Half Past Dead (2002) Synopsis:
Sascha Petrosevitch is a widowed undercover agent posing as a tough, international car thief. He has many friends on both sides of the law. One of them, career criminal Nick Frazier, has been like a brother to him. One night while on a heist job, Sascha and Nick are intercepted by a female FBI agent, EZ Williams, who, unbeknownst to Nick, is working in tandem with Sascha. Nick refuses to surrender and the Feds open fire. Sascha takes seven bullets for Nick, saving his friend's life, and nearly losing his own. To maintain his cover, Sascha is sentenced with Nick to the newly refurbished, high tech Alcatraz, where inmates are fitted with special implants to prevent escape. The prison also boasts a state of the art execution chamber, which will be used for the first time on the infamous criminal Lester, who's been charged with robbing an armored vehicle of $200 million dollars worth of gold--that was never recovered. However, intercepting that plan is a group of expertly trained mercenaries called the "49ers," who break into the highly secure prison. Led by 49er One, the group has come for one thing only--to find out where the missing gold has been buried. When Lester refuses to tell them, they begin taking hostages, and it's up to Sascha to rally the prisoners to take on the ruthless commando force.
Half Past Dead (2002) Movie Review:
Steven Seagal returns with another rapper named Ja Rule for his follow-up non-sequel to last year’s "Exit Wounds". The most interesting thing about this film is who is half past dead, Seagal or the movie?
Deep undercover operative Sascha Petrosevitch (Steven Seagal) has infiltrated a ruthless mob-style street gang. Sascha’s mission to watch and get close to Nick Frazier (Ja Rule) in hopes of taking down his mob-boss, who happens to have killed Sascha’s wife. Sascha follows Nick into prison in hopes of acquiring his trust.
In their prison, a death-row inmate, Lester (Bruce Weitz), holds the key to a shipment of stolen gold bars. Bent on cracking Lester, a sociopath named Donny (Morris Chestnut) leads a group elite soldiers into the prison. Sascha and Nick are caught in the crossfire and Sascha is forced to give up everything he has worked for to bring down Donny and Co.
"Half Past Dead" could have been a good movie if the scriptwriters would have dropped the whole "Sascha" story and stuck with the prison heist storyline. The scenes involving Morris Chestnut, Nia Peeples (Chestnut’s #2 in the film) and Bruce Weitz were a lot more interesting than watching portly Seagal waddle around with a gun.
I really saw a range of talent in Chestnut as I found he played quite a convincing villain. He was great to watch in the threatening scenes with the Judge.
I also really liked the Japanese anime/dominatrix thing that was Nia Peeples character. There was something about that blue eyeliner.
If you forget that Seagal’s career is "half past dead" and focus on other elements of this film then you see a sliver of a good movie. Mind you, I did say sliver!
So Says the Soothsayer.
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Half Past Dead (2002) review written by: Dean Kish
30th September, 2008 
