24th Nov2020

‘Seized’ VOD Review

by Kevin Haldon

Stars: Scott Adkins, Mario Van Peebles, Karlee Perez, Steven Elder, Matthew Garbacz | Written by Richard Lowry | Directed by Isaac Florentine

Let’s get this out of the way first… Seized contains three things I love in my action movies 1) Scott Adkins kicking, punching and shooting his way through the film; 2) Isaac Florentine in the directors chair; and 3) An unexpectedly awesome turn from Mario Van Peebles!

If I have said it once I have said it a million times! I am a sucker for a Scott Adkins movie. I mean how the hell could you not be? He is a super awesome Brit who is super awesome at the punches and kicks. The good thing is you rarely have to wait long for your next fix because Adkins is a workhorse and likes to keep himself busy. Add in the fact this is an Issac Florentine movie and these guys have ALREADY created magic on multiple occasions, your left to wonder just how much of a good time you are in for.

Oh, and don’t forget. Mario Van Peebles is also sharing top billing here and, honestly, while I have always seen Peebles as being criminally underrated, I can’t remember the last time I saw him this good. So let’s jump into Seized and see what it has to offer…

Former Special Agent Nero (Adkins) has retired and moved somewhat off the grid after the death of his wife. Trying to teach his son Taylor that violence is not always the answer is about to become much harder than he thinks when he is drugged and woken by a mysterious voice on the other end. Cartel boss Mzamo (Van Peebles) has kidnapped his son and is forcing him to kill members of his rival cartel factions. Begging the question exactly how far will Nero go, how many people will lose their lives and is there anything he won’t do to rescue his son?

I have to admit towards the start of this one I was a little discombobulated due to the random speed zooms into and out of people’s faces, the strange “dutch angles” from behind the tables but once these settled down and the movie let itself relax we were off to the races. Adkins and the kid playing his son (Matthew Garbacz) genuinely have a bit of a bond here but the movie really kicks in once Mario Van Peebles steps in front of the camera… He is so good in Seized, hamming it up in the bad guy role and chewing the scenery like the veteran actor he is. The dynamic between him and Adkins is on point, the one liners back and forth never really let up and you can tell they are having fun with this, somewhat campy, dialogue.

Despite my issues with the visuals early on, it was never in doubt was how good the fight scenes would be given we have Adkins AND Florentine; and there is an equal measure of throwing hands to gunplay. We are even given one hell of “hands tied behind my back” sequence proving just how good this man is! Speaking of visuals, again, surprisingly there are some really sexy first person shots in Seized, though not too many to frustrate some viewers but still probably never quite enough to satisfy the most die hard Call of Duty fans.

Florentine has done his usual good job once again with what he has – even managing to take Seized, which looked like it was going to fall into certain tropes, into different places; swinging a left and heading elsewhere. Which meant this film feels much more refreshing when it doesn’t go where you think it will like most of these genre movies. With that said though this really is what you may have come to expect from this director and these actors. And I’m really not gonna moan about that though eh? It does not disappoint.

I really enjoyed Seized and had a rally fun time with the film. In the scheme of Adkins movies that I love, Seized definitely sits somewhere in the upper mid tier.

**** 4/5

Seized is out now in the US. The film is released in the UK on December 28th on DVD and Digital.

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