HALF PAST DEAD (2002)

MORGAN'S RATING

An undercover FBI agent, Sascha Petrosevitch, takes bullets for his buddy, Nick Frazier. Nick figures Sascha for dead until the two are reunited again on duty at New Alcatraz (a hellish, high-tech version of the now-defunct prison). There, criminal mastermind Lester is set to be executed, however he knows the whereabouts of a fortune in gold and isn't talking. With only hours to live, Lester takes a meeting with Sascha, just as corrupt prison official Donny and his gang raid New Alcatraz by helicopter and take Lester and a Supreme Court justice hostage.

Steven Seagal (Sascha Petrosevitch), Morris Chestnut (Donny/49er One), Ja Rule (Nick Frazier), Kurupt (Twitch), Claudia Christian (EZ Williams), Matt Battaglia (49erThree), Nia Peeples (49erSix), Art Camacho (49erEleven), Tony Plana (El Fuego), Bruce Weitz (Lester), Linda Thorson (June McPherson), Ross King (G-Man), Michael McGrady (Sweet Mouth), Richard Bremmer (Sonny Ekvall), Stephen J. Cannell (Hubbard), Joe Cook (William T. Bowers), Yasmina Filali-Bohnen (Sophia), Hannes Jaenicke (Agent Hartmen), Alexandra Kamp-Groeneveld (CNN Reporter), Don Michael Paul (Swat Captain), Eva-Maria Schonecker (The Priest), Jed Sutton (Air 49er), Michael Taliferro (Little Joe).

THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE DEADLY.

PRODUCTION INFORMATION

DIRECTOR: Don Michael Paul. WRITER: Don Michael Paul. PRODUCERS: Elie Samaha, Steven Seagal and Andrew Stevens. ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS: Richard L. Fox and Mac Yasuda. CO-PRODUCERS: Phillip B. Goldfine and James A. Holt.  EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Christopher Eberts and Uwe Schott. CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Randall Emmett and George Furla. LINE PRODUCERS: Alison Semenza and William B. Steakley. ORIGINAL MUSIC: Tyler Bates. DISTRIBUTOR: Columbia Pictures.

QUOTES

Justice Jane McPherson: The jury decided; I presided.

CRITICAL COMMENTS

"It goes through the motions of an action thriller, but there is a deadness at its center, a feeling that no one connected with it loved what they were doing." -- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

FACTS

"Has the cheesy, deadened feel of straight-to-cable film." -- Jonathan Foreman, New York Post

RELEASE DATE: November 17th, 2002 (USA) DVD RELEASE DATE: March 4th, 2003 (USA) BOX OFFICE OPENING: $7.8 million (USA) BOX OFFICE RESULT: $15.5 million (USA) WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE: $52.2 million BUDGET: $25 million (USA) PRODUCTION DATES: October 2001 -- December 2001 - All indoor prison scenes were shot in an old STASI prison in Berlin/Germany. - The script to this film was written ten years prior to filming as "The Rock" but there was another script with the same title that was filmed so this one had to wait ten years later to be done. - Some aerial shots were taken from Michael Bay's film The Rock (1996) that got cut from that film. - The shot of the skydivers jumping out of the airplane is footage from Navy SEALS (1990). - Nominated for one 2003 Razzie Award for Worst Actor (Steven Seagal).

"First-time director Don Michael Paul can't make the action move, though he wisely keeps the lighting dark and murky so we can barely see whether withering star Seagal really can keep up." -- Mike Clark, USA Today

"It's no use: At this point, the bloated action figure [Seagal] couldn't restore his street cred if he joined the Wu-Tang Clan." -- Bruce Fretts, EW