10. BEST: Ryback Vs Strannix (Under Siege)
Among both his fans and fans of the genre, Under Siege is often considered Steven Seagal’s greatest movie. In it, he played a former Navy SEAL officer named Casey Ryback, who now worked as a chef on the USS Missouri ship. Tommy Lee Jones brought the much-needed star-power too, playing Strannix, a rogue ex-CIA agent who raids the ship.
The knife fight between the two makes for spectacular viewing. Strannix gives Ryback a run for his money before the protagonist finally gets the upper hand and gouges his eye out. He then drives a dagger into his skull and concludes things by tossing his head into a radar screen.
9
WORST: Fighting & Chasing (Above The Law)
Above The Law was one of Seagal’s early films that established him as a true action star, but it also has a very ridiculous fight scene. In one moment, gangsters show up in a car to attack his cop character Nico Toscani, who gets points for having a cool name.
The thugs have various weapons including swords and guns. However, he manages to make a meal out of them like they are total amateurs. One of them decides to run, so Toscani chases after him in a manner that is totally hilarious. He then gets confronted by a huge guy who he knocks unconscious by simply punching him really hard in the stomach.
8
BEST: Face Against The Wall (On Deadly Ground)
Seagal’s characters are sometimes made to appear too cool and such was the case in On Deadly Ground. In the movie, he was an environmental activist who also happened to be an ex-CIA agent, an oil rig worker, and a very good explosives expert. His name was Forrest Taft. Amazing.
But the fight scenes were pretty decent, including one where Taft dispatches several goons hired by a corrupt oil company CEO. When one of them comes at him with a knife, he reverses it and drives it through his neck before pinning him to a wall.
7
WORST: Fisticuffs With Mike Tyson (China Salesman)
Never did action movie lovers ever imagine that they’d see Steven Seagal and Mike Tyson in the same movie. The face-off between the two was supposed to be quite incredible but sadly, it ended up being underwhelming. In China Salesman, Seagal plays a mercenary named Laudah while Tyson plays a former African general named Kabah. The power of Tyson’s fist is well known but throughout the fight, Seagal’s character absorbs the punches like they are nothing. The choreography is poorly done, too.
6
BEST: John Hatcher Vs Screwface (Marked For Death)
Plots involving the partners of action heroes getting killed were common in the ’90s and such was the case in this film. Plots involving the drug trade were common too during Pablo Escobar’s reign, and that was also the case with his film.
John Hatcher (Steven Seagal) was a DEA agent who returned home from Colombia after his partner was killed by drug lords. However, his homecoming was ruined by the Jamaican gang leader Screwface. Hatcher thought he had taken out the villain on one occasion only for it to be revealed that he had a twin brother. The two finally engaged in no-holds-barred combat that ended with Screwface being thrown down an elevator shaft.
5
WORST: Torrez Vs Machete (Machete)
It’s commendable that Steven Seagal agreed to uncharacteristically take on the role of a villain who eventually gets killed by the hero. Audiences were so used to seeing him as the protagonist but in the Robert Rodriguez’s Machete, he played a drug lord named Torrez. In the final moments, Torrez faces off against the iconic Danny Trejo character Machete. The two engage in a sword fight and for the most part of it, Torrez appears to have an upper hand. But then he gets sloppy and gets stabbed with a knife in the abdomen. He decides to finish the job by performing seppuku (i.e. ritual suicide), but he botches this up as well. How careless and anti-climactic of him.
4
BEST: Gino Vs Richie (Out For Justice)
Out For Justice sees a veteran detective named Gino (Steven Seagal) hunting down Richie, the mafia boss who killed his partner. What makes the eventual fight so brilliant is the buildup to it. Gino and Richie never meet until the final moments of the film.
By that time, Gino’s anger has surged to wild levels. If it could be described in words, it’d be “I’ve been looking for you all my life and I’ve finally found you… you bastard.” The fight is incredible, with all sorts of available weapons being used. Richie is aggressive and brave but his bad-guy attitude doesn’t match Gino’s superior martial arts skills. By the end, Richie is left with a corkscrew right in his forehead.
3
WORST: Lieutenant Jack Cole Uses A Credit Card To Slice Throats (The Glimmer Man)
Steven Seagal normally doesn’t need weapons; he works just fine without them. This is understandable for a real-life martial artist. What is not, though, is making a really bizarre choice of weaponry when he finally feels like he needs one.
In The Glimmer Man, Seagal plays Jack Cole, a former military intelligence officer who now works as a cop. He sure does play cops a lot. At one point, he is talking to a group of around ten gangsters. He pretends to take something out of his pocket only for him to pull out a credit card and slice their throats with it. None of them is even quick enough to pull out a gun while all this is happening.
2
BEST: Avenging His Wife’s Death (Hard To Kill)
In his second-ever film, Seagal still played a police officer named Mason Storm. After an attack on his family, his wife ends up dead while he slips into a coma for seven years. When he regains consciousness, he trains hard in order to get revenge.
Storm eventually catches up with his wife’s killers while they are playing pool and a brilliant battle kicks off. After an intense fight, he manages to knock out all the junior guys before switching his attention to their leader. He manages to stab him in the neck with a broken pool before declaring: “That’s for my wife, f*** you and die!”
1
WORST: Orin Boyd Vs Street Thugs (Exit Wounds)
Soccer lovers are familiar with the bicycle kick. It’s when a player throws themselves in the air and kicks a moving ball in flight it hits the ground. Now imagine someone using the same technique to beat up someone. It might seem cool on paper but when Steven Seagal did it, it transcended laughable.
In one scene in Exit Wounds, Detroid PD’s Detective Orin Boyd (Steven Seagal) faces off against thugs who are trying to break into his vehicle. He gives them all a whopping (as is the norm) then the last thug standing pulls out a gun and fires at him. Surprisingly, Boyd dodges the bullet and throws his body in the air before delivering a bicycle kick to the thug’s face.