Force Of Execution

Released by: Anchor Bay Entertainment
Released on: December 17th, 2013.
Director: Keoni Waxman
Cast: Steven Segal, Ving Rhames, Danny Trejo, Bren Foster
Year: 2013
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The Movie:

The latest in a string of direct to video action movies directed by Keoni Waxman with Steven Segal top billed, Force Of Execution stars the pudgy blues guitar wizard as Alexander, a former government agent who has cast aside serving the public trust in favor of the easy cash offered by the drug trade. He's a bit of a kingpin, really, he's got a lot of money and a bunch of guys who do what he tells them to do. He's even got a hitman in his employ named Roman Hurst (Bren Foster) who he sends after this guy in prison that he really wants to kill. Hurst is going to need some help on the inside though, and that's going to come in the form of a big black dude named Ice Man (Ving Rhames). Together they attempt to make the hit but in the ensuing chaos, Hurst loses his eyesight and Ice guides him to the wrong man. What sort of conspiracy is this?

Well, it turns out that Alexander was coordinating this hit for an even scarier, wealthier bad guy named Dante (Marlon Lewis) and since it got botched, he's pissed. He wants Hurst dead for this mistake. Alexander knows that Hurst is loyal, however, and he won't allow Dante's thugs to kill his man - he will, however, allow them to beat the living snot out of him, which they do, and in the process his hands are so mangled that he's ever able to use them again. Skip ahead a few months and Hurst copes with the lost of his hands by falling inside a bottle. He feels useless until someone tries to rough up his only pal, Jimmy (Danny Trejo), a dastardly deed he's able to prevent. While all of this is going on, the mysterious Ice Man is trying to usurp power from Alexander and take over the local drug trade, leaving only one man to help him… one man… without hands… who loves a girl named Karen (Jenny Gabrielle) who works for Jimmy and blah blah blah blah.

This one is really predictable, the script, co-written by the guy who wrote Maximum Conviction (which Waxman also directed and which Segal also top billed) is a very formulaic tale of gangland betrayal and power struggles. You can pretty easily see where it's all going well before it gets there and it really doesn't offer up a whole lot in the way of surprises. There are, however, a few pretty solid shoot outs and a couple of strong action scenes. Trained martial artist Bren Foster (another carry over from Maximum Conviction) fares better than anyone else does in this department, he's got some pretty solid moves and a good fluidity in the fight scenes that makes him pretty watchable.

Segal more or less wanders through this one with the same lack of conviction that's made his post 2000 films as hokey as they are, but he's watchable enough and frequently unintentionally hilarious with some of his line deliveries. It's hard to buy him as a drug kingpin, really, even when his hair is slicked back and dyed black and he's popped into a fancy suit. Trejo is… Trejo. He's not breaking any new ground here as far as his career goes but he's watchable and enjoyable. Ving Rhames tends to overdo it a bit, which means he basically steals every scene he's in. He's definitely playing his pimp hand here and it suits the part fairly well. This is plenty entertaining if you're not really wanting to have to think while you watch a movie. The action scenes come frequently enough and with enough SLAM BANG BOOM that it works. It's a shame then that there wasn't more effort put into crafting something more original in the story department.

Video/Audio/Extras:

Force Of Execution arrives on Blu-ray in a very nice looking AVC encoded 1080p high definition transfer framed at 1.78.1, just as you'd hope for with such a recent movie making the move to Blu-ray. Detail is always very strong as is texture and color reproduction, when not intentionally tweaked for artistic effect, generally looks nice and realistic. Skin tones are nice and natural looking here, no obvious waxiness by way of noise reduction to complain about, while black levels are strong if not quite reference quality. There aren't any issues with compression artifacts or noticeable edge enhancement and all in all, the movie fares very well in high definition.

The only mix here is an English language Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix, but optional subtitles are provided in English SDH and Spanish. Just as you'd expect from a recent action movie, this is a very aggressive track with some impressively enveloping moments. Rear channels are used very effectively to help build suspense with the score and to put you in the middle of the action by way of some great directional effects. Most of the dialogue comes out of the front of the mix, which makes sense, but it's always crystal clear and never hard to understand in the slightest. Bass response is strong, deep and powerful but only to the point where it accents things, never to the point where it buries them, and of course there are no issues with any hiss or distortion of any kind. It's hard to find fault with this mix, it's very, very impressive.

The only extra of much merit is a seventeen minute long behind the scenes featurette that is made up mostly of cast and crew interview clips in which they talk about how much they enjoyed working together and had fun making this movie. It's pretty fluffy. Menus and chapter stops are included. All of the extras are in high definition as and this is a combo pack release, a DVD copy of the movie is also included.

The Final Word:

Segal is very obviously just going through the motions here, he's basically playing the same character that he's played in the last ten movies that he's been cast in - even his outfit looks familiar. With that said, there's some fun to be had in watching him act alongside Trejo and Rhames, both of whom bring a lot more to their characters than Segal can. It's formulaic to a fault and it offers very few surprises but a couple of decent action scenes help things and there's enough suspense that the dwindling fans of Segal's recent DTV output will probably appreciate. It's dumb, it's brainless and it's remarkably unoriginal but it is at least mildly entertaining and the Blu-ray looks and sounds very good.

Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!