The Asian Connection (2016)

The Asian Connection: Directed by Daniel Zirilli. With Pim Bubear, John Edward Lee, Steven Seagal, Michael Jai White. Two American expatriates, Jack and Sam, unwittingly steal a drug lord’s money when they rob a series of banks in Southeast Asia and become the target of the gang’s vengeance. When Sam is killed, Jack turns to the love of his life, Pom, and the couple becomes a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde that takes the fight to the gang.Together they must get the job done whilst still protecting jack’s nice and nephew.

“Steven Seagal has done some good, or at least watchable, films. Particularly u0026#39;Under Siegeu0026#39;. He has also done a lot of mediocre and less films, indicative of laziness and that Seagal was well past his sell by date, and a good deal of them are even very bad.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026#39;The Asian Connectionu0026#39; for me is down there with Seagalu0026#39;s worst. Did not expect much, but watched it because Seagal has shown signs that he can be halfway decent and as said not all his films are bad. Also do appreciate the action genre and there are good films out there in the genre, classics even. u0026#39;The Asian Connectionu0026#39; is far from that, more closer to a waste of time that shows little signs of trying.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSeagal, in a role smaller than the advertising lets on, himself gives another lazy and wooden performance that shows that he was not interested and wanted to be somewhere else. His reading-from-an-autocue-like and robotic line delivery in particular betrays that. The rest of the cast are just as poor though in all fairness have little to work with and over-compensate.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe characters are ones we know very little about and donu0026#39;t care what happens to happen, so unengaging and one-dimensional they are. The dialogue is risible, with a lot of cheesiness, awkwardness and far too much talk delivered with little emotion or momentum and bordering on the near-incomprehensible.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIts excessively talky nature affects severely the pacing, which never comes to life. There is no urgency, let alone tension, intrigue or suspense. The action doesnu0026#39;t feature enough in comparison and suffer from pedestrian choreography and laughably bad editing. The story is by-the-numbers, dull and not always easy to follow.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eDirection is flat and ill-at ease, while the sound/soundtrack are one-note and obvious as well as poorly recorded and the whole film looks cheap. And itu0026#39;s not just the editing, the slapdash effects and drab photography also. The only okay asset here is the backdrop sadly wasted by the rest of the production values being awful.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOverall, a mess. 1/10 Bethany Cox”