie170 9 years ago

I like this too, in fact it is probably my favourite Seagal film.

[–] Sam_Fisher_Agent_47 9 years ago

I watched it again over the weekend. Gets funnier everytime I watch it. Love the restaurant scene 

_________________________________
Steven Seagal Fan Club President

[–] gregglop09 9 years ago

This one of my favorite Seagal movies. Loved every minute of it.

[–] Sam_Fisher_Agent_47 9 years ago

The thing is a lot of people judge this movie as action, and only action. Really, this is more like a buddy-cop movie, like Ride Along, Starsky and Hutch, Lethal Weapon and Miami Vice. It's more of an action-comedy rather than just action.

_________________________________
Steven Seagal Fan Club President

[–] Aylmer (417) 6 days ago

I would be inclined to agree that this was Seagal's first movie which I wasn't inclined to see (and I still haven't seen!) despite having seen everything he was in up to this point. Something happened in 1996 where I just wasn't that interested in seeing any more action movies from the action heroes I was a big fan of up to that point.

Van Damme - kinda killed my enthusiasm for him with STREET FIGHTER (a similarly daft vanity project in 1994 to Seagal's ON DEADLY GROUND). I had no desire to see THE QUEST when it came out, despite the okay-ish reviews and that it was a return to form for him to his underground fighting movies. MAXIMUM RISK similarly sounded dull to me, though I watched it later and found it to be "okay".

Schwarzenegger - TRUE LIES was good but its comedic tone, plus all the comedy movies he was in around this time sort of turned him into a joke. By the time ERASER came around I just didn't care anymore.

Stallone - JUDGE DREDD was just such a disappointment that I found myself taking a break from him as well in 1996, but he made the smart decision with COPLAND to go from being an action hero to a dramatic actor and it actually worked well for him (I retained my respect and enthusiasm for him the next couple years).

'96 was officially the year that the "80's Action Movie" died. They all started doing DTV action slop shortly afterward. Comedic action movies, theatrical audiences turning away from action movies, and over-reliance on poor CGI/VFX for stunt work (vs real thrills) killed it, encapsulated by the movie WATERWORLD. It had been a good run but you can't have good things forever.

[–] Cognoscente (2642) 6 days ago

In Hong Kong, it was the same thing. Jackie Chan's First Strike wasn't anything special except for that ladder fight, and Jet Li's Dr. Wai was forgettable.

Back to American action movies in 1996, Broken Arrow was fairly ordinary for a John Woo movie.

[–] Aylmer (417) 6 days ago

Hah, you could also possibly blame Jackie Chan for killing the 80's action movie phenomenon as well. RUMBLE IN THE BRONX was such a massive hit that they started re-releasing his other, older films into American theaters as though they were new movies. This kinda over-inundated American audiences with cheap, badly dubbed action movies with comedic tones to them, so it helped make action movies feel less serious and cheaper than they had been, which inevitably cost audience over the long haul.

Also, the late 90's was when Chan started to heavily Americanize his brand and move into RUSH HOUR, SHANGHAI NOON, THE TUXEDO, etc. and stopped doing all his own stunts. Wasn't seeing him do his own stunts the entire reason for his existence as a star in the first place? :/

[–] Cognoscente (2642) 6 days ago

I think Jackie made a mistake in doing union movies. The Matrix, and John Woo's Hard Target were non-union movies which meant that there was more leeway in what could be done in terms of action. It was the same thing with Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon.

As for the late '90s, what could really have reinvigorated the martial arts and action genres would be to have Michelle Yeoh and Cynthia Rothrock reunite for a movie directed by Corey Yuen.