Fire Down Below (1997)

Fire Down Below: Directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá. With Steven Seagal, Marg Helgenberger, Stephen Lang, Brad Hunt. A federal agent uncovers lucrative toxic waste dumps in Appalachia and must deal with the locals who want to keep their ‘gold mine’ secret.

“All of the fun from a Steven Seagal film comes from watching the man. You know that when the bad guys are circling him, taunting him, telling him what theyu0026#39;re about to do, you know that within less than a minute, everyone around him is going to be lying on the ground, moaning in pain, while he stands there smirking. Literally everything in his reach becomes a weapon and he NEVER kicks. Also, he ALWAYS comes out scratch free. His character will almost always be clad in leather, even when everyone else is walking around in Summer wear. Yep, heu0026#39;s a regular u0026quot;Jack of all tradesu0026quot; in this one as heu0026#39;s an Enviornmental Protection Agent, a pilot, a carpenter, a martial artist, and a guitar player as well. Itu0026#39;s so absurd, but yet SO satisfying, itu0026#39;s just the way action movies should be. No one else could pull it off and do it so well. Lotsa fun. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSteven Seagal plays basically the same character in every movie, and while theyu0026#39;re always panned by the critics, his movies always please the audience that they were intended for. Fire Down Below is, in my opinion, the last of his really good movies. Everything else kinda went downhill from there. With Fire Down Below, he took his preachiness from On Deadly Ground, and toned it down a little. Also, he wasnu0026#39;t directing this time. But one thing I have to say is that I couldu0026#39;ve done without the sped up action sequences. There were a few times, throughout the movie, where I thought that I may have accidentally hit the fast forward button on my remote. But other than that, this movie does what action movies are supposed to do and doesnu0026#39;t pull any punches. I also enjoyed the Kentucky backdrop and it was kinda cool to see so many country musicians make cameos. Marty Stuart, Travis Tritt, Mark Collie, Kris Kristofferson, Levon Helm…theyu0026#39;re all here, not too mention several others. My favorite character was u0026quot;Cottonu0026quot; played to perfection by one of my all time favorite character actors Harry Dean Stanton. His mountain-boy simplicity put a big ole smile on my face everytime he showed up and I love the guy in everything heu0026#39;s in. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eEveryone in the movie seems to be having a great time and itu0026#39;s so hard to take anything seriously. All you can really do is sit back and have a good time. I hope that for his next film, that he ditches all the glossiness of u0026quot;Exit Woundsu0026quot; and goes back to the movies that made his audiences love him in the first place.”