Matrixiole
Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.
Senteur
As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.
Juana
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
Sandcooler
Steven Seagal's direct-to-DVD efforts usually look like they are slapped together in about a week, with poorly redubbed dialogues, confusing editing and stunt doubles that vaguely look like him when seen from space. "The Keeper" however brings something entire new to the table: they can't even remember what Seagal's character is called. He starts the movie as Roland Sallinger, turns into Roland Ballinger for the second act, and then starts mixing it up towards the finale. Why even mention his name so many times throughout? It's almost like they were trying to see what they could get away with, how much abuse an audience can put up with. It has to be said though, this isn't the worst one by a long shot. There are too many exposition scenes and the parts where Seagal creates a bond with the girl he's bodyguarding are cringe-inducing, but they put together the gunfights rather well and the movie never really turns flat-out boring. Even Seagal's total lack of energy and interest isn't bothersome, I liked the very last shot of the movie where he just walks out of a house with a defeated look on his face and sighs: he's just saved the kidnapped girl, but he looks like the bad guys won and killed his entire unit as well. If that sort of thing can't entertain you, this certainly isn't the movie for you.
Leofwine_draca
And so Steven Seagal continues his prolific career in straight-to-video product with THE KEEPER, another film completely indistinguishable from the dozens he's made since evacuating our cinema screens back in the 1990s. It's a completely serviceable movie that plays out as a string of action sequences well executed but completely unmemorable; there are scenes of Seagal fighting in hand-to-hand combat with bad guys, disarming bad guys and engaging in shoot-outs with bad guys. The plot is weak and the script limited; essentially, this is one of those action-star-as-bodyguard movies featuring our hero risking his life to save a young woman from the clutches of kidnappers.The good things? The film is ably directed and the fight sequences short, snappy and well-handled. Seagal is pretty poor, it has to be said, and there's still far too much distraction from his copious use of doubles (not content with a mere body double in the fight sequences, he now employs a hair double for back-of-the-head shots). Thankfully his voice is only dubbed in the opening scene, which is something. The unfamiliar supporting cast is very bland with the notable exception of Liezl Carstens, who I found quite smouldering as the sultry young damsel-in-distress; if ever an actress could pull off the unconvincing romantic scenes involving her and Seagal's character, it would be her.
zardoz-13
"Sweepers" director Keoni Waxman keeps the serviceable Steven Seagal thriller "The Keeper" from bogging down in "Con Express" scenarist Paul A. Birkett's formulaic but entertaining yarn. An honest L.A.P.D. detective, who has been put-out-to-pasture, serves as a bodyguard for one of his oldest friends in Texas after an attempt is made to kidnap his friend's adult daughter. Obviously, Waxman and Birkett must have seen Seagal's second theatrical release "Hard to Kill" about a cop who gets shot, winds up in a coma for seven years, and then makes a miraculous recovery to take down the dudes that did him dirty. The rest of the story concerns our hero's efforts a la "The Bodyguard" to protect a woman from evil kidnappers who want to use her to extort millions from her father.Roland Salinger (Steven Seagal) and his partner Trevor (Brian Keith Gamble of "Felon") stumble onto about $20-million of illicit drug money after they blast a room full of villains to death. Trevor wants to appropriate the dough. He claims that nobody will care. Appropriately, Roland is surprised by his partner's attitude. He is more surprised when Trevor puts two slugs through his chest. Unfortunately for Trevor, he doesn't finish the job. Nevertheless, Trevor is so certain that Roland is kaput that he calls in a 911 "an officer down" alert. Imagine Trevor's considerable shock when he learns later from a uniformed cop on the scene that Roland has a pulse. Trevor decides to finish off Roland at the hospital. Before Trevor walks into Roland's room, Roland's niece enters and inquires about her uncle's condition. Roland steals a revolver from his niece's purse while she is looking the other way and talking to a nurse. At this point, nobody knows for sure that Roland will recover from his wounds. Roland conceals the firearm under his hospital gown. After his niece leaves, Trevor slips into the room and tries to suffocate Roland with a pillow Imagine Trevor's surprise when the indestructible Roland plugs him twice. The way that Waxman and Birkett set up and pay off this scene is as adequate as Roland's stamina is remarkable.Gradually, Roland recovers his lethal skills. Waxman turns Roland's recovery into a montage of our hero slinging knives into a board. Naturally, as Roland recuperates, the knives hit the board and stick in it instead of bouncing off it or other knives. Although Roland makes a miraculous recovery, the L.A.P.D. mandates that he take early retirement. Not long afterward one of Roland's best friends who he calls "a stand-up guy," Conner Wells (Stephen DuVall of "Driven to Kill"), asks him to act as a bodyguard for Nikita Wells (Liezl Carstens of "Jordan") his party-hardy daughter. Earlier, Nikita and her obnoxious boyfriend, Mason "The Storm" Silver (Arron Shiver of "Swing Vote"), were leaving a party when a group of assailants posing as paparazzi surrounded Nikita's limo and opened fire on her bodyguard, Jorge (Tomas Sanchez of "MacGruber"), killing him in a brief firefight in an underground garage. One of the first clues that Mason is a villain occurs when he gets out of the limo to talk to the paparazzi and then flees to hide in a corner of the garage as they try to kidnap Nikita. Of course, Nikita doesn't realize what an obnoxious jerk that Mason is or that he is a part of a conspiracy to abduct her. What nobody knows is that Mason is tied in with Conner's old nemesis, career criminal Jason Cross (Luce Rains of "Appaloosa"), who wants to steal the deeds to all of Wells' real estate holdings. Indeed, Mason has been trying to arrange things so that Conner's men can kidnap her Nikita. Eventually, we learn that uranium has been discovered on Connor's depleted oil well lands and the avaricious Cross wants the property. During this second quarter of the film, Waxman cross-cuts between Roland's recovery and Nikita's botched abduction. Indeed, Waxman does an adequate job of pacing the action and preparing us for what inevitably lies ahead.Nothing incredibly surprising occurs in "The Keeper," but it is always fun to watch Seagal decimate the opposition. The shoot-outs are sufficiently bloody and brutal, and Liezl Carstens qualifies as a sympathetic by flighty heroine. Waxman plays everything pretty straightforward, and Seagal doesn't utter any ironic one-liners. Seagal's varies his dialogue delivery between urban funkiness to a whispered business-like rasp. This doesn't necessarily mean that Seagal gives a flawed performance. There are times when he speaks the lingo of those around. Later, when he ends up in Texas, he doesn't make with the funky dialect. The close-quarters combat scenes are edited so that everything occurs so rapidly that you may miss a punch or two if you aren't looking. The sequence in the hospital when the nurses are rushing Roland into surgery is rather well-done in terms of angles and coverage. "The Keeper" is not as much fun as "Urban Justice," but it surpasses many of the martial arts star's earlier straight-to-video releases where his voice was dubbed in by other actors.
jangchup
Seagal is going back to basics in this movie sticking to what he knows. Beating up the bad guys. Really didn't know what to expect and was blown away by this latest movie. If he continue to make movies like this he will leave the stinkers behind. gave it 8 : 10 for making an effort to please his fans. Seagal needs to work harder with his movies and using what he knows to sell himself. He will never be a great actor but he could be the greatest action star. Hope he continues this trend. I hope they make an under siege 3, as this would be a suitable direction for seagal and pull in new fans and incorporate new ideas. His gangster rap movies are hopeless. Hope we don't have to watch those again.Henry
