Fire Down Below (1997)

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General		Extras
Category	Action	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	100:21
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Felix Enriquez Alcala
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Steven Seagal Marg Helgenberger Harry Dean Stanton Stephen Lang Kris Kristofferson
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Nick Glennie-Smith

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 5.1 (384Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English French Italian Dutch Arabic Spanish Portuguese German Romanian Bulgarian English for the Hearing Impaired Italian for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	Yes, during credits

    This incarnation starts with EPA agent Jack Taggart (Steven Seagal) finding another one of his buddies having been killed by the bad guys. Here's a tip - never be friends with Steven Seagal's character. The bad guys this time are comprised of a wealthy businessman, who is dumping toxic wastes into disused and abandoned coal mines in Kentucky, and his assorted and rather clichéd henchmen. Rolling into the small town of Jackson, Kentucky in the guise of a handyman from the local mission, Taggart sets out to find evidence of the dumpings and to enlist the help of the reticent locals - most of whom are either in the employ of the bad guys, are the bad guys or are being intimidated by the bad guys. The romantic interest this time is Sarah Kellogg (Marg Helgenberger), a somewhat alienated woman in the community owing to her infamous past. As the bad guys make efforts to force Taggart from town, he naturally enough beats them to a pulp and implores the townsfolk to expose the dangers lurking in their backyard. Need any more plot here? You surely know where this one is heading.

    Well, it is not an original and in some respects that is why these Steven Seagal Movies^TM continue to get made - well, that and the fact that he is the producer. There is obviously something quite comforting in these endless incarnations of the same story. Once again Steven Seagal is unlikely to be confused with an actor, although to be fair the practice must be getting to him as at times he is more convincing here than usual. Marg Helgenberger is an actress that for some reason I have always liked and she produces her usual almost competent effort - nothing special, mind you, just acceptable. Apart from Harry Dean Stanton, the rest are your usual collection of C-grade actors providing their usual standard of performance - in other words adequate at best. The poor sod who has to suffer this one on his directorial resume is Felix Enriquez Alcala, but once again this would bear more of the handiwork of Steven Seagal than him.

    So really what we have on offer here is another over-clichéd, poorly-written screenplay, full of over-clichéd characters, brought to life in the loosest possible sense of the word by a bunch of reasonably inept actors who almost fail miserably in a film that pretty much lacks any sort of direction. So really, just another patented Steven Seagal Movie^TM. But, I must be succumbing as this one is actually quite a decent watch for some reason.

Video

    The immediate reaction on this one was that it is demonstrably better than your average Steven Seagal Movie^TM. Apart from a few lapses, this is actually a reasonably sharp and well-detailed effort. Generally quite clear, there are just a few odd problems with grain to mar the effect. Whilst not in the league of other similarly-aged films, by the standards of Steven Seagal Movies^TM this is something of a stunning effort! Shadow detail was in general very good, and there appeared to be no problems with low level noise in the transfer.

    The transfer presents a quite decent palette of colours and at times is quite vibrant - somewhat atypical of a Steven Seagal Movie^TM. There is no hint of oversaturation in the transfer at all, and the overall effect is very good by the standards of his previous films, at least those that I have seen.

    There were no MPEG artefacts noted in the transfer. There did not appear to be any really significant film-to-video artefacts in the transfer, with just a hint of some very minor aliasing. There were a few barely noticeable film artefacts floating around but nothing too distracting.

    The packaging fails to mention the Romanian and Bulgarian subtitle options.

Audio

    Dialogue was clear and easy to understand.

    There were no apparent audio sync problems with the disc.

    The score by Nick Glennie-Smith is hardly his best work, but then again his best work would be far too good for this film. Nothing exceptional is probably the best way of describing this.

    This is a better than adequate enough 5.1 soundtrack, lacking just a little in detail, with the surrounds and bass channels getting a decent workout, especially during the main action sequences - most notably the "game" with the semi. When the bass channel was called into action it did so with just a little too much in the way of resonance but nothing that would really be considered objectionable. The rear channel action could perhaps have been a little better but again by the usual standards of a Steven Seagal Movie^TM, this was pretty good. Not the best that I have ever heard, but not the worst either and really just a good, but mainly unspectacular, Dolby Digital 5.1 effort.

Menu

• Additional Pan and Scan version of the film.
• Theatrical trailers

    A good video transfer.

    A good audio transfer.

    A non-existent extras package.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall