Friday, November 2, 2007

Out of Reach


"It's a Split Second Between Hit or Miss"
"He's Back... And He's On Deadly Ground"

Out of reach stars Steven Seagal as former covert agent turned survivalist, Billy Ray Lancing. This is one of Seagal's later movies, which illustrates his softer side, an Eco-Zen-Warrior as one Seagal devotee noted. The film begins where many CSA agents go to retire, a wildlife refuge in Northern Alaska. Lancing is spotted combing the forest for injured animals in a Neoesque Brown Leather Coat. For being such an animal lover, I find it very unusual for Seagal’s character to be wearing so much leather. Later in the movie, Lancing is seen wearing what I believe to be a mink coat of sorts. But nevertheless he finds himself an injured falcon, which he soon begins to bring back to health.

Much of the storyline is informed to the viewer through a series of read letters between Billy Ray and Irina Morawska, a 13-year-old orphan girl living in Poland that Lancing has financially adopted. Once again I note this movie chooses to show Steven’s softer side in a creative twist. And speaking of soft, Lancing’s words in the movie are whispered so softly that the untrained ear would have a difficult time following.

In the first few pen pal letters Lancing begins to teach his new friend to read and write letters written in code. This is obviously an adage to Lancing’s covert years. This code writing plays a large role in the movie as Irina’s orphanage is actually a human trafficking front and Irina is taken away, and must use her natural code writing ability to leave clues for Seagal to track their movement. She actually manages to rearrange hor’ dourves to let Lancing know that he is walking into a trap.

There is a very entertaining scene where the local baddie simply known as Faisal hands out roses to girls he plans on taking from the orphanage in a bachelor like fashion. The shear ridiculousness of this scene itself, earns the movie an extra ponytail rating. But I digress.

In the first action sequence of the film, Billy is attacked by five men inside his cabin. A man throws a coffee table across the room at Billy, but he can block it with his forearm causing it to split in half. There is also a scene where he teams up with a local woman cop to help find the missing girls. The cop gets shot in the shoulder and Seagal performs emergency surgery on her by boozing the woman up with vodka, then removing the bullet with a steak knife and finally cauterizing the wound with a butter knife.

In the final showdown, Lancing and Faisal duel it out with some amazing swordplay. I wish there was a little more bone breaking than what went on during the movie. There was only one broken knee, but only after he kicked the man in the groin. Billy Ray also did pistol whip a hole into another mans head.

The end of the movie kind of plays off how the beginning of the movie started us. Seagal is once again searching the forest for injured animals but this time the letters are being read between Irina and the woman cop he met in Poland. Lancing has officially adopted Irina along with a boy that played a minor role in the movie helping Lancing find Irina. The two seem to be enjoying their stay in America as they are youthfully seen playing in the North Alaskan back country with the falcon Seagal’s character healed before this great ordeal.

Out of Reach: 3 Ponytails Trailer

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