A spatially limited location that none of the actors can quickly leave, a larger number of opponents and a lone hero who enters the fight. With these ingredients, ‘Die Hard’ has not only become a classic, but also one of the best action films of all time. Hollywood has always tried to warm up the concept of Bruce Willis’ masterpiece – although not always with the hoped-for success.
A positive example is “red alert“ with Steven Seagal, airing today, October 7, at 10:15 p.m. on Cable 1. If you like, Andrew Davis’ fun and raucous cult hit (“On the Run”) is actually “Die Hard on a Warship.” Since the film has an FSK-18 rating, we recommend you just hop over to Disney+, where the action film is available uncut.
That’s what “Warning Level: Red” is about
The USS Missouri is old news. Therefore, the warship will be permanently decommissioned after a very last voyage. Shortly after departure, the ship’s cook Casey Ryback (Steven Seagal) clashes again with First Officer Krill (Gary Busey), who has absolutely nothing for Ryback and his attitude and quickly locks him in the cold room. Meanwhile, a surprise birthday party is organized for the captain.
A band and a stripper (Erika Eleniak) are brought on board by helicopter. The party is in full swing, but then something happens that no one can do justice to: the musicians, led by the crazy William Stranix (Tommy Lee Jones), turn out to be heavily armed terrorists who either murder the crew members in cold blood. or kill them in the stomach and lock up the ship. Their target: the nuclear weapons still on board. But they calculated it without the chef…
When Steven Seagal was still damn cool
‘Alert Level: Red’ doesn’t seem like just another film from another time. When you look at the trajectory of Steven Seagal’s career, the action cult almost seems like a relic. While Seagal now appears exclusively in C-movies, has doubled his body size and can even double in scenes where he’s just sitting, ‘Alert Level: Red’ is high-quality, twice Oscar-nominated Hollywood cinema that still delivers for lots of fun.
In the official FILMSTARTS review, “Alert Level: Red” received a good 3.5 out of a possible 5 stars. In his conclusion, our author Martin Soyka writes: “Demand goodbye, keep your head down and have fun – that’s clearly the motto of ‘Alert Level: Red’.”
Of course, the plot of the “Die Hard” rip-off isn’t particularly plausible or cleverly constructed. ‘Alert Level: Red’ has its strong points on a technical level, as can be seen from the criticism based on the fight scenes: “Some fights are – at least for that time – original, perfectly staged and sometimes even surprising.”
The fact that ‘Alert Level: Red’ has become a cult film in the genre is also thanks to Steven Seagal, with whom director Andrew Davis collaborated for the second time after ‘Nico’. Seagal is at the top of his game here, he’s still not a good actor, but he has an extremely physical presence and doesn’t let the uninhibited Tommy Lee Jones, who looks like a rock star terrorist in worn jeans and leather jacket, into the stand away take.