daworldismine the most anoiying this about submerged is how good it could have been, i mean you have steven seagal, vinnie jones and gary daniels, a fine cast for an action movie, but then you give them nothing to do, i mean don't get me wrong there is action in this, but not nearly enough, and seagal only has a couple of fight scenes, and they ain't even as good as the fight scenes vinnie jones has, now don't get me wrong because vinnie jones has all the best bits of the movie, he kicks ass in this, while seagal mostly sits down, and im a huge seagal fan, and yeah there were a few good scenes in this, but it didn't have as much action that it should have, so i really cant recommend 'submerged' as an action flick, or as a seagal flick because it doesn't deliver on either, now it ain't as bad as 'out of reach' but it ain't much better either, a lesser seagal effort, i don't recommend

Scarecrow-88 Steven Seagal is imprisoned ex-Navy Special Forces, Chris Cody, called on to lead his old team(..also placed in federal prison for downing a dangerous sub with enough explosives to destroy countless lives;they were a casualty of a political system)into the den of an evil scientist who has created a laboratory designed to brainwash innocents, soldiers and anyone else he so wishes. A submarine is located near the compound of Adrian Lehder(Nick Brimble) who keeps his lab guarded and equipped with soldiers and other gun-toting brainwashed..this sub will be boarded by Cody and company once they secure a lost patrol sent in to take out the scientist. What Cody and his team are unaware of is that the soldiers they rescue are in fact brainwashed(..Lehder refers to them as his "Trojan horse") and commanded to down the submarine. Accompanying Cody is Dr. Susan Chappell(Christine Adams), who knows all about Lehder's work and has recovered a disc vital to the success of the brainwashing experiments. American agent, Fletcher(William Hope), betrays his country and lures Lehder to a Spanish city in political turmoil, as a revolution is beginning to build, with secret plans to gain his knowledge of the brainwashing experiments to use elsewhere. In this city, Montevito, a President is to be assassinated by his brainwashed girlfriend because he is concerned with a corporation's questionably unethical practices and Cody and the remaining team(..not killed in either the raid of Lehder's lair or the sub attack)will attempt to stop this from happening. It's all about halting the brainwashing, ultimately, and Cody will do his very level best to stop all who wish to see this dangerous weapon sold to the highest bidder.If you were ever interested in what a Steven Seagal picture would be like directed by Anthony Hickox, then here it is, Submerged, which might disappoint those expecting an action thriller specifically set in a submarine. The brainwashing plot echoes The Manchurian Candidate, albeit set inside the Seagal movie, carrying the conventions within his type of genre. Also, of interest Submerged might be to Vinne Jones fans as he is one of Seagal's team, with plenty of quips which might amuse, getting to shoot and maim the bad guys. Alison King supplies the eye candy as Damita, the female Rambo of Seagal's team, actually winning an arm-wrestling contest against a bit brute, and provides a nice image of a babe firing off rounds from a machine gun..I would like to frame that in my house. Anyway, Gary Daniels and Ross McCall are American soldiers turned against their will into Lehder's brainwashed human weapons. The movie essentially has three set pieces, the raid on Lehder's secret lab compound, inside the submarine as it becomes Cody's team against the loose cannons they brought on board(..unknowingly as I established above), and the final half in Montevito. There is one big car chase, an opera house sequence where Cody must halt an assassination attempt, and the corporation headquarters where corrupt businessman, Sandrow(Luis Soto) has prepared all the necessary equipment and personnel for Lehder to work his magic. Plenty of firepower, explosions, and political intrigue, not to mention car crashes, and one doozy of a set piece involving a helicopter smashing into a building thanks to Cody's interference with Lehder's attempted escape. Seagal fans might also feel rather jaded towards a lack of hand-to-hand combat as Hickox's movie is more prone to showing an exchange of machine gun fire(..Vinnie gets to engage in fisticuffs, however, and seems to be having fun). Actually, Hickox submerges Seagal, often, in darkness(..such as the scenes on board the sub, in the opera house booth, and during night scenes)and shoots him almost exclusively close up.

tatsu2050 Nothing much new about the story but you don't watch a Steven Seagal movie for that. Nonetheless a doc without a conscience using a mind control machine as the evil guy has room for a lot of fun. Through in a team of various military guys lead by Steven "wood face" Seagal and two hot chicks who can fight and you have a recipe for a very likable no brainer. So far so good...There are plenty of gun fights. And most of us who like this kind of action flick have gotten used to the bad guys shooting a lot and not really hitting much. But the camera work in this movie makes it as ridiculous as can be. In one scene you see that about 40 or 50 bad guys are standing like 30 feet away and still take minutes until they hit one of the 5 or 6 good guys. Of course they still lose or the movie would have been over in its first third.Hand to hand fights: They actually COULD have been pretty good if the cut hadn't been totally awful. There are some nicely executed moves but you barely get the chance to appreciate them. With a less hectic cut I would have given the movie one more star.The characters: Steven Seagal is Steven Seagal, same role he always plays. The above mentioned chicks look good and do some fighting - what more do we want? OK, boobs would have been nice, but we can live without it ;). The highlight of the movie, to me, is Vinnie Jones who plays some bad ass Brit, which he does damn well in every of his movies. A pity he didn't get more camera time. The rest of the military team just sucks and is totally colorless. You don't connect and you don't mind when almost all of them get shot up. The evil doctor, played by Nick Brimble, looks evil, talks evil and acts evil. There are also a corrupt agent and a rich company owner being a little bad here and there but they should have put more into the doctor instead of bothering with boring and useless additional characters.With a better director this movie could have easily been a 5 star movie. As it is a lot of potential just got wasted and I really can't recommend this flick to anyone. I had a really hard time giving it a 3 and not a 2.

KHayes666 I can accept DTV movies for what they are, low budget with a plot full of holes. But what saves this one was the supporting cast rather than the overall effort by Seagal.A no goodnik militant named Hilan is working with an evil doctor (played brilliantly by Nick Brimble) to come up with a mind control device. After its completed they use their device to assassinate a US ambassador and its up to Seagal and his troops to save the day. Thats where it comes down to the supporting cast, Vinnie Jones is the man in his role, Nick Brimble played his role even better. Hell Raicho Vasilev....a veteran stunt man makes a vanity appearance as one of Seagal's troops. Hell even William Hope from Aliens is in this one. Add in a bunch of unknowns and its really not that bad.You can overlook the plot holes such as since when is Uruguay armed with terrorists up the wazoo? The movie appeared to be about Seagal trapped on a sub, but he was only on it for about 15 minutes or so, talk about false advertising. Didn't know you can simply walk on to an opera stage and not get attacked by security either. Again, all this can be overlooked if you're a fan of the Seagal movies to begin with, but the cast is what keeps it watchable. If you don't like the plot, at least stick around to see what Vinnie Jones says or does next.The highlight of the movie is when Henry absolutely beats the crap out of Plowand, very brutal.6 out of 10