Steven Seagal’s latest in a long line of DTV actioners is slightly better than his most recent output, but still has many of the same issues that have hindered his movies over the last two decades.
Seagal stars as Axe, an ex-special forces soldier, living a quiet life as a doctor in Thailand. We are shown how caring Axe is towards his patients as well as the town people. He is especially friendly with local gangster Chen Man (Fan Siu-Wong), who we are introduced to whilst sparring with Axe. This gives both a chance to show off their martial arts skills.
During the opening we are also introduced to Qmom (Kang Yu), a drug lord suffering from poor eyesight which forces him to live his life mostly indoors. In order to cure his failing eyesight he sends his henchman to capture Tara (Ting Sue), a local woman who supposedly has magical powers.
After her kidnapping, Tara’s father begs Axe for his help, which he initially refuses. It isn’t until her father decides that he will rescue Tara himself that Axe chooses to get together Chen Man and his ex-special forces pals to bring bloody hell upon her kidnappers.
In addition to acting, Seagal also wrote and produced Attrition. This was clearly a passion project for the veteran star, which shows in the final product; with next to none of the poor stunt doubling or atrocious dubbing that has plagued many of his other films.
Even with this in mind there are still many Seagalisms included, with his own personal views on martial arts and life in general shining through. One particular scene has him lecturing on the virtues of Martial Arts. It is reminiscent of his lecture at the end of On Deadly Ground (1994), where he spoke to the audience at length about environmental issues.
Originally, Seagal planned to additionally direct the film, but he eventually handed the reigns over to Mathieu Weschler. Weschler does a fairly good job behind the camera, stretching the budget as much as he can. It is certainly one of the better looking Seagal movies of late, with the Thailand locations setting it apart from the usual Eastern European locations that are prevalent in so many DTV actioners these days.
The only drawback is the awful use of CGI blood during the action scenes, which seems to be an issue with most DTV action movies these days. It is especially noticeable during the violent finale, and while it doesn’t ruin the action it does lose it some points.
As usual, Steven Seagal pretty much plays the same part he always plays, that of Steven Seagal. The only difference here is that for some unknown reason he is dressed like Tony Leung Chi-Wai from The Grandmaster (2013). Not only copying his dress sense, the filmmakers have copied one of the Grandmasters action scenes wholesale, with Seagal having a stylised martial arts bout in the rain.
Typically, he is unbeatable in the fight scenes, with no one being his match. Fortunately, other than slightly copying The Grandmaster, these are some of the better action scenes he has appeared in recently, with it actually being him on screen instead of a noticeable stunt double.
Some of Seagal’s better films of late have struck upon the idea of pairing him up with another martial artist, with them able to assist in carrying the weight of the film. The best example of this is Force of Execution (2013), where the impressive Bren Foster was clearly the focal point. Attrition does the same, with Fan Siu-Wong being the clear scene stealer.
The only drawback with Siu-Wong’s performance is the strange choice of having him deliver the majority of his lines in Chinese, only to have them answered in English. This can be slightly jarring, but you get used to it after a while.
Most fans of Siu-Wong are probably watching to see him in action rather than deliver dialogue, and in this regards he doesn’t disappoint. He has been involved in better action scenes throughout his extensive career in Hong Kong cinema, but his fight scenes are still impressive and a definite highlight of the film. Interestingly, Attrition gives him a chance to act alongside his real life father Fan Mei-Sheng for the first time since Master of Zen (1994).
The remainder of the cast don’t get as much of an opportunity to make an impression. Other than a brief appearance in the opening of the film, Axe’s team of ex-special forces operatives aren’t re-introduced until around the half way mark. Even then their parts are underwritten, with them being more action stereo types than actual characters.
The team, made up of Rudy Youngblood, Kat Ingkarat, Sergey Badyuk and James P. Bennett get involved in some action during the finale, with Ingkarat getting the most to do out of the team. It is disappointing to see the likes of Youngblood involved in such inferior roles after his great debut in Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto (2006).
Even Kang Yu as the main villain is wasted, with him posing no threat to the unstoppable Seagal. Kang Yu has proven himself in a number of Hong Kong movies to be quite the martial artist, most recently in Big Brother (2018) going up against Donnie Yen. It is just a shame that he has been restricted here by the material and is not given a chance to show his true worth to a western audience.
Considering Attrition is one of Seagal’s better realised films of late the distribution of Attrition is surprising, with it only being available through one particular website, 365 Flix. With Seagal still having a considerably large following, it doesn’t seem like good business sense to restrict the release in this way.
Rating: 3/5
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