Shadow Man

• Directed by Michael Keusch
• June 6, 2006

A widowed former CIA agent and enigmatic Fortune 500 business owner who is also a father discovers no one is what they seem in the world of espionage. That covers the character and the plot.

Shadow Man is yet another post-stardom ‘action’ film from Steven Seagal. Given the release date it has significantly better production values than his more recent offerings but that doesn’t mean it’s issue free. Or good.

The story is a rather shallow offering of a fairly common plot. It is a virology spy thriller which was topical then (and now) but this is so ham-fistedly done it comes off amateurish. The pacing is often lumbering with moments of contrivance used to move things along. What should be an intriguing if not by the numbers virology thriller becomes boring with a star like Steven Seagal. Michael Keusch may not have been able to handle the basics or generate good feeling twists. Or maybe it is because a great deal of money was poured into a few sequences leaving petty cash for the rest.

One thing you cannot help but see is the use of rear projection in driving sequences. It is wildly mismatched with what is going on to the point of being laughable. What you see out the window looks like the car is trapped in a tornado or tumbling down a slope. I think the person in charge had an axe to grind and decided to sabotage the production in the only way they could.

A shaky camera can create tension or add excitement while also hiding budgetary limits, but consistency is necessary. If that camera is flying all over the place one second while rock steady in another it breaks the flow. If I cannot make out the car because the camera will not hold still but can see a popped thread in a seat in that car you have an issue. Did the guy filming the chases or the fights have Parkinson’s?

Shadows are clearly meant to cover up the use of a body double/stunt double for Seagal. Not that today it is surprising but how physically disabled was he even then? The build between the two is noticeably different. One outline is a bit slimmer and the shoulders slope more. This is an issue that could have been covered simply by cropping the shot. Yet this is not the only thing done to hide a Seagal infirmity.

Another is the speeding up of footage. Normally for a Seagal film, slo-mo is used to pad out with style any of his vehicles to over 90 minutes. While that does happen, it is also used for Seagal’s character of Jack Foster who is a widowed former CIA agent and Fortune 500 business owner as well as a dad to pick up speed when he logically would. Could he not fake a mild jog or had he become conscious of his weird running style?

Controversial as this may be, I do not think Seagal was incapable of handling the plot. He just needed to be less of a man of physical action. Rather than positioning himself as any sex object, position himself as charming. And give him a staff that shows he is rich. Just ONE flunky that is easily identifiable as on his payroll.

As an actor Seagal can be charming and charismatic. He showed that on occasion with Anya (Eve Pope). He could also still pull off getting the jump on someone. I think he could’ve sold so much but someone’s ego got in the way. Despite a few action sequences and chases and even the explosions, it manages to be boring focusing on trying to get a discount cool up on the screen than it is on having a good film.

Shadow Man uses a well-trod plot that has produced serviceable movies but doesn’t here. Move on.